Day 6 Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

There is not much to say about this film except it takes what was a comic take on the buddy cop formula, and turns it into “The Three Stooges” with guns. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, except that it makes the movie non-essential. It is entertaining enough, but it relies on the frenetic nature of Mel Gibson’s character and his interaction with just about everyone and everything else in the movie. Director Richard Donner made six films with Gibson, and he let him run wild in most of them. It’s not even a subtle reference because there is a Three Stooges clip very early in the film to underscore the tie in.

In order to have the Three Stooges, you need to have a third stooge, thus the insertion into the series of Joe Pesci. As soon as he enters the picture the slap stick stuff begins. There is head slapping, eye poking and a fall though a window seven floor down to a pool that is played for laughs. Pesci has the rapid fire delivery that he used in a lot of comic roles in the late 80s and early 90s. Some of the byplay is a meta-reference to the fact that they are in a movie. There are moments that exist, simply to insert into the trailer.

Most of the plot in the film is a thin disguise for the elaborate stunt sequences that all the characters engage in. Just as an illustration of how pointless most of them are, after staging a helicopter rescue of their employee, the villains execute him. There are car chases for no reason, shootouts with no consequences, and the kind of mayhem that you can only get in a movie.

Some of the concepts are pretty dated as well. The issue of South African Apartheid was topical in 1989, but by 1991 it was well on it’s way out. One of the problems with focusing on political issues as a plot point is the freshness of the subject will expire in a very short time. The other problem with the plot is that it assumes the State Department will turn a blind eye to abuse of diplomatic immunity. Gun fire, threats to police officers and obvious criminal activity. Hell, a double helicopter attack and four assassins killed is just date night for Martin Riggs. Because the film is such a cartoon, most of this does not matter, but again, it makes the film insubstantial, although highly profitable.

There is a tie in to events that happened in the first movie, but it is totally unnecessary, except to make the vengeance angle even more satisfying at the end. The only thing the bad guys didn’t do to justify Riggs and Murtaugh going off the rails is kill the dog.

We saw this movie on a date night because it really was inappropriate for the kids at the age they were in 1989. I can’t remember whether I saw it in Alhambra or Temple City, not that it matters much. I watched this film one other time before today, and that is when I burned a DVD of it from my Laser Disc version. When I first bought a DVD recorder, I thought I should back up my Laser Discs in case my machine stopped working, or if I wanted to watch the movie somewhere else. Obviously this was way before streaming.

Anyway, that’s how I watched it today, off of a DVD-R that I must have made around 2004 0r 2005. I screen shot different posters for the cover and I used one of those CD Stampers to produce a label for the disc itself. Kind of nifty, like the movie, cheesy but satisfying.