Now here's someone that LOVES LETHAL WEAPON 4. Personally I'm betting I will too, simply because I love Mel and Danny. Their charisma together is too good to suck, and Jet Li could look great tenderizing steak, so I'm in my seat. Here's what Speedy Gonzales thought... (Hey there are plenty of SPOILERS so watch out!!!)
Whoa! I don't know what just happened. I'm still in a daze. My buddy and I had passes to preview Dirty Work at the Century 22 theater in San Jose. So here we are with popcorn and soda in hand right and we go in and there's all these suits there. Some guy's on a cell phone pacing back and forth staring at us as we go in. My bud said we're not seeing Dirty Work. No way. He was hoping it would be a test for the prequel. Right! I'd give my left kidney for that one. But it was a test I guess. For Lethal Weapon 4!
Now I've heard a ton on this film - people can't wait to see it or people can't wait to kill it. I read these things all the time. I read Agent Cooper's so I sort of knew what was gonna happen. (That guy HATES Warner Brothers - disgruntled employee?) Now I don't know who Billy Gerbar is or what Regency did to Warner Brothers but I thought this movie kicked ass! I must've seen a new work print or whatever cause these guys were rad. I predict major action stardom for Jet Li! So here's my fifteen minutes of fame and here's my review on the action stuff in detail!!! SO SPOILER WARNINGS GALORE!!
The movie starts out pretty sweet. The logo comes up and this flamethrower blasts apart the Warner Brothers thing out of the sky!! And next we go the flamethrower guy I think everyone's seen this scene right. They blow the f#@!er up.
So then we cut to nine months later on a boat where Leo just caught a shark. As the guys argue about it they get sideswiped by this boat. Leo is funny as usual. He even trys to shoot the shark. So the guys go after this big freighter and Riggs gets on. While barrels of gas or something are exploding into the air off the freighter Riggs has a fight with the captain of the boat who's like a small version of Jet Li. Riggs can't get a punch in and the captain takes off. Meanwhile Leo and Murtagh jump off the boat before it gets hit by a barrel and sinks.
Since Agent Cooper already told the story I'll skip to the next action scene. The guys go to interrogate this guy called Uncle Benny who is connected to the freighter. This is where Jet Li and Riggs first meet. You can't wait to see these guys fight.
So then they leave and why they're walking to the street in Chinatown they see the captain of the boat. There's a pretty good chase through Chinatown and through an outdoor mall where the captain guy jumps from elevator to elevator and then from rooftop to rooftop. The captain loses Riggs and company. But the coolest thing about the end is that Jet and the captain have this fight on a rooftop. Guess who wins.
So then later, Jet and his guys go to Murtagh's house and kidnap this chinese family that's there. But before they can go Riggs and Murtagh show up and there's this cool fight between like seven people in a tiny foyer. They use lamps and doors and whatever else. Finally, Jet enters the fight and kicks everyone's ass. He even knocks out Rene Russo with a kick to the face! So then the bad guys take off but Riggs and Murtagh chase after them after they escape a fire. This is the coolest chase in a long time.
So they head to the freeway and Riggs and Murtagh chase the bad guys to the side of this trailer home they're moving. Half of it's gone and it's covered by clear plastic. Riggs jumps in the trailer and pulls the DRIVER OUT OF CAR AND INTO THE TRAILER!! While there's another Kung-Fu versus Street Fighter in the trailer Murtagh and the other bad guy left have a car chase around it. Finally, Riggs and the guy in the trailer fall through the plastic and sort of water ski behind the trailer on a table. But the bad guy falls off the table and gets STOMPED on by a greyhound.
So next the bad guy driving the car tries to run Riggs over. Murtagh and the other bad guy smash cars together until Riggs climbs in Murtagh's car. Then the bad guy takes off and Riggs and Murtagh follow. They ram each other and then the bad guy sideswipes Riggs' car and they go flying off the freeway and INTO A BUILDING! The guy next to me started cheering in my ear - until he started choking on his popcorn. Ha! So they drive through the building and land back on the freeway. It's rad. So before they capture this bad guy and ask him questions he gets hit head on by a SEMI! Later, dude. All in all a pretty killer chase.
So I'll skip down to the final action scene. After a huge shoot out between the chinese mafia and the chinese corupt government Jet and Riggs and Murtagh face off on this pier in the rain. At first they're not gonna fight them and then they're like "let's go ask him how he took our gun apart." There's kicks, punches, headbutts, eyegouging (hey, any fight with eyegouging is cool) and it's two on one. Jet even gets a piece of rebar stuck through him. It's pretty gruesome - if there was no “R” up to this point there is now.
So after this was done we all got these cards like a test. I put Jet Li should've won. So my review is: this movie is pretty rad. I couldn’t see one or two in the theater cause of the R - but I’ve seen them on video and this is one series that, like Star Wars, is consistently kicking serious tail. Thanks for my fifteen minutes of fame.
Later, dude.
SPEEDY GONZALES
