Director: Richard Donner
Screenplay: Shane Black
Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe
Country: USA
Running Time: 110 min (Theatrical Cut) / 117 min (Directors Cut)
Year: 1987
BBFC Certificate: 18
Who doesn’t love a secret Christmas film? From the ultimate Christmas action classic of John McTiernan’s Die Hard, to Doug Liman’s portmanteau caper Go, and even Shane Black’s MCU superhero outing Iron Man 3, there’s nothing more fun than having a bunch of “alternative” movies to throw on over the festive season. One that seems to have gone forgotten as a secret Christmas movie, however, is Black’s screenwriting debut, the 1987, Richard Donner directed Lethal Weapon, a film that announces its festive setting as soon as Jingle Bell rock blares out over the opening credits.
At its core, Lethal Weapon is a fairly straightforward premise. A pair or cops, straight laced family man Roger Murtaugh (Glover) and loose canon (the titular Lethal Weapon) Martin Riggs (Gibson) are paired up for an investigation into the apparent suicide of Amanda Hunsaker, a prostitute who just happens to be the daughter of one of Murtaugh’s friends (Atkins). As they dig deeper they uncover a sinister drug operation being run by shady ex-military agents and get themselves into trouble that will threaten not only their lives but the lives of those closest to them.
On paper, Lethal Weapon is very much a cookie cutter 80’s action movie, fully embracing the sleazy 80’s drug culture and peppering itself with enough nudity, violence and swears to satisfy any fans of the genre. But, mainly thanks to Shane Black’s snappy and thoughtful script, it manages to elevate itself beyond that basic concept into something that is far more thoughtful, something that’s highlighted by the polar opposites of its lead characters.
Straight out of the gate we have Mel Gibson as Riggs, a broken man living in the shadow of his wife’s death. Having seemingly made a career to date of playing dark, damaged men, from Max Rockatansky to The Bounty’s Fletcher Christian, Gibson, here fresh faced and still trying to shift his Australian accent, drops almost scarily naturally into the role of Riggs. There’s a seething anger to him, a pain and sadness lurking beneath the surface that frequently bubbles up and his oft discussed attempted suicide scene early in the film hits remarkably harder as an older man than when I first watched the film as a teenager.
Juxtaposed with that we have Danny Glover as Murtaugh, a man struggling with age and mortality but also just trying to care for his family. The impact of the main thrust of the plot on him, seeing a friend’s daughter killed by contaminated drugs clearly impacts him and is particularly poignant when he goes over evidence and finds a videotape of one of Amanda’s amateur porn films. Ultimately it’s Murtaugh that’s impacted the most by the main plot, particularly when his family is targeted by the gang running the drugs and his once quiet life is turned upside down.
Director Richard Donner sets all of this up perfectly by using the opening scenes of the film to show both of these characters independently going about their lives, tackling police work in their very different ways before being put together – the Directors Cut version of the film included on this new 4K remaster is arguably strongest here, giving Riggs even more scenes to establish his character, his morals and the shortness of his fuse.
These two men finding each other at just the right time in their lives forms the emotional core of the story and ultimately Lethal Weapon is a film about masculinity and male mental health disguised as a kick ass action movie. The main thrust of the narrative never gets overshadowed by this however as things manage to dovetail together and Riggs and Murtaugh get dragged into the central conspiracy. On the villain side we have Mitchell Ryan being surprisingly convincing as main villain “The General”, while Gary Busey steals the show as The General’s psychotic right hand man, Joshua.
There’s a lot of fun action to be had around the films darker moments, with some incredibly snappy one liners and a trendsetting buddy cop vibe between Riggs and Murtaugh; And, being an 80s movie, it’s remarkably violent with a degree of spectacle that feels far more real with it’s blank firing guns, squibs and explosions in comparison to modern CGI embellished fare and an iconic final fight scene that easily goes down as one of the greats. Underscoring all of this is a sax heavy, bluesy soundtrack by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen which ups the sleaze factor, adding just enough sleigh bells to remind you of the season.
Much more tonally darker than other, more straightforward action fare of the era and with a remarkably disturbing torture scene late in the run time that I’d completely forgotten about, Lethal Weapon is perhaps of its time in places (modern audiences may very well not gel with the “gung ho police officers as heroes” plot, and there are a couple of lines in the script which seem a bit off colour in 2025) but it’s still as immensely entertaining as it ever was and easily one of the better 80′.
Bonus Features
- Theatrical and Directors Cuts of the film
- A Legacy of Inspiration: Remembering Dick Donner
- “I’m Too Old for This…”: A Chemistry That Became Iconic
Despite having both versions of the film present and accounted for, this release of Lethal Weapon is surprisingly light on bonus features, including only a couple of bonus features, however the remembrance for late director Richard Donner is more than appreciated here. For anyone here for the shiny new 4k transfer, though, it is all nicely crisp with the HDR highlighting the films dustier colour palette while emphasising the brighter tones. Thankfully both versions of the film have been given the UHD treatment, so fans with 4K set ups will be more than happy with this release.
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