Lethal Weapon

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I'm not sure how Warner Bros. choose which older titles to release in high definition. It appears they go more by a film's popularity than by the absolute visual qualities of its source. Such would seem to be the case with "Lethal Weapon," a very popular movie whose original film stock looks good but not extraordinary. Nevertheless, the new HD-DVD edition is certainly an improvement on its standard-definition counterpart, and that may be reason enough for rejoicing. The only question I have is why WB chose to transfer the theatrical version of the film to high def rather than the Director's Cut. But I suppose a lot of viewers may prefer the theatrical version.

With a combination of antagonistic friendships, hard-edged violence, absurd plots, and sometimes macabre humor, Mel Gibson's "Lethal Weapon" in 1987 along with "48 Hours" a few years earlier practically reinvented the buddy movie and with "Die Hard" a year later did the same for the action thriller. In both cases, "Lethal Weapon" moves along at a frenetic pace, providing excitement galore, so long as you don't stop to think about it.

Gibson stars as L.A. Police Sgt. Martin Riggs, a cop who has become unhinged since the death of his wife in an automobile accident. In case you haven't seen the film, he is the "lethal weapon" of the title. His fellow officers think he's a psycho because he's suicidal, willing to sacrifice his life to get a job done, or in some cases just sacrifice his life. He's basically a slob, living alone in a trailer with only a dog for company, downing a beer for breakfast, and wallowing in the past. In this first in a series of four "Lethal Weapon" films, Riggs is more of a wild man than he is in the sequels, more earnestly nuts. A scene on a rooftop where he tries to save a man from jumping and another where he's busting some drug dealers have undoubtedly become classics by now. "Crazy? You want to see crazy?"

The buddy angle is that Riggs gets unwillingly teamed up with his opposite on the force, a conservative family man named Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover, a fellow celebrating his fiftieth birthday. The two take an instant dislike for one another, which in time, of course, turns into mutual admiration and lifelong friendship. They become the "Odd Couple" of law enforcement.

Both men are Vietnam vets, but Riggs came back the more shattered by the experience. He says the one and only thing he's really good at is killing, and, indeed, he is an expert shot. In Riggs and Murtaugh's first day together, Riggs manages to shoot and kill somebody. As the film goes on, so does the body count.

One may safely ignore the plot, but in the event you've forgotten it, here's the deal. Gary Busey is a cold-blooded, psycho henchman named Mr. Joshua, an ex-Special Forces agent now working as a mercenary for a drug syndicate headed up by a former Vietnam general, Peter McAllister (Mitchell Ryan) and manned by ex-CIA operatives. Riggs and Murtaugh stumble onto their machinations, bullets fly, bodies fall, stuff blows up, people get tortured, and everything ends well in hand-to-hand combat between Riggs and Joshua.

The director of these "Lethal Weapon" flicks is Richard Donner, who gave us "Superman," "The Omen," "Goonies," and more recently, "16 Blocks" among many more. Together with screenwriter Shane Black, who latterly wrote and directed "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Donner keeps things moving at a pace that seldom allows one to breathe or a moment to reflect on how silly it all is.

Interestingly, as the sequels went on the filmmakers put more emphasis on humor than in this first movie. "Lethal Weapon" is fairly serious most of the way, despite the outlandish nature of the goings on.

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