Must Watch Movies from the ’80s: Lethal Weapon (1987)

A movie always gets bonus points when the first scene has a naked lady and then shortly after that you see a young Mel Gibson’s naked rear. Add a name like Lethal Weapon, a kickass costar like Danny Glover, and lines like “I’m too old for this sh**,” and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a Must Watch ‘80s classic! The popularity of Lethal Weapon helped bring on a slew of buddy cop films, all filled to the brim with action and one-liners, and for that, this chick is forever grateful.

Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a young police officer on the brink of suicide since his wife was killed in a car accident. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is a straight-laced police officer just celebrating his 50^th birthday with his lovely family. These two are forced to become partners despite their differences and go out to bust some drug dealing baddies.

I love Lethal Weapon! The last third of this film is great action sequences including car chases, fist fights, explosions, and gun fights! Not to mention that Mel Gibson is super ripped and not afraid to show it. Mama likie! His character is also completely off-the-wal crazy… so that’s no different from his real life, but it does make for a fun movie.

If you’re an aspiring drug dealer, one thing that you should learn from Lethal Weapon is to never utter the phrase “They can’t kill me- they need me.” That sentence is a freakin’ death wish! Also, another thing to learn is not to be a drug dealer, because those guys are jerks, and because Riggs and Murtaugh will bust your ass!

Time Until Action Starts: ~ 13 minutes

Baddies: Peter McAllister (Mitchell Ryan), the former commander of Shadow Company, and his chief enforcer, Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey).

Best Kill: Riggs is getting shocked and tortured by the baddies to try to get information out of him. His arms are tied to a hook above his head. The baddies walks up to him to shock him one more time when Riggs grabs his neck with his legs and chokes him to death. Yay for strong core abdominal muscles! Billy Blanks would be proud!

Best Explosion: I love how when a building explodes in an action movie the main characters are usually right in front of the building either about to go in or just coming out. They’re never picking up their dry cleaning or just at home on their day off. Oh well, that’s why it’s a movie! Anyways, Murtaugh and Riggs are about to walk into a prostitutes house to “question” her when it explodes into a nice big fireball. Don’t worry. Our heroes are untouched even though they were 5 feet in front of the blast.

Action Rating: 3 ½ Hollow-point Bullets, out of 5!