Lethal WeaponYou may think there's an indecent amount of bubbles in this scene (considering that's his daughter)
But just remember who you're dealing with here. This is Roger Murtaugh. "Thin" is his middle name.
And then there's beach bum Martin Riggs. Very much the opposite of Roger Murtaugh... even his initials.
Shane Black made an interesting choice here
not to give us a scene where Rigg's wife dies in a car accident. Instead the sympathy for the character is to come from a scene where Martin Riggs breaks down emotionally while looking at wedding photos (16 minutes into the film), and we can assume by his reaction that she's dead. This is confirmed in the following scene by a police psycologist (whose sole purpose in the movie is to make this point clear for the audience, if it wasn't already). A good example of show don't tell... but then tell.
A tragic car crash
would be a natural first scene for a film of this sort, to establish a tone and character motivation. But the way this film
actually starts is equally natural... we witness a seemingly isolated incident that eventually brings our two characters together, and rolls them into a much bigger plot. Fine.
BUT... By going the route they went I believe they commit the movie to being plot first and characters second. And from where I was sitting the plot was the least interesting thing in this film. So in my opinion the choice was a mistake. One that weighs on the film in direct and indirect ways for the duration.
Now go back to that scene with a crying Mel Gibson, which as a consequence carries the
entire burden of stimulating sympathy for Riggs. Does it succeed or doesn't it? It's a tall order and Mel Gibson has chops, but for me it was only mildly effective.
I could go on about how when Riggs unloads his Baretta at a fleeing helicopter he only gets off 13 rounds before we hear *click*, indicating an empty clip. And that this directly contradicts what Murtaugh establishes earlier in the film when he says it
"takes fifteen in the mag, one up the pipe", and us seeing Riggs insert a fresh clip into the gun before he starts shooting...
But that sort of technical error is not
really what hurts a movie like this. It's just a stupid thing that a lot of movies do, good and bad both. In Open Range I swear Kevin Costner gets about 13 or 14 rounds out of a single six-shooter... but it's like "who cares?", it's a good sequence anyways. Just don't do it too much. And Lethal Weapon doesn't.
In fact just when you think the film isn't paying attention to details it surprises you with something like this.
A pair of clocks on Murtaugh's desk in the shape of ships' steering wheels.
Random? Not at all, as we learn later Murtaugh owns a boat himself.
That character detail is responsible for one of my favourite lines of the film. When Riggs asks "You know anything about boats?" and Murtaugh responds "I know how much they cost."
Only a guy who has owned a boat could say that with such pain in his voice. In general though I don't feel the back and forth banter is up to Mr. Black's usual standards. Or, possibly, Glover and Gibson are not as successful at delivering it as other have been. OR, it just didn't hit my particular sweet spot. Kind of a whatever point, but I would've liked more laughs.
At the end of the day I've got a fair amount of warming up to do with Riggs and Murtaugh. Maybe that will happen with the sequels, or subsequent viewings of the original. I'm open to the possibility.