LETHAL WEAPON 2. Directed by Richard Donner; written by Jeffrey Boam; produced by Richard Donner and Joel Silver for Wnrner Bros. Starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Rated R.
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Boy! When you've seen this movie, you know you've seen a movie! Practically non-stop action, violence, mayhem and destruction, with a steamy sex scene and lots of humor thrown in for good measure.
Who cares if the story is no more realistic than a Saturday morning cartoon? It's a humdinger and a sure winner.
I enjoyed the first Lethal Weapon immensely, although it had some scenes of sadistic violence that I could have done without. This time around, although probably just as many, and maybe more, good and bad guys bite the dust, more of the violence takes place off-camera.
The Lethal Weapon of the title is again Detective Riggs (Gibson). But though he's still into maniacal risktaking on the job, and has a remarkable energy level, he's cooled off and loosened up a lot since LW #1.
Part of the change is due, no doubt, to the good influence of his cautious partner Murtaugh (Grover) and the Murtaugh family. So instead of flirting with suicide alone at night in his trailer home, he gets to flirt with a pretty secretary (Patsy Kensit) and watch the 3 Stooges with his dog.
Riggs' increased normalness makes Gibson's performance even more appealing than before. And Glover is just as good. Their humorous, attraction-of-opposites chemistry hasn't lost any of its entertainment value.
The bad guys here are pretty creepy, although, there's no world-class villian like Gary Busey was in Lethal Weapon 1 to lead the opposition. Here they're racist drug runners from South Africa, though, and completely without sympathetic features. Which makes it easy to root for their liquidation.
One additional player who nearly steals the show is Joe Pesci as an imaginative accountant who double-crossed the Afrikaners and plans to testify against them. He's hilarious and turns the dynamic duo of Riggs and Murtaugh into a comedy/action trio that's hard to beat.
August 2, 1989