"Lethal Weapon 4" could have been great. Millions of fans nation- (and indeed world-) wide were waiting for another great installment in what many consider the greatest action series of all time. Instead, Warner Brothers has offered a hastily cobbled together milieu of characters, dialogue, and nonsensical plot which offers none of the satisfaction of earlier installments.
Only five years spanned the release of the first three "Lethal" entries. The quickness with which they were released allowed the trilogy an impressive cohesiveness. Audiences knew exactly what to expect from our lethal weapons.
Mel Gibson's insane Martin Riggs character is one of the most appealing action heroes ever. His absolute lack of any fear and righteous villain-hating anger made him a edgy 80s hero. Danny Glover's Roger Murtaugh is his ideal foil, the older, more experienced cop.
In the first movie, Riggs is an unstoppable force, an ex-Special Forces martial arts expert with the latest hardware. Murtaugh is an old war-horse on the way to becoming a senior citizen.
Flash forward six years after the release of "Lethal Weapon 3," ELEVEN after the original's debut. Gibson is going to have a kid with live-in love Rene Russo. Glover is about to have a grandkid. Joe Pesci looks like he needs a new face lift. These are action heroes?
Fear not, moviegoers! Warner Brothers creatively solves the problem of their aging heroes by injecting some youth courtesy of Chris Rock, the hottest comedian in the world right now, and Jet Li, a successful Hong Kong actor/martial artist making his American debut.
Even my hardened critic's brain perked up at the thought of Rock following in Eddie Murphy's footsteps with action/comedy. However, he is used very awkwardly by director Richard Donner.
Without natural opportunities for comedy, Rock is forced to expel two-minute monologues when cue lines are given to him. The stilted, unnatural intros are almost funnier than the following comedy. Example: Gibson says "You have very strong feelings about violent crime, don't you. What do you have to say about that?" If that isn't verbatim, it's darn close.
The exception to this hurried concoction of action movie standards is the villain, the incomparable Jet Li. I did not know much about him coming in, having never sampled his Hong Kong fare, but believe me, he's worth the price of admission.
Jet Li plays the head gangster of the Asian Triad which serves as the baddies in "Lethal 4." The inane plot does not allow much development for either side, but Jet Li's charisma and martial arts ability allow him to steal the show with his small role.
Unfortunately for our crotchety heroes, the best villain of the series does not make for the best film of the series. Jet Li is so incomparably good that it makes Team Senior Citizen look that much worse by comparison.
Remember the incredible final fight of the original? Mel and Gary Busey duking it out to see who the best martial artist is? Jet Li would whup both of them at the same time. Gibson actually refused to do fight scenes with Li because he was simply too good.
However, I have been unduly cruel to Gibson and Glover. The reason for the long delay between the third and fourth installment was that Mel had sworn off any more "Lethal Weapon." Warner Brothers is paying him a rumored $50 million dollars to return, pushing the budget to an incredible $140 million dollars. Much of the shoot went by without a finished script.
The demise of Warner's "Superman Lives" left them without a summer 1998 entry, so Lethal was rushed to theaters. Warner Brothers ruined Superman, they ruined Batman, and now they have finally sunk another great, popular, profitable franchise.
