Lethal Weapon [HD DVD]

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Mel Gibson set aside his art-house credentials to star as a crazy cop paired with a stable one (Danny Glover) in this full-blown 1987 Richard Donner action picture. The most violent film in the series (which includes three sequels), it is also the edgiest and most interesting. After Gibson's character jumps off a building handcuffed to a man, and Gary Busey (as a cold, efficient enforcer) lets his hand get burned without flinching, there is a sense that anything can happen, and it usually does. Donner's strangely messy visual and audio style doesn't make a lot of aesthetic sense, but it stuck with all four movies. The DVD release includes production notes, Dolby sound, theatrical trailer, optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, optional French soundtrack, and optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Description

With over seven minutes of previously unavailable scenes, the director's cut of Lethal Weapon is a long-overdue present for fans. Riggs's solitary homelife and the tragic loss spurring him in a reckless disregard for his own safety now come into greater focus. We see that recklessness is new scenes underlining the differences between the two cops. Murtaugh, just 50, needs reassurance about his skills at a firing range. Riggs, not caring if he sees another birthday, coolly walks into a schoolyard sniper's field of fire. All the humor and adrenaline that made this original an entertainment milestone are here, too. No scenes have been removed. But new action and new insight are now included. Include yourself in the excitement.

Customer Reviews:

A good old movie transfer to HD-DVD - BUY IT........2007-05-07

It's a good try and transfer of old movie to HD-DVD good action and interesting topic.

All in favor say 'die'!.......2007-02-27

It may well have appeared fresh and exciting back in 1987 but Lethal Weapon is soaked in so many 80s clichés it's sometimes hard to take it seriously. First of all we have the maverick cop on the edge who doesn't play by the rules but gets results. Second we have him being teamed up with a by-the-book partner. Third...it's all about drugs. There are countless more, from LA setting to the Vietnam vet psycho stuff and even all the way down to the deep voiced trailer guy saying stuff like 'They'll have to work together even if it kills them' and so-forth.

Opening with long travelling shot of LA, complete with an agonizingly 80s credit front, Lethal Weapon begins with the death of a porn actress, high on cocktail of white powders, who thinks she can fly. But what she really gets is a 20-storey descent to the parking lot, the fast way. I first saw Lethal Weapon on TV in about 1990 and this scene had pretty much everything cut from it, the nudity, the drugs, it's amazing people actually made sense of films back then.

Anyways, before I go off on a tangent rant, the dead girl is actually the daughter of a crooked banker involved in heroin smuggling. LAPD Sargeant Roger Murtaugh is his old pal and takes the case, but not before being teamed-up with renegade, suicidal cop Martin Riggs. Together 'They don't make the rules, they break them' and 'They'll have to survive each other first' and 'blah blah blah!' Honestly, the wafer-thin plot of Lethal Weapon has truly perished with time. Bad guys smuggle heroin, cops kill them for it. There are multiple, totally absurd elements such as Riggs being a Vietnam vet despite only being about 30 at the time (meaning he was 19 when the conflict ended), the rolling around with the gun firing a gun blindly but still hitting targets is hard to swallow, the martial arts showdown seems to come out of nowhere and belongs in a different film, kids recognizing tiny Special Forces tattoos from a significant distance and the contrived death of Murtaugh's daughter's never seen boyfriend.

In fact, a LOT of this film is contrived and rather ramshackle. Shane Black IS a great writer but this film is just too underdeveloped. We never get to see the heroin or learn anything about how the villains do business. There's not any decent amount of mystery solving or police procedure and there is absolutely NO reason at all for the film being set at Christmas. There is no festive, yuletide atmosphere or Xmasy themes. Plus, with the film being set in LA, Christmas is all blue skies and sun. It adds nothing at all.

What makes Lethal Weapon watchable however are the characters and the silly banter between them. Riggs and Murtaugh really seem to click with each other as pals and I think it's this that kept the sequels coming rather than the need to tell another macho action story set in LA.

And I do wish that Michael Kamen never used those damn saxophones! The score can frequently be quite jarring and annoying whenever those things start screeching. I have the limited edition score CD, but skip those tracks whenever I stick it on. But since Kamen has died in recent years I will spare him my rant over his misjudged score.

Unwisely regarded as a classic, Lethal Weapon only exhibits how to weave 40 million clichés into a macho action movie. The humor is what I like best, I can leave the rest to stagnate back in the 80s, where it really belongs.

The HD-DVD sports a great 1.78:1 1080p transfer with Dolby Digital+ sound. Extras are limited to a trailer and deleted scenes. Warner should really have issued the Director's Cut on HD. But still, it's a great step-up from the SD DVD.

Bad hair day Mel? .......2007-02-27

I chose this film thinking it would be Mel Gibson when he was still good. Yes, he was good, but I'd seen it many years ago, when I was still at school, and didn't remember. Until I was watching the film and thinking that I'd already seen this before. I had an inkling that I'd already seen it, when the girl jumped off the building (I think I had a moan about why she had to be almost topless the first time round) and then Mel gets out of bed. I definitely remember that scene! Damn.

The thing about watching Lethal Weapon now, is that it's been either spoofed too many times or it's been copied so many times. Almost every 80s cop movie is like this. Good cop, bad cop. Neither wants a partner. Then they realise they can't work without each other. And it spawns some mediocre sequels. In the case of the spoofing, see Loaded Weapon, with Emilio Estevez and Samuel L Jackson.

There was nothing particularly stand out about this film - apart from Mel's hair, which was just awful - I liked the pairing of Mel & Danny, and I liked the albino Gary Busey, playing a bad guy, who doesn't even flinch at his arm getting burnt with a lighter. Ouch. The guy about to commit suicide from the top of the building and then having Mel's character handcuffed to him was the stand out scene for me, not including the opening scene.

The reason I'm only giving this 2 stars (which isn't going to go down to well with some reviewers) is because if I'd seen it when it originally came out, I probably could have given a higher rating. But we've seen it all before these days, and yes, it may have been a brilliant movie then, but not so much for me.

For me, I would like to see another sequel to this. Maybe Mel could grow his hair again? I mean, there is another Indiana Jones on the way, and another Die Hard. Lets revive Lethal Weapon shall we? You're never too old, as Harrison Ford is proving and Mel and Danny are both younger. They could still do it. Couldn't they? Maybe Mel could save his reputation.

Most reviewers consider this a classic, but in my case, it was worthy of a watch, but I don't remember being that impressed by it the first time round. (So much so that I didn't realise I'd already seen it!) If you saw it the first time, relive the happy memories, and watch it on HD, cos it amazing. (Bearing in mind I did see it on VIDEO, so anything is better than that.)

THE example of 80's action-buddie-cop-comedies; a "B+" .......2007-02-19

I don't think I can say very much that hasn't already been said, so I'll try and keep this brief: the "let's not take things too seriously" tone of this movie (helped largely by the musical score and the quick humor that runs throughout) are, for me, what make this movie so watchable - and rewatchable. I've seen the movie dozens of times now and it just doesn't get old. The action itself is perhaps starting to get a little quaint by today's standards, but it's the aforementioned tone and humor of the movie (aided by the perfectly cast Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) that still give it vibrancy and make it so enjoyable. This really is Mel Gibson's defining role in that he can play both the dramatic and comedic parts so well. If movies were defined solely by the number of times I've stopped to watch them while channel surfing, 'Lethal Weapon' would be at the top of my list - it's very entertaining and just a lot of fun.

Lethal Weapon turns 20!.......2007-01-24

LETHAL WEAPON turns 20 this year and in fact,it was one of 1987's highest-grossing films next to DIRTY DANCING,THREE MEN AND A BABY,PLANES TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES,FATAL ATTRACTION and MANNEQUIN. In this Warner Bros. action-packed film,Roger Murtaugh(Danny Glover) is a husband and a father of three who returns to the force after an extended hiatus. He is first seen soaking in his bathtub,then retreats downstairs to the kitchen with his beard shaved down to a moustache. He is far from enthused about his partner-in-crime,Martin Riggs(Mel Gibson). Martin is a mentally disabled individual who is a "lethal weapon". Martin often thinks he's a firearm of some sort. This behavior frequently aggravates Roger. But,they end up making a great team and becoming best buddies. Watch for a special appearance by Gary Busey(The Buddy Holly Story) as the criminal who's wanted. Darlene Love is Roger's wife Trish. Love is a singer as well who had a hit in 1963,(Today I Met)THE BOY I'M GONNA MARRY. Director Richard Donner reteamed with Gibson and Glover for three sequels released respectively in 1989,1992 and 1998.

Average customer rating:

Death Wish 5, all is forgiven.

Family of Cops 3
Starring: Charles Bronson , Sebastian Spence , Barbara Williams , Kim Weeks , and Torri Higginson
Director: Sheldon Larry
Manufacturer: Vidmark / Trimark
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00004Y7EW
Release Date: 2000-10-31

Amazon.com

In Family of Cops III, Charles Bronson plays the aging, paunchy patriarch of a... well... family of cops. The point of this series seems to be the contrast between the family's hard-as-nails attitude toward crime and their warm, loving treatment of each other, but the writing is so cliché-ridden, and the acting so dominated by smug, ham-fisted machismo, that the most mediocre episode of NYPD Blue or Homicide: Life on the Street must be 10 times more compelling than this. There's a main story line about a murder within a prestigious banking family and a subplot about a young buck who feels responsible for the death of a fellow cop. There isn't a shred of intelligence, originality, or suspense in this entire movie. Does Bronson really have enough of a following to warrant making three of these? --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Death Wish 5, all is forgiven........2001-04-13

As a big Bronson fan I don't know what to think of these "Family Of Cops" TV movies. Did they really HAVE to make three ?. I don't think they had to, but unfortunately they made them anyway. The first one was o.k., and more than enough, but three is stretching it too far. -The old copper he portrays here is simply not interesting enough. Personally, I'd much rather have liked to see Bronson play two other final characters in two other final movies, than have this dull cop come back twice. (The father/daughter-relationship between Bronson and Dana Delaney in the TV movie "Donato & Daughter" would've qualified a lot better as a series of TV movies, actually.) I'm afraid absolutely nothing of interest to most Bronson fans happen in this series, and it's a bit of a shame he chose to end his acting career with this dud and not with a bang. It's not that I mind Bronson doing a bit of serious drama and less action, especially at his age, but the combination doesn't work here. Also, the "F.O.C." movies suffer from the same problem many TV series and movies today face; they have too many characters, and not enough time to care about them.

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