Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Pretty good last show for Donner's buddy-cop franchise

7/14/2021

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Pretty good last show for Donner's buddy-cop franchise

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Hollywood stars offered as something like your alternate universe movie friends (or bait, some might put it) on this firetruck red poster for Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon 4

Odd couple detective partners Riggs and Murtaugh are still driving around chasing bandits in Los Angeles, although they are getting older and children and grandchildren are popping out. Now they pick up the baton against a group of Chinese gangsters.

Lethal Weapon 4 is written by Channing Gibson (Civil Wars (1992-93)), with Miles Millar (Charlie's Angels (2011, TV-series)), Alfred Gough (Into the Badlands (2015-19)) and Jonathan Lemkin (Hill Street Blues (1986-87)) contributing story elements, and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker Richard Donner (Salt and Pepper (1968)). It is the 4th and final film in the Lethal Weapon franchise (1987; 1989; 1992) and Donner's 18th feature.

The plot here is hysterically ridiculous ... There is a longer scene, in which the partners give themselves and an old Chinese man laughter gas, and it can't but strike one that the script also seems to have come together under the influence of something potent, probably not just laughter gas.

Luckily Lethal Weapon 4 also offers a lot of entertaining scenes, both with screen darlings Mel Gibson (Braveheart (1995)) and Danny Glover (Sr. Pig (2016)), - but also with the hard-hitting Rene Russo (Ransom (1996)), - and Joe Pesci (Man on Fire (1987)) and Chris Rock (Down to Earth (2001)) are funny, meanwhile Jet Li (Kiss of the Dragon (2001)) makes a fine villain. One can wonder that the Chinese's role as this type of villain seems completely finished today, which is strange.

Lethal Weapon 4 is overlong, and especially some of the action scenes could have been shorter or fewer in number.

Richard Donner: 16 Blocks (2006) or, Heavy Traffic!

The Goonies (1985) - Sweet child performances drive Donner's beloved, uneven adventure

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 285.4 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.85 times its cost)

[Lethal Weapon 4 premiered 7 July (Los Angeles) and runs 127 minutes. Gibson was paid 25 mil. $ for his performance; Glover 7 mil. $; Pesci and Russo 3 mil. $ each and Rock 2 mil. $, which comes to 40 mil. $ spent for the 5 star American cast alone. Shooting took place from January - May 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada and in California, including Los Angeles and San Diego. The film opened #1 to a 34 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3) and grossed 130.4 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). 50 mil. $ was reportedly additionally spent on distribution and marketing. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Donner returned with Timeline (2003). Gibson returned in Payback (1999); Glover with a voice performance in Antz (1999) and physically in Beloved (1999). Lethal Weapon 4 is rotten at 53 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lethal Weapon 4?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/14/2021

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Pretty good last show for Donner's buddy-cop franchise

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

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