LETHAL WEAPON 3 (Review)

SYNOPSIS: Roger Murtaugh, a brilliant Los Angeles police sergeant, prepares to retire. But, following an imprudence, his teammate Martin Riggs says “Lethal Weapon” and himself are demoted to the rank of simple cop. The two friends then decide to continue on their own behalf an investigation they had initiated into the trafficking of stolen weapons in their police station.

lethal weapon 3 extends the full incarnation of the buddy movie spirit whose charm has already operated so much in the first two opuses thanks to the characters of Riggs and Murtaugh created by screenwriter Shane Black when he was 23 years old. Director, Richard Donner was not just a poet, but his achievements are square and very effective, which unmistakably emerges in the tetralogy. Opening credits, it’s a shiver of intense pleasure… This noise of a lighter… Snapping of the finger… The guitar of Clapton… The voice of Sting…. Pictures of fire… The film reaches its 22nd second and almost already tears in the eyes…. Cinephile heart… lethal weapon 3 just getting started…. ” It’s hard to say it… I hate to say… But it’s probably me”… would it be the soundtrack in the world that best embodies his film… Right now… How can we think otherwise?… Then a thunderous start for a wildly successful introductory scene that takes up all the truisms and codes of the crazy duo . Riggs chains the valves to the Riggs: “ there is more plastic than in Cher in front of the bomb. After the cat scared them by jumping on the roof of the car…” We came close to disaster, huh?? In a smile of total psychopath to the Riggs… In this introduction, each sentence can be the subject of a chronicle… Not to mention the red or blue thread so as not to blow up the whole building… “ Roger, catch the cat!!!!“…. God it’s good… And what’s just great about cinema is that it stays. We can watch them as many times as reason can count, show them to our great-grandchildren with the same silly smile. lethal weapon 3 just getting started…

It is noteworthy to think that lethal weapon 3 is less dark and radical than the first two opuses, including because for once, Riggs will not experience the horror of loving mourning. Even if we are of course very happy for him, we still miss this darkness a little, because it brought to the franchise this depth which counterbalanced the few very Hollywood platitudes of good big productions. Like for example the scene of the funeral of Darryl with the mythical It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday (1991) des Boyz II men, which exudes a form of rather artificial emotion, much too elaborate to be sincere, and which flirts with a rather useless cucuterie. But we will say that it is period and part of the decorum of the film, which is talkative, excessive and always seeks to overdose what it demonstrates. We so want to find excuses for the flaws of the film, so much the iconic charm of the spirit Lethal Weapon nevertheless operates over time in the 3.

Moreover, to illustrate this intention of darkness of the project Fatal weaponin the spirit of Shane Black, Riggs was to die at the end of the two. If we can rejoice that this path is not followed, from the 3rd, and inevitably more in the 4th, there is a beginning of shift in a form of soap-opera, completely out of the initial state of mind . Because even a notch below, which can very quickly become a matter of purists, the strings which made the salt of the saga, are beautiful and very present in this number 3,: Bad guys certainly less bad than before, but always so nasty anyway, endless discussions between Murtaugh and Riggs (we will obviously come back to this) which make them, well beyond the classic universe of the buddy movie, a real couple of professional lovers!! ; The dislocated shoulder recovering “manually” in a cry and bulging eyes of Riggs against a beam or other, OK » frantic about Leo, of the ” We go to three ” Where ” At three we go“, the very canine talent of Riggs, the final fight scene against the big boss, valves on the shrink, and of course the heritage ” I’m too old for this bullshit ” of Murtaugh.The fights with in particular the headbutts and other uppercuts of Riggs are still as spectacular as ever, to which must be added for this edition the overturned kicks of Lorna (Rene Russo) who are madly admired by Riggs and which come to be prolonged by the anthological scene of comparison of wounds, in sensual preliminaries of two great abyss of life which have found each other perfectly. This tetralogy will make people envious: often copied, never really equaled, no doubt because here the energy is multivitamined with testosterone, with an obvious art of the punchline, and which is done with such grace in the staging, namely in permanent innovations in the fights and action scenes, in terms of speed of execution and an always exaggerated spectacular. Well, even if Riggs on the subway windshield, is not as strong as Bebel in fear over the city (1974) who climbs onto the roof.

But what will eternally make the tasty recipe for the series is this link between the two cops, this alliance of opposites, which here turns into the most total alchemy. Riggsthe lonely mad dog has found an anchor, a bond with Murtaugh and of his, him much more typical of the average American family. It’s about two big emotional people who seemingly spend their time saying I love you to each other, while shooting and knocking at everything. There is such sincerity, an authenticity in their bond, which will be forged over the episodes. Reconnecting with the most beautiful duos of the genre in film or literature, They alternate a form of meticulousness in the attention to detail on any subject, while having no filter, little intimacy, it is at finally a real couple. Making a duo work so well without falling into stereotypes is very complex. The lethal Weapon succeeds, the 3 is no exception to the rule, and it is at this point that the 3 films make up a success story. The affect, always the affect… We are here typically in a “feel cop movie”. Rene Russo finally brings the feminine touch in an American cinema at the time very patriarchal, what is more in a genre film, where until her arrival, the woman was generally confined to a distressing role of canteen… Danny Glover and Mel Gibson are clearly less desperate here, as we have said, but still just as involved and energized, not content to fall asleep on acquired grounds. Their game for two is crazy and perfect complementarity. lethal weapon 3, like his three brothers is part of a good big action blockbuster, but obviously goes far beyond, as the recipes deployed previously work, in terms of film innovation, but especially in this crazy link between two men for whom finally, everything is linked, and everything makes sense together. A little below the first two, but much higher than the one that will follow, lethal weapon 3 nevertheless remains a real kiff and for us, clearly, ” It’s OK“!!