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Buy, Rent or Skip Lethal Weapon 4?

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Author Topic: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)  (Read 173 times)

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Chiprocks1

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Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« on: December 27, 2012, 06:12:15 am »
Lethal Weapon 4
Premiere Collection





Trailer



Lethal Weapon 4 is a decade past the era that it came from, but it still takes its cues from what made the 80's the home of some of the best and most loved Action Flicks of all time. We have the returning cast of what made Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2 and Lethal Weapon 3 so special. We still have Richard Donner helming all the mayhem that you love to see in the LW series. So, with all the elements apparently in place, what went wrong? That's easy. His name is Chris Rock. Look, I like him for the most part. I think he's a funny comedian and he has done some solid work. But therein lies the problem. He may be playing a character by the name of Lee Butters, but he his really just playing himself. He brings so much baggage into LW4 that you just can't seperate the personality from the character. Also, far too much time is spent on him at the expense of actors that should be getting screentime. You have Joe Pesci and Rene Russo returning, but in drastically reduced roles.

Another thing that harmed LW4 is that even though there were some amazing Set Pieces in the movie, it's few and far inbetween. The pacing is off as there is a lot of slower scenes between the big, loud, exploding scenes. The other thing that they kinda dropped the ball on is not using Jet Li to the fullest. He really was underused here unfortunately. Having said that, the movie isn't all bad. The charm and chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover is still there and they do deliver some good laughs throughout .

I own this on DVD for obvious reasons. But I can't really recommend this as a Buy as it's definitely the "weakest" in the series. Definitely worth a Rent, especially if you have a Lethal Weapon Marathon. Ya gotta watch them all. Because LW4 more or less limped out and instead of going out with a bang in a way befitting the characters, the series, the actors, it's the main reason why I want to see a Lethal Weapon 5. I want them to right the wrongs here and go out the way it was meant to go out. Sadly, it will probably never happen.

You can follow more on Lethal Weapon 5 here should more news present itself.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

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Chiprocks1

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2012, 06:12:51 am »
Lethal Weapon 4 DVD Screencaps

Probably not.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Neumatic

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2012, 03:07:52 pm »
I have the DVD too... because it came in the four-pack (although my sister's had it for ages).  There's two scenes that I can watch over and over again and I feel like if the rest of the movie was up to par, it wouldn't matter if it wasn't as action-intensive as the other flicks, it would have been a riot.



Chiprocks1

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2012, 03:11:16 pm »
Ironic you point to those two scenes as your favorites. For me, it's those two same scenes that crippled what otherwise could have been a 4 1/2 Star movie. I mentioned in my reviews of Lethal Weapon 2 and 3 as having situational comedy that felt completely natural to the flow of the movie. In these two scenes, it was beyond forced. That's just how it plays to me. To everyone else it can play completely different.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Neumatic

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2012, 03:18:15 pm »
I will agree that that comedy comes out of nowhere and honestly doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie, but it felt to me like THIS was the movie they were trying to make now and the rest fell short, rather than the opposite (of course, this was the first Lethal Weapon I'd ever seen).  The scenes work far better alone than they do with the rest of the movie, though.  Or maybe because the last time I was watching them, I watched them all in a block and I was getting sick of the whole down and bleakness of it (it felt tacked on in this movie- honestly, the stuff like "we got a new sign: no vacancy" felt more forced and uninspired) and wanted something more lighthearted.  Or something like the later Trek flicks where you know that the cast is too old to do the old stuff and so the nature of it has to change accordingly.

At least it served as a general audience introduction for Jet Li.  He would have been awesome in an earlier flick like this.  But I KNOW Glover and Gibson couldn't realistically take him down in a fight, so that whole thing never worked for me.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2012, 03:29:15 pm »
You are right about LW4 finally introducing Jet to a much larger, american audience. I already knew who he was prior to this given my love for Hong Kong and Martial Arts flicks. Even though I applaud the casting director for giving him a vehicle to showcase what he could do, he is barely utilized here and in a way weakens the movie because of it. Had he had a much larger role throughout, we could and should have gotten something bigger than what we ultimately ended up with.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Neumatic

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2012, 03:37:10 pm »
See, it would have been interesting if Li was a GOOD guy, taking care of the physicality that Riggs and Murtaugh weren't capable of anymore (which would have given them an excuse to try to get back in shape and failing humourously) and inject that whole fresh blood thing into it... of course, the big issue with that is that there's already TOO many good guys and Jet Li didn't speak english then.

Neumatic

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2013, 01:00:57 pm »
This is on... TNT or something right now, I caught it while I did a quick flip-through.  It was the part where Mel Gibson and Chris Rock are making faces in the fake mirror before going into the Chinese dude's office.  Jet Li just looks so confused, I feel like he had no idea what the movie was, he's so out of place there.  That can't have been the point, could it?

Reminds me that my sister still has MY Lethal Weapon DVDs.  Although I haven't seen them on her shelf when I pop by so maybe she loaned them to someone else and forgot.  I dunno.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2013, 01:06:02 pm »
Thread resurrection!!!!!!!!

I think Jet looks confused because even on set he knew he wasn't being utilizes properly. Think about how much screen time he actually has in the movie and you'd have a look of indigestion as well.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Neumatic

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Re: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2013, 01:16:51 pm »
Yeah, that American food probably ain't that good.

You know, they keep remaking American movies in China now, I'm starting to think maybe they should remake Lethal Weapon over there with Jet Li as one of the good guys, that would be kinda cool.

 

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