Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 are about as close to perfect action movies can get if they're not directed by Johns McTiernan or Woo. The first is a surprisingly gritty cop drama mired in the legacies of Vietnam from Shane Black and Richard Donner, while the Jeffrey Boam-led second is basically the best buddy cop fun vibes movie ever.
I mean come on - how many times have you watched along and done the whole "Diplomatic immuunniittyyy"... "it's just been revoked" with Murtaugh at the end? Finales don't get much better.
Lethal Weapons 3 and 4, sadly, are not as good. However, just because they're not Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 levels of good does not mean that they are bad. There's a lot to love about both, particularly if you're already endeared to Riggs and Murtaugh. Their chemistry carries a lot of the current final two Lethal Weapon movies, but there are also fun new additions in Rene Russo's Lorna Cole and Chris Rock's Butters in Lethal Weapon 3 and Lethal Weapon 4 respectively.
They're both clumsy entries no doubt, but if you enjoy hangin' with the boys ("the boys" in this case being Riggs and Murtaugh), then they still provide a fitting send-off.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
