Lethal Weapon Movie Review 419

Lethal Weapon is a 1987 action movie directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Gary Busey.

Glover plays cop Roger Murtaugh who is just turning fifty. He just wants a quiet life but he gets a new partner called Martin Riggs(Gibson). Riggs is a suicidal nutcase who lost his wife in a car crash.
Nobody wants to work with him. He is a Special Forces guy too. The two are like chalk and cheese and it looks as if their partnership isn't going to last long. Roger gets a call from an army buddy called Michael Hunsaker(Tom Atkins) who needs his help because his daughter jumped off a balcony after being poisoned. She was into prostitution, drugs and dodgy porn movies. He was going to get Roger to help her before she died. There is something funny going on. Murtaugh and Riggs go to talk to her pimp but everything goes wrong and they find a drug lab and have to shoot their way out.
There is a witness to Amanda's death but she is blown up in her house before they can get to  her.

Riggs looks at the bomb parts and he is sure that it was made by someone in the Special Forces. They confront Hunsaker who tells them that he was part of a group called 'Shadow Company' who were ex-army guys into smuggling drugs . The boss is McAllister(Mitchell Ryan) and his sidekick Mr.Joshua(Busey). It turns out that Hunsaker's daughter was killed as revenge for him trying to get out of the company and talking to a cop. Hunsaker is killed by Mr. Joshua so he won't talk anymore.
The company try and take out Riggs but he survives. Murtaugh and Riggs decide to pretend that he is dead to give them an advantage.

Unfortunately, the company kidnaps Murtaugh's daughter and hold her to get Roger to come to them. Riggs and Murtaugh come up with a plan. They show up at the meeting place and Roger meets them. Riggs hides with a gun, but he gets captured. They are all tortured, but they manage to escape as do the villains. McAllister crashes his car so that takes care of him. Joshua is a psycho though and he is heading for Murtaugh's house to get revenge. They stop him and the other cops come, but he tries to shoot them and they kill him.The movie ends on a good note as Riggs visits his wife's grave and makes peace with himself. He spends Christmas with Roger and his family and he gives Roger the bullet that he had been keeping to end his life suggesting that he doesn't feel suicidal anymore.

I love this film. It is the ultimate buddy cop movie with a great cast. Gibson is great as the suicidal cop and I really like his character in this film. He is at his best here and you see that he is crazy after the death of his wife. With the third movie in the series and the fourth, I thought that his character was too watered down and tame. His character in this movie and the second one is very interesting. Glover is good as the veteran cop who just wants to reach his retirement without getting killed. Busey is suitably menacing as the creepy Joshua who doesn't mind burning his hand with a lighter just for fun! All in all, one of my favourite 80's cop movies. I am giving it a 9/10.