50 Greatest Action Movies Of All Time

42. Lethal Weapon (1987)

Lethal Weapon
Warner Bros.

Buddy cop movies were everywhere during the 1980s, but they simply don't come any better than Lethal Weapon. Shane Black's brilliant script, Richard Donner's assured direction and the chemistry between leads Mel Gibson and Danny Glover would go on to spawn a lucrative franchise as well as a thousand imitators.

The movie seems generic on paper, but the writing and acting elevate the material as Gibson totally convinces as the bereaved and borderline-psychotic loose cannon, with Glover's buttoned-up straight man the perfect foil. Fast, smart, action-packed and often hilarious, the sequels could never quite manage to recapture the magic of the original.

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