Lethal Weapon franchise:
1: a Classic, filled with great material and two truly wonderful lead performances. The only film to not dilute Shane Black's original script any and it remains a defining classic. I do think that the fake Director's Cut is better though, since all the extra bits with Riggs are absolutely essential.
4 balls out of 4.
2: A bit sillier due to Black leaving when his dark story was rejected and reshaped into more commercial product. While still good the film starts to sag and is held up by the Leo Getz character, in the first and last time he would be endearing and not annoying. this one gets even more cartoonish but at least maintains the necessary level of darkness.
4 balls out of 4, but the slo-mo in all the big moments ruin them entirely.
3: A tired old workhorse, but manages to pull it together here and there. This one feels uninspired and even lame in parts. The longer fake Director's cut features some better moments that should have been kept over others. It's not bad but very run of the mill and really feels just slapped together.
3 balls out of 4. Cop killers.
4: better and worse than 3. This was the only one I saw theatrically, and before I knew anything about LW. It's darker thankfulyl, has a great villain in Jet Li, but simultaneously ruins it by placing a huge focus on building families and Rigg's getting old. The film should have been called Riggs gets beat up for two hours. Seriously. From 2 onwards they threw out Riggs being a Lethal Weapon and we see him not really be remarkable in any way. And the fact that Chris Rock stops the whole film to do a standup routine every time he appears does not help.
2.5 balls out of 4. Odd because I used to prefer 4 to 3.
The Last Boy Scout
A big, nasty, violent piece of work that ultimately falls short due to too many forces pulling in different ways. It's gorgeous to look at thanks to the late Tony Scott, and has enough dark humor-edged Shane Black-isms to make it work. Willis is at his best here in the movie that comes closest to the feel of the first two Die Hards. Reccomended, and the Blu-ray finally gives a great presentation of a classic Tony Scott looking film.
Dark, nasty and lowdown. That's why I kinda like it so much. 3.5 balls out of 4.
Hudson Hawk
Normally I give things a chance. Willis post Die Hard, made by the director and writer of Heathers, writer of Batman Returns and Die Hard? Originally mixed in CDS? With James Coburn? So I figured I'll give it a shot.
Holy crap. How wrong could I be? How brainless could anyone be to greenlight this travesty and to keep it going when obviously they made it up as they went along? Millions were blown in this unthinkable torrid mess that would understandably make people walk out. It doesn't make any sense, it doesn't want to, it keeps going and trying to top itself; it thinks itself so clever when it really isn't.
What it most resembles is a 60's Euro spoof attempting to make fun of something from Western culture that it ultimately doesn't quite understand. Add in a host of star actors and you basically have the 90's equivalent in HH.
Just an absolute mess from start to finish on the level of the worst of the worst. This makes the usual "worst ever" picks like Batman & Robin look GOOD. All sense is thrown out the window, along with proper edits and structure. Not only is it confusing and willy-nilly but it has no care whatsoever for the audience watching it.
No balls. Ultimately absolute trash. One of the big flops with good reason. Probably the worst film I have a copy of. Shamefully bad. It resembles the deformed love child of Casino Royale, Once a Thief, Die Hard, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs.
