Ok, here's a source that has seen a work print of the film and hates the film for being mediocre. His review is FILLED WITH SPOILERS, but he does go after Warner Brothers for a lack of originality in the filmmaking world. He almost gives them L.A.Confidential, but then remembered that was a New Regency flick. How is Lethal Weapon 4? Well, when I read their script it was like reading Lethal Weapon 1 or 2 or 3, there was no character growth, it just felt like more of the same, but you won't keep me from the theater cause I love Jet Li. I just wish it was a film that maybe...perhaps didn't follow a formula, but utilized their characters... ya know. Kinda like Aliens did with the Ripley character in Alien? If I was a stock holder in Warners I'd vote Terry Semel and crew out. Warner Brothers is an embarassment to their good name. I mean if you check out the Warner 75th Anniversary, and you compare the allegedly great 'Warner films' of the Terry Semel era to any other era of Warner Brothers you find a severe lack in great films. Those guys should grow some backbones, trust their writers, bury bad films, and hook the right talent with the right projects, and allow the projects to progress at their natural progression, not force it into a schedule, this isn't Lucy's Chocolate factory, Semel and crew are running it like Lucy.
Well, Warner Bros. has done it again! -- -- screw up that is. Lethal Weapon 4 is complete disaster! No, complete disaster is probably too kind... I should probably say "it's sucks -- it's a complete waste of film -- Richard Donner is undoubtedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease."
Now mind you, I'm probably one of the biggest fans of the Lethal Weapon series. I thought the first two films were amazing. The third one, although not as good, was entertaining. Now, thanks to Bob Daly and Terry Semel stretching themselves too thin between Warner Bros. studios and Warner Music Group, corporate yuppie in-breeding, an obsessive need to follow a tired "star" formula, and spineless weasels that insist everything be politically correct, we've got Lethal Weapon 4.
I really hope you publish this on your WebSite Harry. Warner Bros. needs a wake-up call! They recently dumped Billy Gerber, but that's like giving aspirin to a guy who needs a heart transplant; it just ain’t gonna work in the long run.
SPOILERS!
The film opens up with that scene we're all familiar with by now: Some guy in "level 3" body armor is standing in the middle of the street, flamethrower in one hand, assault weapon in the other, torching everything in sight. What's he doing there? Well, they kind of leave that one up to us... in other words we never find out. It reminds me of the opening scene from Lethal Weapon 3 where they blew up an entire building... not because it had anything to do with the story (other than to get Riggs and Murtaugh demoted), but simply because it looked cool. Anyway, as Murtaugh and Riggs Shield themselves from the "human tank" we find out that Lorna (Rene Russo) is pregnant! But that's not all -- We also find out that Murtaugh's daughter is pregnant! Boy, let me tell you, there's nothing more exciting than two pregnant women in an action film...
Cut to about nine months later. Riggs, Murtaugh and Leo are all out on Murtaugh's new fishing boat. A few cute lines are exchanged between the three before they all realize their about to be run down by a much larger ship. But hold on your hats folks, there just happens to be gunfire on that ship is well! As you can imagine our boys go looking for trouble. To make a long story short (because the action is just standard fare) Murtaugh's boat gets sunk, Leo (who can swim now. Must have been taking lessons at the Y) nearly gets eaten by a shark, the larger ship runs aground, and a bunch of illegal Chinese immigrants are discovered on-board.
Turns out the Chinese are slave labor (indentured servitude) being brought to this country at a charge of $35,000 a head. We learn that they'll go to work for the Chinese Mafia in sweat shops for 70 cents an hour until their $35,000 debt is paid off. In other words, they're slaves for life.
This really gets under Murtaugh's skin gosh-darnit! So much so that when he finds a Chinese family hiding in a life boat he takes them into his house, hiding them from the INS. Wouldn't you know, we later find out that the Chinese family he's hiding just happens to be the same family that our villain, the Big Bad Chinese Mob Boss (BBCMB), is looking for.
Why? Well, it turns out that the People's Republic of China has imprisoned the "Four Fathers" (Old Chinese dudes), one of which is our BBCMB's father. The BBCMB has struck a deal with a General in the People's Republic of China to buy the "Four Fathers" freedom. The only problem is he needs to pay this General in Chinese currency. In order to do this our BBCMB has hired an engraver to forge plates so that he can print up counterfeit Chinese bills. Only one problem; the engraver has insisted that his family be brought over from China before he will finish the work. Guess which family is the engraver's. DOH! It's the family Murtaugh is hiding in his house!
Confused? I would worry about it, you'll be asleep by this point anyway.
In the middle of this mess:
1. Riggs and Murtaugh get into a pretty cool car chase where they end up doing all kinds of damage (go figure). So, because the police can no longer get insurance with Riggs and Murtaugh on the street, the department promotes them to keep them out of trouble. We all know that'll work.
2. We find out Leo now has his private investigator's license. This is a minor plot point because Leo really doesn't do anything. The writer, Channing Gibson (I'll let you figure that one out), just threw him in the script. I guess it would have been too much work to actually weave is character into the plot.
3. We are introduced to "Butters" (the Chris Rock character), who is officially in charge of the investigation. Butters seems to kiss Murtaugh's ass a lot as Riggs and Murtaugh constantly mispronounce his name (Biscuits, Bagels, etc.-- Ha, Ha.). Murtaugh thinks he's gay, but it actually turns out that he's the father of Rianne's (his daughter's) baby. The Butters character really doesn't do anything either-- he's just there to make us laugh.
4. Rene Russo is still pregnant. Her character literally has nothing to do other than be pregnant. Well, that's not true. She eats a lot.
5. Riggs and Murtaugh complain about being old a lot. I don't know about you, but I don't want to hear Riggs (THE Lethal Weapon) complaining about age! What's up with that!
At the end of the movie, of course, we have a lot of really cool "Kung-Fu Fightin'." Jet is entertaining to watch, but it's nothing I haven't seen done ten times better by Jackie Chan.
Which brings me to another sore spot: There's a scene where Riggs falls into water and it looks like he's going to drown because he's trapped and can't work himself free. Didn't we see this scene in Lethal Weapon 2? With all of the writers they brought on-board to polish this catastrophe, couldn't they have thought up a more original scene?
In the last few scenes, Rene Russo gives birth, but not before forcing Riggs to marry her. Rianne gives birth. Big deal. Butters is the father. Big deal.
The last shot of the film freezes frames with a tedious 'awwwwwww' kinda shot. Yawn.
THE END
And now a personal note:
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty P.O.'d! I love film. I'm the guy laying down the eight dollars on Friday night when a movie opens. And what my getting from Warner Bros.? Crap! Let's go down the list: Father's Day, Batman & Robin, Conspiracy Theory, Fire Down Below, Devils advocate, that stupid movie with Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta, The Postman, Sphere, U.S. Marshals...where do I stop? I would give them credit for L.A. Confidential, but that was really a New Regency gig... Warner Bros. screwed up that deal and now new Regency is moving to another studio.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the film that causes Time Warner to put Bob Daley and Terry Semel out to pasture. For the last two years we (the audience) have been force-fed the most mediocre of films, all of which felt as if they were written by a committee of 30 people. What happened to the days of HEAT or JFK?
Let's all take a stand! Boycott this film! Send Warner Bros. a message that we're sick of them tricking us with a false sense of hope into going to see their movies! If you love film, don't go see this movie!
Sincerely,
Agent Cooper
