Lethal Weapon, 1987.
Directed by Richard Donner.
Starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey.
SYNOPSIS:
Lethal Weapon makes its 4K Ultra HD debut with a richly detailed presentation of its 4K restoration of the theatrical and director’s cuts. However, you may want to hold onto previous editions of this one, since the only extras are a pair of new, but very short, featurettes. The SteelBook comes with some physical swag, though, if that’s your thing.
Yeah, I’m 55 years old, so the oft-repeated line by Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) in Lethal Weapon rings truer to me every year: “I’m too old for this shit.” However, I’m not too old to revisit a movie that was a box office hit when I was 17, thanks to a brand-new 4K Ultra HD release from Warner Bros.
While there had been plenty of buddy cop movies before this one, it remains a classic thanks to the onscreen chemistry of Glover and Mel Gibson, who plays the erratic officer Martin Riggs. Martin is still dealing with trauma from the death of his wife, creating a psychosis so severe that he’s become suicidal, but the LAPD brass thinks he’s faking it, so they pair him with Roger.
Martin and Roger find themselves investigating the seeming suicide of a young woman that has become a murder case because of the tainted drugs she took. She turns out to be the daughter of an old friend of Martin’s, who gets in touch with him for his own reasons. Meanwhile, a drug cartel connected to the case wants the pair of detectives out of the way so they can distribute a large heroin shipment.
Like any great movie, Lethal Weapon serves up a plot with plenty of twists and turns along with many very human moments as Martin and Roger figure out how to get along with each other and Martin tries to come to terms with his trauma. The script by Shane Black, who broke into Hollywood with it, is ably directed by Richard Donner, who also had a long list of credits to his name when he died in 2021.
This film’s debut on 4K Ultra HD lives up to the hype, with a beautiful 4K restoration of both the theatrical and director’s cuts housed on the same disc, thanks to seamless branching. The level of detail is fabulous, so it’s safe to say that if you’re looking for the definitive version of Lethal Weapon on home video, here it is.
Unfortunately, the extras are a bit lacking here. I haven’t owned this one on home video before, but my understanding is that the 2012 Blu-ray release of all four films had a bunch of great bonus features, including a commentary track on the first one by Donner, which would seemingly have been easy to include here.
Warner Bros. has tended toward single-disc releases of movies on 4K Ultra HD these days, and Lethal Weapon follows that tradition. The only bonus features are two new short featurettes, one a richly deserved look at Donner’s legacy and the other a quick examination of the main characters’ chemistry.
A code for a digital copy is included too. Sometimes that’s where you’ll find more bonus features when it comes to Warner Bros. releases, but not here. (Unless, of course, they’re going to update the digital copy at some point.) However, you do get both versions of the movie for your digital library.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
