b_kite Gibson and Glover are the greatest duo in what has to be the greatest "buddy cop" action movie ever made. Most of the action is saved for the third act so we can get some character development. But, the writing from Shane Black of "Predator" and the directing from the great Richard Donner, are excellent. Plus you have Gary Busey as our villian before he went full tilt crazy guy.

michaelsmith-78117 Lethal Weapon is a fun, exciting movie that deserves its standing in the pantheon of great action films. Contrary to popular believe this film didn't make Mel Gibson a star- He already was one after Mad Max but it did make him a household name in the US. He and Danny Glover are amazing as the mismatched buddy cop duo and one can say Lethal Weapon restarted the sub genre after 48 hours had done so a few years ago. Featuring great sequences, dialogues worth remembering and great pace Lethal Weapon is a must watch.

John Brooks All the clichés meet here: this film is undeniably an 80's action flick. It's got the cop one-two punch, that light crime atmosphere and intrigue revolving around a death (suicide...or not ?), cheap campy laughs and lengthy action scenes, soundtrack full of saxophone or bluesy reverb guitars, the "I'm too old for this s*it !" line and a very (too) obvious divide between the good guys fighting the good fight versus the definite bad guys.They really could've used lots more of the comedic potential between a completely insane (like, more than usual) and unleashed Mel Gibson and his black older counterpart Danny Glover whose characters are both likable in their own different ways, naturally. There are at least two full action scenes that seem endless and feel pointless after a certain point where if you're not a fanatic of explosions and electric-paced successive bursts of motion you're probably going to feel every second of them pretty quickly. Too much action - not enough laughs. That's for sure. It's too uneven barring that anyways. The film settles itself nicely at the beginning, develops decently as we get to know more about the plot and the lead characters (how great a shot Mel Gibson really is, etc) but then those monolithic chunks of action... it's too disparate in how much humor is supplied, how much action was needed, and the plot wears thin way too soon. Finally the film is also quite politicized: the 'black and white partners make nice' rationale, the apartheid sign on the fridge that's well emphasized... it's not just an innocent little comedy-action flick, there's real underlying social commentary here.Not good enough, it doesn't matter how slightly more semi-original it was when it came out in 1987: 5/10.

Fluke_Skywalker Plot; A calm, rational veteran detective is paired with an unorthodox and mentally unstable younger partner.Perhaps the definitive film in the buddy cop genre, this first of four Lethal Weapon films is much darker than its predecessors. Where the sequels amped up the comedy and softened the harder edges of Mel Gibson's Martin Riggs character, the original is an occasionally brooding and jarringly violent action/dramedy.Stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover share an incredible and effortless chemistry, and though it boasts a tight script (by Shane Black) and steady direction (by Richard Donner), it's Gibson and Glover who really make it work.