“It’s a date movie. Something you turn on in the background while you make out with your date. Lethal Weapon and chill.”
LETHAL WEAPON 3 was an action-comedy buddy cop film released in 1992, directed by Richard Donner, written by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen, and starring Mel Gibson as Riggs alongside Danny Glover as Murtaugh. We have a plot centered around a dirty cop providing street thugs with military-grade, armor-piercing bullets to do... really bad things with.
You also get Lorna Cole, an Internal Affairs officer who is essentially Riggs with lady parts. She kicks tail, is a bit crazy and fearless, and isn’t afraid to compare battle wounds with Riggs. So, obviously, they fall in love.
Lastly, you have Murtaugh on his final week before retirement, dealing with his own demons when, in the middle of duty, he kills his son’s best friend. What’ll they think of next?
Thinking back to the entire Lethal Weapon saga, this is the movie I admit I remember the least from, and after rewatching this film for the third time... I think I have a solid understanding of why. It’s not a terrible film, but when compared to the rest of everything this series represents, it’s certainly what I think is the weakest. We’ll see if I still think that next week after I see the fourth one again, but one of this film’s biggest problems is its villain.
You have a very forgettable dirty cop. Right off the bat, they decided to go against this guy, and obviously, dirty cops in general are a dime a dozen. You have to do something really special with characters like that if you want them to stand out. Unfortunately, they really don’t. Once he’s introduced and gets away, that storyline is primarily sidelined for a majority of the film as we focus on other things... like the love interest storyline with Lorna, and of course, Murtaugh dealing with the fact that he killed his son’s friend.
This hits Murtaugh so deep that he dabbles with alcohol and disappears from the film for longer than I’d like, as Riggs kind of does his own thing with Lorna not far behind. It’s just much more of a sloppy, convoluted mess.
That’s not to say the film is garbage. It has a lot of great action moments and a lot of great humor. You got Joe Pesci in there doing his thing. You have the jokes that keep coming, the weirdness, the chemistry, and the camaraderie... all of it. Mel Gibson has this recurring joke where he eats dog treats to get over his addiction to smoking. Hilarious stuff.
I also give the film crap for Lorna, but to be honest, she’s a better love interest than the random floozy chick in the second movie. The fact that she’s basically a mirror image of Riggs, I do think works wonders for the film and his character. She still isn’t a great character and is ultimately forgettable, but she worked on screen a lot better than the last movie.
I also had a good laugh at the film where Mel Gibson had either his typical mullet... or a ponytail. Neither of which looked great on him, so I had to laugh at the film giving him two bad haircuts.
Overall, I had a good time with the movie. It makes for a fun time on a rewatch like this. I just think it’s much more typical and weaker for a Lethal Weapon film, and it doesn’t really give me anything I want out of it. It’s much more of a let’s-pass-the-time, let’s-watch-something-but-not-actually-pay-attention kind of movie.
You know what it really is? It’s a date movie. Something you turn on in the background while you make out with your date. Lethal Weapon and chill.
Technical/Unbiased Score: 34/50 (68%)
Biased/Entertainment Score: 31/50 (62%)
Total Combined Score: 65/100 (65% or 3.5/5 on Letterboxd)