Review of Lethal Weapon 4

Introduction

When most guys there age are making ample use of their pensions and bus passes, detectives Riggs an Murtaugh are still kicking the asses of readily assembled drug dealers in the name of law and order. Which is all well and good, but does it have to be this geriatric? And dull? They should have ditched the 4 and renamed it ‘Lethal Arthritis’. Still, there are some impressive newcomers: Chris Rock does some neat stand up, and kung-fu star Jet Li kicks everybody’s ass without even dropping his rosary beads. But please, someone kill Leo Getz.

Video

Original aspect ratio, the usual high quality you`d expect.

Audio

Particularly impressive given the range of explosions, gunfire and bone-crunching violence on display in this film. All in beautifully crispy Dolby surround.

Features

Yet again, Warner’s have decided to give their weakest movies great DVD’s. Although we don’t get the commentary present on the Region 1 version, we do get stacks else, and thankfully, the DVD seems to focus on the entire Lethal saga rather than this, its weakest instalment. A whole host of trailers from the entire series, a funny, frothy and playful documentary entitled ‘Pure Lethal’ which takes us behind the scenes of the series and even shows us some new footage, Joel Silver also appears, clearly delighting in the fact that he got to blow up an entire building... again. There are Interview clips from all the cast and crew members, mostly witless back-slapping baloney, but worth watching for Jet Li’s delightfully gormless attempts at English. We also get some B-roll footage (a pleasing rarity) and best of all, a host of deleted and extended scenes from the first three films, including the long-lost Sniper sequence from ‘Lethal 1’. Almost makes watching ‘Lethal Weapon 4’ less of a pain to actually watch, but not quite.

Conclusion

The 4th (yes, fourth, count em!) instalment of the popular familial cop comedy is showing severe signs of wear and tear, not to mention hopeless bouts of sentimental banality. Indeed, this seems to be the perfect example of a movie that went into production long before anyone had any idea what to do with it. One scene in particular, where the boys indulge in a spot of laughing gas inhalation at a dentist’s, hits a comedic low and is, conveniently, the definitive scene in this mis-judged caper. Retire boys, because we’re too bored for this s***.