Almost Equal Sequels Part XVI: Lethal Weapon 2

Gosh, I’d love to say that due to the injuries that I sustained while trying to stop a runaway school bus filled with nuns, orphans, orphaned nuns, and a squadron of sasquatch babies is what kept me from writing for so long, but sadly I cannot say that.  I mean, I could say that, but I won’t.  This is mainly due to the gag order that the admittedly overreaching judge unfairly handed down to me.  However, at least you now know that the correct term to use when describing a group of sasquatches is squadron.  Anyway, what was I talking about?

Oh yes, I remember now!  The recent release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Without Mad Max rekindled an issue I had with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.  This gripe is that despite Mel Gibson being alive and available, and the fact that the words “Mad” and “Max” were in the title, Gibson wasn’t used for Fury Road.  I would have enjoyed seeing an older Max trying to work in this ever-disintegrating post-apocalyptic world in which he survives.  Nothing against Tom Hardy, but Max is Mel’s character.  He just is, no matter whatever director/writer George Miller decides to say about it.  And frankly if we Mad Max fans had to deal with the lingering effects of Miller’s Thunderdome for the 30 years before Fury Road, we were owed seeing Gibson reprising the role he originally made.  But as that didn’t happen, we were denied our opportunity to get beyond…Thunderdome.  (Hah!  See what I did there?)

But soft, I have digressed quite a bit.  Since I wish to simply gress before I inevitably congress to regress, I have dithered on quite long enough!  Let us return posthaste to a more action-filled era of magnificent explosions!  An era where to not cast Mel Gibson was considered madness and foolishness.  Let’s all go back to the titanically wonderful and astoundingly whimsical cinematic year of 1989, where we gleefully await the return of Sgt. Riggs and Sgt. Murtaugh…

The Sequel:  Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Original Movie: Lethal Weapon (1987)

Key Cast/Production Staff Returning from 1^st Installment:

Mel Gibson	Sgt. Martin Riggs
Danny Glover	Sgt. Roger Murtaugh
Darlene Love	Trish Murtaugh
Traci Wolfe	Rianne Murtaugh
Damon Hines	Nick Murtaugh
Ebonie Smith	Carrie Murtaugh
Steve Kahan	Captain Murphy
Mary Ellen Trainor	Stephanie Woods
Richard Donner	Director
Joel Silver	Producer
Shane Black	Story
Michael Kamen	Composer
Eric Clapton	Composer
David Sanborn	Composer
Stuart Baird	Editor

To Start With:

 “We’re back, we’re bad, you’re black, I’m mad!”

Yes, 1989.  I’ve spoken before about this being the most spectacular year that Hollywood ever produced.  The sheer volume of sequels and franchises and sugar packed amazement released that year never fails to thrill my popcorn devouring heart.  I’m certain that plenty of theaters simply burst into flames because the box office cash counters burned out so quickly.  Batman, Indiana Jones 3, Back to the Future 2, Ghostbusters 2, Star Trek V, James Bond 16, Jason Voorhees 8, Freddy Krueger 5, Police Academy 6, and Weird Al 1, to name a few, all fought for your attention and somehow, they all succeeded at once!  (Well…all that is except for Star Trek V.  Sorry, Bill.)

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers needed a bonafide definite sure thing that would throw down the gauntlet and enter the Fray for the Battle for the Struggle for 1989.  Yes, Warners did have Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, which, although admittedly better than Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, didn’t instill supreme confidence.  So how about something else involving cops, action, and comedy, like say for instance a sequel to 1987’s Lethal Weapon?  After all, Lethal Weapon had a solid script by Shane Black, reliable direction from Richard Donner, confident producing from Joel Silver, and the glorious pairing up of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.  (Also, Lethal Weapon never had to deal with the noticeable absence of Steve Guttenberg like the latter Police Academy entries did, so that’s also a plus of a bonus if I ever heard of one!)

The chemistry between Glover and Gibson cannot be understated.  They work so incredibly well together despite their disparate characters with different ages, backgrounds, family situations, races, etc.  Glover as Roger Murtaugh, the stable family man who is getting closer to retirement from the police force.  Gibson as Martin Riggs, the devil-may-care burnout who takes risks because yes, A) with his military background he’s that good but, B) he has a death wish.  Seeing this pair mesh together beautifully throughout this series is the result of a historically great moment in film casting.  (Seriously, casting legend Marion Dougherty, who worked on all four Lethal Weapons by the way, should have gotten a reserved primo parking space for the rest of her days for that move.)

And since practically everyone had a good time in making Lethal Weapon and since it made some serious coin and since there still was plenty of stuff left to blow up, greenlighting a sequel seemed preordained.  So, with Black contributing the story again, Donner directing again, Silver producing again, and Gibson and Glover starring again, would a Lethal Weapon 2 bring back the magic that used to come back in the day from delicious R-rated action movies with plenty of explosions, gunplay, and prolific use of everyone’s favorite F-word?  (That’s right, kids!  The F-word I’m thinking of is…Fun!)

In a word, yes.  In two words, yes yes.  In my humble opinion, Lethal Weapon 2 not only succeeded, but also ended up being the best film in the franchise.  Oh, I know that not everyone would share that opinion.  I completely understand and have accounted for that: frankly, those who disagree with me are once again just plain wrong.  But that’s nothing to be ashamed of or disgusted by!  You’re wrong, but hey, it happens, you made a mistake.  So just move on because you’re clearly getting too old for this shit.

Oh, and what would this loveable series be like without voluminous spoilers ahead?  So consider that as your childish warning that spoilers are coming up, so get your helmet on and enjoy the ride!

Anything Done Better than the Original?

 “Load the container. By the time anyone finds their bodies, they’ll be in Cape Town.”

The baddies in the first installment were bad enough, but then Lethal Weapon 2 decided to say, “Hold my beer” and we end up with the worst folks in the series.  Joss Ackland is our lead criminal, hiding his misdeeds behind diplomatic immunity protection since he works for the South African consulate.  He whacks his own men, is a towering racist, wants Joe Pesci dead, and runs red lights in the middle of traffic, so he’s a definite and understandable burr in Riggs’ saddle.  (If that weren’t bad enough, Ackland later tried to get the United States to destroy Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October.  Hah, nice try, comrade!) 

A henchman was needed to supersede Lethal Weapon‘s Gary Busey as the evil sidekick extraordinaire in this second go-around, so we get Derrick O’Connor as Ackland’s right-hand man.  He intimidates and threatens Murtaugh and his wife, sets up a bomb in Murtaugh’s toilet, has people killed, is also a towering racist, and most importantly, despite how retroactively it does so, he is the one who killed Riggs’ wife Victoria at some point prior to the events of the first Lethal Weapon.  My one small grievance is that, given that he killed Riggs’ wife, I wish O’Connor’s death was as satisfying as Ackland’s demise.  Still in the end, Riggs crushed him with a vengeance and that’s all that matters.

Plus, since this is a Richard Donner film, there is no shortage to the messaging that was slammed right in your face regarding the racial situation in apartheid-laden South Africa at that time.  Donner has these bad guys being so despicable and unsympathetic, I guess the next step would have just made them outright jackbooted swastika-laden Nazis and be done with it.  Donner never shied away from social issues and therefore the Lethal Weapons are plastered with bumper stickers and signs and the like, bringing awareness to whatever social cause Donner was focused on during filming.  So, having these guys have a South African background is a bit of a plot contrivance, but hey, we need true baddies so here we go!

Speaking of Joe Pesci from a few paragraphs ago, his presence as Leo Getz in the Lethal Weapon mix was a plus to be sure.  Granted, his character became even more comic relief as the series continued.  Also, finding a reason for him to even be in later Lethal Weapons was rather contrived, but watching how well Pesci worked with Gibson and Glover overruled any quibbling.  And this movie came along just as Pesci was experiencing quite a hit streak.  I mean, look at this list in no real order:  Lethal Weapon 2, Goodfellas, Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny, Home Alone 2, Lethal Weapon 3.  For a time, Pesci could not be stopped because we didn’t want him to stop.  Great actor, great character.

And where would I be without mentioning Patsy Kensit as Riggs’ love interest?  She’s just lovely and certainly works well with Gibson.  Granted, their reverie ends abruptly thanks to the truly evil baddies in this, but for a brief and shining moment, Riggs is happy before having to go off into a vengeful Wolverine-ish berserker rage.  Plus, you know that Kensit was popular given how many times certain scenes were paused and worn out on rented Lethal Weapon 2 VHS tapes.  By the way, no amount of tracking adjustments will cause that static to go away, my friends.  Thank heavens for the crystal-clear digital quality of the Blu-ray these days.

Anything as Good as the Original?

Riggs: “Police! Open up!”

Leo: “How do I know it’s the police?”

Riggs: “After I shoot you through the door, you can examine the bullet. Open up!”

Part of the charm of the Lethal Weapons was watching how many folks returned with each sequel, which gave a great overall continuity.  Darlene Love as Murtaugh’s wife Trish was back as well as the rest of the Murtaugh kids.  Steve Kahan returned as the long-suffering Captain Murphy as did Mary Ellen Trainor as the beleaguered police psychologist who Riggs just delights in tormenting.  These folks were in all four of the Lethal Weapons and it was always a delight to see them.

Speaking of returning to the sequels, there’s the matter of the musical score from the great Michael Kamen that features the great Eric Clapton and the great David Sanborn.  These guys forged a musical motif path for these films and their contributions cannot be overstated.  Michael Kamen was a go-to action composer at the time, doing scores for Road House, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Last Action Hero, the first three Die Hards and the James Bond film Licence to Kill.  (Come to think of it, both License to Kill and Road House also came out in…1989!  I swear, when did these people ever sleep?)

And I would be several hundred miles beyond remiss if I didn’t mention the end credits song played by George Harrison, which is an absolute treat as well.  This is back in the day when Harrison was knee deep with ELO’s Jeff Lynne, but “Cheer Down” is one of Harrison’s best.  (It’s certainly better than whatever McCartney was cranking out at that time.  Yeah, that’s right, I said it!  Take that, Sir Paul!)

The stunts and special effects once again are top notch.  There’s plenty of explosions, car chases, violence, shootouts, exploding toilets, pulling down stilt houses, fisticuffs, dislocated shoulders, falling out of hotel windows.  I mean the whole movie starts off with Riggs and Murtaugh amidst a roaring car chase in L.A. and by the time you catch your breath, it’s on to the next.  The film keeps on moving in creative paths with stunts/effects too.  Just the Rube Goldbergian way that a chase after a tow truck ends up with the baddie driver getting essentially decapitated by a surfboard is a thing of beauty to be sure.  Whatever nitpicky faults Lethal Weapon 2 might have, the stunts and effects certainly are not to blame. 

Anything Not-So-Good as the Original?

“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me, I got a bad reputation, like sometimes I just go nuts like now, ha ha!”

Speaking of nitpicky, there is a credible criticism that with Lethal Weapon 2, the series started to become more comical, more humorous.  I mean, the film starts off with the Looney Tunes theme, leading right into Riggs screaming during that initial car chase, so the filmmakers are certainly aware.  Although, there is humor in Lethal Weapon, it was certainly a more dramatic film.  Who can forget seeing a clearly depressed and emotionally wrecked Riggs putting a loaded and cocked gun in his mouth, about to pull the trigger?  It established Riggs’ shattered emotional background in one dark gut-wrenching moment.  And yes, these kinds of moments are fewer in the sequel and are almost obliterated by the time we get to the fourth film.

However, Lethal Weapon 2 brings it right back to serious center when you discover who attacked Riggs’ wife and ultimately let her die, when you see the fellow cops summarily executed by the South Africans, when you see Patsy Kensit’s fate and Riggs’ reaction to it.  So, I would counter argue that Lethal Weapon 2 has harder hitting emotional moments than you might think, but I can understand the criticisms.

But, yes, it only got more jokey from here on out.  This is certainly never truer than in Lethal Weapon 3, the jokiest series entry by a wide country mile.  But I think it becomes a matter of taste as far as what you’re looking for in this franchise.  I can completely understand where some fans get turned off a smidge because the series changed to being an action drama with comedy moments to an action comedy with occasional drama moments. (It’s like a reversal on what happened to M*A*S*H from the early funny seasons to the dramatic preaching of the latter ones.) So yes, I think here starts a comedy turn that becomes a sliding skid during the next two Lethal Weapon entries.

However, let’s not conveniently forget that Riggs already had a penchant for The Three Stooges in the first Lethal Weapon, so the comedy quotient was already in seed form there.  It just germinated and blossomed quite a bit, and while one could say it needing pruning later, it was there at the start of the series even as my horticultural metaphors peter out in this paragraph.

Anything Far Worse than the Original?

Riggs: “What are we supposed to do with him?”

Captain Murphy: “How the hell should I know? Take him to Disneyland.”

My biggest complaint about this film is because of the great cast here.  Why?  Because my love of this great cast overshadows Lethal Weapon 2’s plot holes and story issues.  Now I’m not expecting a David Mamet-ian script with erudite snappy dialogue in my Lethal Weapon movie, but a smidge more detail/explanation on the story would be appreciated.

I get it, these South Africans are basically 1980s Nazis.  Understood.  Thank you for driving that point relentlessly, Mr. Richard Donner, sir.  But that in and of itself shouldn’t be the sole reason as to why I hate these baddies.  I mean how easy is it to hate these racists?  Too easy, right?  Now, they give a backdated plot reason by having this group be ultimately responsible for Riggs’ wife’s death, but again, what are these guys doing?  What was their grand criminal scheme beyond vague drug-related motivations that Riggs was getting too close to at the end?

Also, Leo gets involved in the plot here in the first place because he’s turning evidence to nail some drug dealers.  Capt. Murphy wants Riggs and Murtaugh on a seemingly calmer, lower profile protection job to watch Leo.  We discover that Leo was laundering money for a drug gang and was stealing a bit on the side.  Only through the sheer magnitude of coincidence does it turn out that the drug gang that Leo was working for were these same South Africans all along!  Oh, those evil guys! 

There’s Krugerrands and drugs and pallets of shrink-wrapped cash and what exactly are the bad guys doing for the plot other than they’re South African drug lords somehow?  Do they have connections here in the States?  Are American drug gangs buying South African drugs?  Are they importing the drugs from South Africa, or do they have a lab here to make them?  Are they using Krugerrands to pay for drugs or get paid with them?  There’s a brief throwaway mention of the drug trade triangle, and we just accept it because these bad dudes are drug-running, cop-murdering, toilet-exploding, wife-killing, doodyhead racists, so go get ‘em, Riggs and Murtaugh!

To go back to Licence to Kill, where coincidentally James Bond is also going up against a drug lord, instead of some megalomaniac world conqueror with laser-armed death satellites.  But in contrast to Lethal Weapon 2, we know what the Licence to Kill baddies are doing as the plot unfolds, how they are transporting the drugs, how they’re selling them, and what the endgame is.  (In fact, there’s a money laundering joke there too!)  In contrast, these South African pricks in Lethal Weapon 2 needed a bit more definition to showcase exactly why they’re hiding their nefarious deeds behind crucial diplomatic immunity so much.  But since we get a scene where Joe Pesci starts swearing about getting the wrong sandwich in a Subway drive-thru, we forget about the finer points of story and move along with a chuckle in our hearts even if we have an unwanted tuna sub in our hands.

Follow-up installments?

 “You’re not dead until I tell you! Got that, Riggs?”

Well, Lethal Weapon 2 was a booming success despite the heavy box office competition, so Warners lined up a third entry.  1992’s Lethal Weapon 3 brought everybody back from the previous films and added Rene Russo into the mix.  Russo became a love interest for Riggs that doesn’t end up dead at the end, so that was a radical shift for the series indeed!  The bad guy played by Stuart Wilson was certainly a step below the previous baddies.  He was just a crooked former cop who is running guns and illegal ammo as well as building a housing development. Frankly, he didn’t need the trimming of weapons dealing added to his misdeeds since him just being a building contractor would be evil enough.

After Lethal Weapon 3, Gibson starred in 1994’s Maverick, which was also directed by Richard Donner.  Glover makes a delightful cameo as Gibson and him both seem to recognize each other for split-second while a Lethal Weapon music cue plays.  Glover also gets in a line about being too old for this shit as he escapes from his bank robbery.  After that, the Lethal Weapon cast split off into different projects with Gibson teaming up with Rene Russo in 1996’s Ransom and the Glover and Pesci pairing up for 1997’s Gone Fishin’.  I bring this up for no real reason whatsoever other than I just always found it odd how they paired off like that for disparate projects.

Then in 1998, against all odds, a fourth Lethal Weapon came out!  Everyone returned and this time Chris Rock joined the good guys and Jet-Li was a great baddie to close out the series.  I think everyone realized that this was the last round-up for Riggs and Murtaugh, resulting in a more family-like atmosphere.  There’s even a montage of photos from the entire series over the end credits.  Lethal Weapon 4 ended up a better film than I expected.  The director and cast do not embarrass themselves at all, and it was a fitting coda to the series. 

Plus, I was able to see Lethal Weapon 4 in the theater, so I always will give it some love.  In anticipation for the release, I even ordered the first three films in a special edition VHS(!) box set that also included the bonus special Pure Lethal!  And it came with a facsimile cast-signed Lethal Weapon 4 script!  And it was all from a TV infomercial!  Yes, folks!  Lethal Weapon, for a brief shining moment, had dorky, “as seen on TV” merchandise tie-ins too!

And then they had to muck everything up in 2016 with an ill-conceived Lethal Weapon TV show, starring Damon Wayans and some white dude whose name has evaporated from my memory and I am far too lazy to look up now.  I throw no shade at Wayans who played Murtaugh; Wayans was the best thing about the show.  But what exactly about the Lethal Weapon concept sounds like it would make for a great weekly episodic series?  Thankfully it limped through three seasons to then die.  It did achieve an unintended goal: it made the original movies even more beloved. 

With the show’s death, it hopefully put a fear of the Almighty’s wrath into anyone else thinking that making a TV series out of a movie action franchise is a good idea.  Yeah, I’m looking right at you: random studio wonk probably thinking about developing a Die Hard weekly series.  Remember the Steve Guttenberg-less Police Academy: The Series?  Yeah, only me and Michael Winslow do, so give it up now before someone gets hurt.

And Finally:

“I’m too old for this shit.”

There has been speculation for a while now about doing a fifth movie.  Usually, those rumors would die because Gibson and Glover said they would never do it without Richard Donner directing it and since Donner has sadly passed away, that should be the end of it.  However, original Lethal Weapon scribe Shane Black has tried to get a Part 5 going with him directing as well as scripting.  I find this odd because Black originally wanted Riggs dead at the end of the very movie this post is about, Lethal Weapon 2.  So Black wanted him dead, wasn’t happy that they didn’t kill him, and now wants to jump onboard with a fifth one, which if he had his way in 1989, wouldn’t exist as a possibility in the first place? 

Not helping Black’s case is that we all saw what he did when he got involved again with the Predator franchise, which resulted in 2018’s The Predator.  Hm.  Yes, The Predator only succeeded in sending more belated love to 1990’s Predator 2, which also starred…Danny Glover and Steve Kahan, so there!  Ironically, I think that Gibson and Glover are finally actually too old for this shit and that fact alone hopefully kills off any momentum for a 5^th movie.

Roger: “I’m gonna die on a toilet, aren’t I?”

Riggs: “Guys like you don’t die on toilets.”

To wrap this up, I do have to mention that Mel Gibson fell out of favor in Hollywood due to some drunken moments of weakness and impaired judgement.  I didn’t want to mention it, but apparently when one brings up Mel Gibson these days, that sludge is dredged back up.  Look, Gibson has acknowledged and apologized for these incidents.  Besides, considering the incalculable volume of utterly egregious sins that Hollywood has committed over the years, Gibson going on drunken rants just doesn’t rank that high in the grand scheme of the voluminous sinful layers of Cinematic Babylon.  But remember that Robert Downey Jr, no stranger to his own demons, stood up for his friend and Air America co-star Gibson.  Yeah, that’s right, RDJ did that so you can all back off Mel already, you sanctimonious wieners.

But again, I regressed to digress.  Lethal Weapon 2 is a gem among sequels overall and as I aforementioned beforehand, it the best entry in the entire series.  Gibson, Glover, Pesci, and Donner were all at the top of their game, making for an entertaining romp.  Movies like this harken back to a much-loved time, back when all we wanted at the theater was R-rated fun, explosions, and Riggs and Murtaugh giving each other crap as they kill truckloads of bad guys.  Thankfully, Lethal Weapon was reassuringly there for us in a way that Mad Max: Fast and Furryous or the newest Furiosina movie never could: it had Mel Gibson in it.  And with that, Lethal Weapon helped us all get beyond…Thunderdome.  (See?  I did it again!)