Don Shanahan
Since its release in 1987, Lethal Weapon has long earned its place in the trophy case for action thrillers. The Richard Donner classic starring the incorrigible team of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover has been upgraded by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for the first time to 4K-UHD disc format for physical media collectors. Normally, the WB waits for anniversary years for this sort of thing, making this disc two years early. Do we honestly need a special occasion to celebrate Lethal Weapon? Nah! Film Obsessive was granted an advance copy of 4K-UHD disc for this edition of our “Off the Shelf” series of physical media reviews.
THE MOVIE
Lethal Weapon stars future Oscar winner Mel Gibson as Detective Martin Riggs, a Los Angeles police officer seemingly with a death wish (no pun intended, Charles Bronson) a more than a few screws loose. He has good reason for it, as he recently lost his wife and feels rudderless without her guiding heart. Nevertheless, he’s developed a dangerous and suicidal reputation while still getting solid collars in his role as a homicide detective willing to bend the rules. What he needs is a partner who can tame him and keep him on the straight and narrow.
The man assigned to that task is veteran Detective Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover (coming off of impressing audiences in The Color Purple). He’s a by-the-book homicide detective with an impeccable record and a loving family at home. Reliable and committed, even Roger looks at Riggs and sees nothing but the kind of trouble that could put his own life at risk. Now, the two are stuck with each other as partners, investigating a suicide that leads to an international crime ring connected back to the Vietnam War involving a pair of villainous ex-military operatives (Mitchell Ryan and the action breakout of Gary Busey). Murtaugh’s sense of family rubs off on Riggs as the two get closer to answers and even greater dangers.
The impressive practical stunts and visceral hand-to-hand combat on the seedy L.A. streets are part of the entertainment value that catches your eye about Lethal Weapon. It moved and looked as tough as the people on-screen. Beyond the thrills, the connection forged by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover has become the stuff of holiday legend. Part of the film’s lore was how Lethal Weapon was writer Shane Black’s first Hollywood script after graduating from UCLA. His violent sizzle and chatty energy had a level of seriousness amid the hijinks that felt amplified from the norm. Black’s gift of gab created bonding moments and fed zingers to the two leads that have become celebrated lines and interactions. Many films of the era, including Running Scared from the year before and Eddie Murphy’s two series vehicles of 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop, tried to make their own uncanny pairings of talents, but none of them got the blend as right as Gibson and Glover. Their stardoms were catapulted, and Mel and Danny are often cited as one of the best movie duos in film history, regardless of genre and rightfully so.
Richard Donner came to Lethal Weapon after helming a pair of high-profile 1985 releases, The Goonies, which has cemented its classic status over the years, and the less successful Ladyhawke. Lethal Weapon would gild the second half of his career. It became a box office hit (a cool $65 million plus in 1987) and critical favorite (80% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) and ended up scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Sound at the 60th Academy Awards (losing to Best Picture winner The Last Emperor). The movie’s greatest legacy is spawning a successful franchise that includes three sequels and a reboot television series that ran for three seasons.
THE DISC
The Digital and 4K UHD disc release of Lethal Weapon arrived on store shelves June 24th. The film was also made available to purchase digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and other outlets on the same day. As is typical with these excellent restorations from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, the 4K resolution upgrade with high dynamic range (HDR) truly brings out the 80s sheen, sleeze, and sweat of the 1980s. This is an excellent transfer holding the grain of its film stock source, while stepping up as a huge improvement from the noisy old DVD version. In the sound department, the studio flexed for both Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio sound mixes, making the screams, sirens, and Michael Kamen’s saxophone-enhanced score sing strong.
This new disc set of Lethal Weapon only includes the 4K-UHD disc and a digital code for the portability crowd. For the last few lines of WB’s home media releases, they have been skipping the complimentary Blu-ray disc as the second disc in the sleeve. Maybe programmed plastic is getting expensive over at WB/Discovery. In any case, that’ll be a limiting factor for some more basic levels of film collectors who have not made the dedicated leap to go full 4K. The good news is that both the 1987 theatrical version of Lethal Weapon and the 2000 Director’s Cut, which features an additional seven minutes of footage not seen in theaters, are on this 4K-UHD disc.
In terms of selling points, the special features for this 4K-UHD disc of Lethal Weapon are very slim, but they weren’t coming from a thick place to begin with. The previous DVD and Blu-ray editions of the movie only had a small collection of deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer. Warner Bros. did spring for two new retrospective featurettes.
The first is “A Legacy of Inspiration: Remembering Richard Donner.” The reliable director stayed in the big chair through all four franchise films from 1987 to 1998. His signature polish and smooth action chops are evident in every film and with the progression of the characters and their shared maturity. Richard Donner, who passed away at the age of 91 in 2021, deserved this type of fitting tribute to his leading vision and the level of care he maintained all those years. The second featurette is “I’m Too Old for This…” centering on the dynamic chemistry between Danny Glover and Mel Gibson. The bit doesn’t run very long, but cast and crew speak highly of the undeniable draw that came from putting those two actors together during the era they did. Seeing Gibson and Glover go back and forth is indeed what keeps audiences coming back to Lethal Weapon, making this small mini-doc a nice addition for its legacy.
