Now here's a title that I let go right by me, without paying much attention. It's strangely right in my wheelhouse, but at the time of its 2005 release, my wheelhouse wasn't entirely established yet. Back then, I was mostly familiar with Robert Downey Jr. from 'Chaplin', and Val Kilmer as 'Batman' or Madmartigan from 'Willow'. I was always familiar with the title, but kinda overlooked it as a generic action movie. Now that I've seen it, it's pretty much an instant favorite. We open with our main character and narrator, Harry Lockhart, beginning a recap of how he got to a Hollywood party. After an unsuccessful robbery, and a police chase, Harry finds himself hiding in an audition. Having lost his friend during the robbery, he has a break-down which is mistaken as method acting. An openly gay private investigator, "Gay" Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer) suggests for him to participate in a real investigation in order to develop his character. Meanwhile, Harry meets aspiring actress Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), finding out that she's actually a childhood crush all grown up. While Harry and Perry find themselves in an intricate murder case, events end up entangling themselves, giving "everyman" character, Harry, a personal vendetta. Perry, Harry and Harmony end up reluctantly working together to get to the bottom of things. There's so much I appreciate about this one, and I'm happy to have found another movie to add to my rewatchable collection. For me, Harry is a potential new favourite character. Imagine Tony Stark if he had average, everyday intelligence, leaning a bit towards dumb, but still only human. He still has that sense of humor mixed with that intensity when things get serious. On the other side of things, we have Perry, who is a real asshole, but feeds Harry some of the funniest insults. The one about looking up "idiot" in the dictionary is kinda legendary. In fact, the perfect scene to illustrate these two interacting with each other. It's not enough to call it bickering back and forth, but these two really don't like each other and its perfectly clear. This is another one that follows in the footsteps of unconventional Christmas movies, where Christmas takes place in the background almost completely. It's an action comedy you could watch pretty much any time of year. The writer/director of this one is Shane Black, who we either remember very fondly for penning 'Lethal Weapon', or not so fondly for executing 'Iron Man 3' (which still isn't horrible, but definitely a weak chapter of the MCU). I'd have to say, after scrolling through his IMDb resume, this is one of his best titles for sure. It's a lot of fun, at times intense, at times laugh out loud funny, and it'll even leave you a bit squeamish without going incredibly overboard. There IS a rough torture scene here, but it's balanced out with humour and doesn't really show anything. In fact, it's kinda similar to 'Lethal Weapon's torture scene... maybe Shane Black didn't get a lot of hugs growing up? Anyway, I loved it, its a new fave for sure! 5/5
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'Lethal Weapon' is a movie that doesn't need a lot of introduction. If 'Die Hard' is the grandfather of modern action movies, than this is the grandfather of buddy cop movies. Much like 'Die Hard', it takes place at Christmastime, but when all said and done 'Die Hard' has more Christmas elements to it. For me, this is a bit more of an action movie where Christmas is going on in the background, with very little Christmas elements going for it. Still though, it's a fun one to add to the list of unconventional Christmas films, because it's still a legendary action movie, released back in a time when action movies had a certain pizazz to them. 'Lethal Weapon' introduces us to two very different men. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is a by-the-book cop, and family man, living one day at a time. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is an over-reactive cop who is claimed to be suicidal, living his cop life on the edge. The pair are reluctantly put together to solve the murder of a banker's daughter. In their investigation, they uncover a group of drug smugglers headed by "The General" (Mitchell Ryan) who employ ex-military mercs. It's only a matter of time until things become personal, and the action flies through the roof on a super fun, now completely nostalgic roller coaster ride. Riggs and Murtaugh also have to learn how to trust each other through the whole process. It's not all just mindless action though. I have to appreciate that as soon as we see Riggs as a bit of a loser, we can empathize with him, learning very little information. We catch him in a scene near the beginning, holding a picture of his wife, and really breaking down about missing her. We dunno what happened yet, we just click towards empathy for someone we probably come into it not liking all too much. It makes Riggs one of the more interesting action stars of the time, while other movies are checkered with Schwarzeneggers and Stallones as bad ass action heroes. He's a good dude, he's just off the handle. Murtaugh is pretty entertaining too, but in a different way. He's the one who made the phrase "I'm too old for this shit" famous, and I appreciate that through this movie, even though he's the by-the-book guy, he goes full bad ass by the end of things. I absolutely love this movie's climax, it's everything an old school action movie should be in that regard, especially Murtaugh's standoff with a speeding car, and Rigg's fist fight with Mr. Gary Busey, who's basically the General's right hand thug. It's strange to say it, but it's seemingly rare nowadays to just have that man-to-man, street fight anymore. I think it peaked with 'Fight Club', but correct me if there's anything that stands out after that. Anyway, it's an easy one to close off with a very positive review. I haven't seen it in a couple of years, and this time around, I felt that nostalgia hit me, not so much for the movie itself, but for the entire classic 80s action genre. Nowadays, action movies have mostly been taken over by superheroes, the 'John Wick' and 'Fallen' series, and not a whole hell of a lot more. There was something about 80s action movies that suggest a sort of freedom, as back in those days, our critics were Siskel, Ebert, Leonard Malten, and just a handful of others. It wasn't an entire internet pointing out everything wrong about something. The 80s were a time where people were allowed to enjoy things without much ridicule, and these are the people I try to speak to the most with my reviews. 'Lethal Weapon' might represent most of the action cliches of the time, but dammit, that's what made it so awesome. Come to think of it, it actually invented some of those cliches. Again, legendary. 5/5 |