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Cops Who Are Buddies | Lethal Weapon · Potato Chip Pictures - A Podcast

0:00
It's been probably 20 years since I last watched this entire
0:05
franchise and I think I only watched it once and there's a
0:10
lot that I forgot. This really is not a comedy
0:15
movie. No, it's I mean action.
0:18
I think I chuckle at the five jokes that they tell, but it
0:23
yes, it's very partner E you know, buddy cup, but not comedy.
0:30
Yeah, it is an action detective movie, like we're solving a
0:36
crime. But it had, like you said, like
0:39
5 jokes. I think it's I guess I don't
0:46
have too many buddy cup movies to compare to.
0:49
It definitely feels like the main one, all the like other
0:57
comedy ones like Straight Comedy, Turner and Hooch I was
1:02
going. To say you got the one with the
1:04
dog all. Right, but like on their own
1:09
wiki there's like, oh, leave the weapon wikis.
1:12
Maybe you're interested in die hard wikis.
1:14
It's like those are about the same.
1:17
I got I wonder. I don't actually know when they
1:21
came out. I know they take place around
1:24
Christmas. So was it around Christmas?
1:26
Was this a big holiday? So.
1:46
Hello and welcome to Potato Chip Pictures, the movie franchise
1:51
review Podcast. My name is B Sammy Davis.
1:56
I'm still Justin. And today, we are starting a
1:59
new, well, new to Nah, not even new to us.
2:02
We're starting another franchise.
2:05
We are at the first movie. So Justin, please introduce
2:10
this. Franchise.
2:13
Franchise I mostly watched on TVVHS recordings.
2:18
It is lethal weapon first released 1987 never re released,
2:24
but you know where it takes place around Christmas in the
2:29
show. I didn't know until looking it
2:31
was released in March. So a good, good couple months
2:36
like I don't, I'm curious over on that date then, but we'll
2:41
we'll go through the the points. The director of the 1st and all
2:47
of the lethal weapons is Richard Donner, I think.
2:50
That hit maker in the 80s and 90s.
2:53
Oh, I don't know any of his other stuff.
2:56
I mean, obviously Lethal Weapon is the problem.
2:59
I don't know. I don't want to say the biggest.
3:01
I just know that his name would show up in my childhood where
3:05
it'd be like a new movie from Richard Donner.
3:08
That sounds familiar, but I think that lends to the the feel
3:14
of all of them. I think I've watched at least
3:17
three of the four and they do all kind of match, which is
3:21
nice. Most people have not seen #4 I
3:25
think that's going to be the one.
3:27
I mean, that's the one where whenever I mention it to in
3:30
passing, they're like, Oh yeah, there was a fourth one.
3:34
I thought it was a trilogy. It it definitely it will 4th one
3:38
we get to in the 90s, but it definitely has the the upgraded
3:43
visuals. Although let's finish out the
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story screenwriter for this one with Shane Black story by Shane
3:51
Black producer Richard Dunner and Joel Silver.
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I don't know anything else about the rest of these people except
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I. Yeah, I I know a little bit
4:01
about Shane Black, but give us the last, the last two and then
4:04
I'll. Important digits.
4:07
They managed to secure 15,000,000 for their budget.
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I that's where it's like, well, 15,000,000 is nothing to sneeze
4:15
at. I feel like that's less than
4:16
some of the chuckies, right? I mean 15,000,000 in late 80s is
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pretty standard for most. It's it's not like a
4:25
blockbuster, lots of explosions type of movie, but it is a
4:31
respectable budget with star power.
4:35
Nor is March the expected season to bring you back $120 million,
4:41
about 8 times as much. Although we have a movie in
4:47
theaters right now that is probably going to do that much.
4:51
Yeah. Oh, I guess it is March.
4:54
Yep, Project Hail Mary is out and it is doing big numbers.
4:59
Those are the digits. Tell us about the peeps.
5:02
OK, so the name that that I'm at least more familiar with than
5:08
everybody else is Shane Black. He is a writer, director,
5:14
although he is also done acting. But I can't tell you who he is.
5:19
Like, if I've ever watched anything with Shane Black, I
5:23
couldn't be like, Oh yeah, that's him.
5:25
I'm more familiar with him as a writer and director.
5:28
The biggest thing that he did that I probably most people have
5:34
seen was Iron Man 3 where he wrote.
5:37
I well, I don't know if he wrote, but he definitely
5:39
directed and he may have been part of the story, but where I
5:44
first became aware of his name was one of my long time favorite
5:50
movies and kind of the return of Robert Downey Junior.
5:54
The thing that many people argue gave him many of his return
6:00
opportunities. Like everything that led to Iron
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Man kind of starts with Shane Black writing and directing Kiss
6:08
Kiss Bang Bang. And the thing about all of his
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movies is they all take place in Christmas.
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Doesn't matter when they're releasing, doesn't matter what
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the subject is. It's always Christmas time.
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That's it. That's just.
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Yep, that's his thing. That's so funny.
6:28
That's why Iron Man 3 is a Christmas movie.
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That's why Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a Christmas movie.
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I'm, I'm blanking on his other movies and I'm sure there's
6:38
exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, he's, that's his
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signature. That's what he wants people to
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to be like. Oh yeah.
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And it took place in Christmas. It must be a Shane Black movie.
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Well, 1987, let's see 97 O 77040 years ago.
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Really wild, isn't it? I mean, I was alive when this
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franchise came out. I was like 2 1/2 years old.
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Well, I think it just stands to to put some of like, you know,
7:17
looking at James Bond before the 80s felt like, oh, you know,
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those are old times. Like, well, 87 wasn't quite so
7:26
old times. I do think A plus that I don't
7:31
have like a spot in the movie to necessarily give it a plus, but
7:36
the haze of the chuckies where like everything kind of feels so
7:42
like a generic location that nothing else exists in relation
7:48
to it. Like the abandoned house, sure,
7:52
that's a place somewhere, but it's isolated and not in a
7:57
neighborhood or suburbs. Like I, I mean, I guess it is in
8:01
a neighborhood of sorts, but it is so low standing and all the
8:05
haze and stuff that happens and the space that they kind of try
8:10
and take up in movies, it doesn't really show up in this.
8:16
Like there's stuff happening in all the corners.
8:19
I don't know if they like films at locations necessarily to get
8:22
that, but like the police office has cubicles and it's got
8:27
decorations for Christmas like but not like a bunch.
8:30
It's a place. And people are working there
8:34
like you've got a populated area that's not just an empty set.
8:40
It's yeah, I agree. It feels different, yeah.
8:44
After we did kind of kind of a more intimate franchise, it is.
8:50
It does feel a little crowded. There's people everywhere, yeah.
8:55
So that's a plus to my rating that I didn't have one place in
9:00
particular to say stood out. I think this movie encapsulates
9:08
my vision of the 80s because like, I've always had kind of a
9:14
a sour taste with the 80s. I'm realizing that that most of
9:19
that was just kind of a bad attitude about the look and
9:23
style that I didn't really like. But the older I get, the more I
9:26
realize that there is good stuff that came out of the 80s.
9:30
There's good music, there's good movies, but I, I, I can't help
9:35
it. I see Mel Gibson's mullet and
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I'm just like, Yep, we are in the 80s baby.
9:43
Lots of hair. Oh, yeah, and it is of that time
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and of that style. But at the same time, there are
9:53
there were even times in the Bond franchise where even those
9:58
older movies didn't really feel realistic because everybody's so
10:04
dressed up and everything is so high class.
10:08
Whereas this, these are people that are probably in their
10:11
regular street clothes, like especially the extras.
10:15
That's just how people dressed. They didn't have fancy costumes
10:18
or anything, only the actors did and even them, most of their
10:23
costumes were very dirty or worn, especially Mel Gibson,
10:30
Riggs character. And so, you know, I think for
10:34
me, like there are times when you get it like a genuine time
10:39
capsule of a time period and this movie is kind of that.
10:44
I feel like the style, the way people spoke, the technology, I
10:50
think most of it is indicative of what people would have been
10:53
familiar with in the 80s. You don't really have a lot of
10:57
high tech, really expensive stuff that nobody was ever going
11:01
to be touching at that time, and you don't have these fancy
11:05
costumes that are exaggerated and would never have been what
11:09
people wore out in public. The bad guys are all in suits
11:13
and a turtleneck. That might be that might be a
11:16
bit much, but I'd enjoy that they corporate feel is the bad
11:19
guys. Exactly.
11:20
You got to have the yuppies there, and they got to be the
11:23
bad guys. Yeah, well, take me away.
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Let's go on this journey. We don't have to do, like,
11:32
everything, but at least tell me what?
11:33
What? What starts this thing off?
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I mean, if we look at it in the lens of this actually isn't
11:43
buddy comedy, it's partner detective work.
11:48
Like the introduction of the characters tries to give a
11:54
familiar sense of, OK, this is where they live and not say too
12:02
much about them. Like, hey, it's Murtagh's
12:03
birthday. His family sings happy birthday
12:06
to him in the tub. It's a little weird, yeah.
12:11
It's, it's very odd and very it's OK because it feels like
12:21
that's that nobody in that family is saying this is really
12:25
weird guys, Why, why are we doing?
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This it's just a normal thing for that family.
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So you know, must didn't do it and Yep, but I don't know if
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it's it all kind of gets jumbled together, but it's not a a down
12:42
point for me. There might be a bit of
12:44
nostalgia goggles in all of this, but both Murtaugh and
12:50
Riggs introduction feel like a nice 3 minutes of man.
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One guy has a family in a house, one guy lives in trailer and a
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figure going into this movie, you know they're going to be
13:08
partners, but you you get to see them apart and see how it will
13:14
eventually clash. Like I I enjoy it and it's
13:19
quiet. The half of this movie is
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gunshots and body blows and punches.
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So it's quiet where we get to meet them and everything feels
13:32
alive. The when they every whenever
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they tour Murtaz's house getting breakfast, like there's a little
13:39
notch out of the walls for like home improvements and nobody
13:46
points to it because why would you say, oh, you know, we're
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putting in the breakfast nook. It's like, no, yeah, you go
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about your breakfast and you have a day, so.
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You're in the middle of the project.
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You're not. The only time you're talking
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about the project is when you're actively working on the project.
14:02
Otherwise you just ignore it. That's.
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Not right. You'll get done.
14:06
Yeah. I think I love that.
14:09
About the first, what, 10 minutes of the movie is that?
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Or 20? Maybe because they eventually
14:15
meet. Yeah.
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I I got to tell you, I don't know where it happens in the
14:21
opening, but these, the suicide that eventually gets ruled as a
14:28
murder. OK.
14:30
Yeah. At the beginning was so like
14:33
noir. You had.
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Oh, yeah, You had the wind blowing.
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You had the sexy lady. You had the saxophones.
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And then she starts climbing up on the balcony and my hands get
14:45
all sweaty. And then she jumps like it's the
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most obvious suicide of all suicides.
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This whole movie is very focused on suicide.
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There are three people, one of them who does it and two more
15:01
who are struggling with it. One of them, you know, he's only
15:04
in one scene. The other one is Rigs.
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But still, this whole movie is very focused on suicide.
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And that first one, like, I'm not going to lie, I'm sitting
15:17
here thinking, I don't remember anything about this movie.
15:21
How is how is this lady jumping off of this building going to
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kick off a detective story? Yeah, I think I would probably
15:30
agree because I skipped it entirely because the meat of
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this is the two dudes like she's she's the 'cause she's the plot
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reason, but the bad guys are just moving drugs.
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But that's a a consequential, your coincidental piece of Riggs
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and Murtaugh not dying, Yeah. Well, and Speaking of
15:54
coincidence, it's also a very small world because the jumper
16:00
is the daughter of Murtaugh's war buddy.
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And so the war buddy apparently called in the morning, said, I
16:11
need you to call me back. And then when Murtagh's like,
16:14
your daughter's dead, he's like, ah, that's sad.
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Well, I was just going to call and talk about nothing, really.
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Don't worry about it. I'm nonchalant.
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And so I'm like, this is turning into quite the mystery.
16:27
But he gets killed like halfway through the movie.
16:30
So like everybody who has information ends up dying.
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And that is part of a good detective story.
16:37
But, yeah, I was struck by, like, what a coincidence that,
16:43
like, you show up to this investigation and you're like,
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oh, I know this girl. Like, I got to go talk to her
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dad. Oh, her dad's a part of it, too.
16:54
Yeah, I think the detective arc is is well paced.
17:03
They do figure out stuff by the halfway point and then it's just
17:09
acting on doing their jobs, you know, trying to foil it.
17:14
Although I do think it's, it becomes bit of those like well
17:18
you probably would talk about it with your chief etcetera and
17:23
figure out what to do instead of you know just taking on
17:27
$1,000,000 drug ring. Nobody, nobody has anything to
17:35
say to them. Like the only, I think the only
17:38
time we deal with the chief is when we're introduced to Rig or
17:44
Riggs and we have the the clash where Murtaz sees someone with a
17:50
gun in a police station and freaks out about it.
17:56
I, I, I'm never like that's, that's my thumbs down
18:00
introduction scene. When they finally meet and he
18:02
tackles him over the gun. I'm like Boo, but I I don't
18:07
remember if we ever see the chief again.
18:10
Like I can't. Yeah, I don't think, I don't, I
18:13
don't recall because they kind of just go off with chasing
18:16
leads and. Yeah, and it's just the two of
18:18
them for the rest of the movie. See, and I've I feel like I've
18:23
heard of another detective story based in like Hollywood 19
18:27
somethings, but I've never watched it.
18:31
But I've now kind of like I kind of want to watch LA
18:34
Confidential. Is that?
18:36
I think like that. I think so.
18:37
I've never seen it either. I thought you were talking last
18:40
action hero. I've seen that plenty of times.
18:45
And that one's got a detective, and it's got a chief who yells
18:49
at the detective. And well, well, maybe I'll try
18:53
that one next because it's, it's seems like it's detective story.
18:58
And this one, I think the detection works out nice as a
19:04
vehicle for them to doubt each other, trust each other, doubt
19:08
each other again and finally overcome the odds.
19:14
Because it's, it's really kind of, I don't mind the hashing out
19:19
what, what we think is happening between the two of them because
19:24
they have to talk over like, oh, what do you think actually
19:27
happened as they shoot at the shooting range?
19:29
Yeah. It's a lot of very masculine
19:31
coded 80s stuff. But I got to be honest with you,
19:35
I maybe maybe This is why I'm never going to go into therapy,
19:40
but I give like as a profession, I give it a thumbs up to have
19:45
Murtagh essentially get right up in Rig's face and be like, hey
19:50
man, are you going to kill yourself?
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Like I need to know I can't be your partner if you're going to
19:57
shoot yourself night like and they have some confrontation
20:01
about it. And I I like that I don't.
20:06
Maybe I shouldn't, maybe I'm wrong, but I do kind of like the
20:10
tough love direct route. If it worked like the movies,
20:16
you know, yeah, I don't. I think it's a it's a concern
20:24
coded thing in this in this sort of situation.
20:29
Yeah, well, yeah, because let's talk about the famous scene
20:34
where someone else got some tough love and.
20:38
And I don't think it's done correctly at all.
20:43
You're going to have to. Describe I'm talking.
20:46
I'm talking about the jumper. The jumper.
20:50
Jumps with him. Yeah, I it's a, it feels maybe
20:57
of these scenes in a detective story.
21:00
It only is there to set up the confrontation because yeah, why
21:07
would you have a airbag there and not mention it before you
21:12
get up there? At least I didn't hear it
21:14
mentioned. And then it's like.
21:15
Well, my bigger beef is how did how did the jumper not see the
21:21
airbag getting inflated? Like between its size and the
21:26
noise, surely they would have noticed it like the guy would
21:32
have been like, OK, well, I guess I guess this is over.
21:35
If I go jumping, I'm landing here.
21:38
So I guess I got to go back but. For dramatic effect.
21:42
And. But I'm also like, well, then
21:47
Riggs was safe. He wasn't going to fall to his
21:51
death. Why are you mad at him now?
21:53
Yeah, so it a bit of a setup, but I never really asked that
22:00
question whenever I first watched it.
22:03
It's like, oh, they landed safely.
22:05
Oh, man, he is out of control. You're a loose cannon.
22:10
Yeah, I, I remember the very first time I watched it, I
22:15
remember being like, what, what is he doing?
22:19
Like, because they go slow motion and you're getting the
22:22
suicidal cop to join a jumper as they go leaping off the edge.
22:28
And I was just like, we've still got a lot of movie to go, and
22:32
there's a whole franchise, like, what is going on?
22:35
And then of course, they land. But I do wonder what it would
22:38
have been like to be an audience member in the 80s, to be like,
22:43
wow, this movie has some balls. Oh, they're fine.
22:47
Oh, they're fine. Yeah.
22:50
Yeah. I think that may be one of the
22:52
scenes that feels lower stakes after you realize the airbags
22:58
there. It does a decent job if you
23:02
watch it for the first time, but the.
23:06
The longer I stay with it, the less I like it.
23:09
And I'm, I'm just going to tell you now, this is the scene that
23:13
kind of most negatively effects my score.
23:17
Like there's, there's a lot of this movie that doesn't
23:21
necessarily make me think thumbs down for the most part, but
23:26
there are times when this movie's a little on the slower
23:29
side. It's a little bit boring.
23:35
I'm sorry, Especially at the beginning it when we're chasing
23:38
down leads. There's, there's parts where it
23:41
kind of bores me. And then having our suicidal cop
23:45
decide to handle a suicidal civilian by both of them jumping
23:51
off of a building. The more I think about it the
23:53
more I'm like Nah I think. I think even in the 80s he would
23:57
have been suspended. I don't think he'd still be on
24:01
the case. So I mean, if the, if there was
24:06
any sort of reporting and if the chief actually you know, could
24:10
check on everyone maybe. Yeah, because there are cameras
24:13
there. There was definitely reporting,
24:15
but you're right, the Chiefs nowhere around like.
24:18
I did feel like maybe it's a one spot is how much their cop radio
24:25
was going off and chatter was all over the place.
24:28
Like they took on the one that sounded as they're hit in their
24:33
car for the jumper. But besides that, it sounds like
24:36
all the other cops were busy with other stuff happening in
24:40
LA. Like, you know, fair, there's a
24:43
million people there. So I think that probably it's
24:47
how it goes down. Plus they've got donut shops.
24:51
But I'm I'm sorry, I'm not that sorry, but I am.
24:55
A little sorry. So yeah, I think it's like an
25:01
hour before we really get too much into the action.
25:05
But that's the the figure in and out part.
25:09
And I don't know if that's a classic trope of detective
25:14
stories, but they kind of gel and do their their buddy cop
25:21
thing without letting loose too many one liners.
25:25
It's it's mostly it feels like instead of comedic relief, it's
25:31
like Riggs at one point leaves the house after having some
25:39
dinner and it's like Murtagh's checking in on him, but you
25:43
know, you're all right, all right.
25:44
And Riggs is like, you know, I'm really good at shooting guns
25:48
essentially is what it says. It's like, say, masculine pose
25:54
of I might not be all right, but I'm really good at shooting
25:59
guns. It's like, well, OK, like this
26:04
is the movie we signed up for. Yes.
26:07
So yeah. Yeah.
26:11
Not so much comedy, but a lot of partner.
26:16
Yeah, I'd say Quips. Maybe.
26:19
Yeah, friendship in in as as manly, yet actually a little bit
26:29
heartfelt. Yeah, like, yeah, man, this is
26:33
this is a pretty good friendship by the end of this movie.
26:36
That's my big thumbs up is I totally believe this friendship.
26:39
Oh yeah. Yes, I think they it it.
26:45
What was it like? I called the Casino Royale James
26:48
Bond, basically just the trope of enemies to lovers with the
26:56
the Bond girl and him. But there's a lot of action in
27:00
it. But we're going to actually sell
27:02
men a romance story that's not bad with provided there's deaths
27:07
and guns and and stuff. So here's a great friendship,
27:12
provided there's a drug ring and heroin and fuckers and stuff.
27:16
Yeah, there's got to be some action, otherwise these guys
27:20
would not be friends. Well, let's talk baddies.
27:26
We got to talk the villains. I think he's iconic as a
27:30
villain. I don't know if he was a villain
27:31
and anything else but Gary Busey, Yeah, the second, second
27:35
in command, but. I mean, the final villain,
27:39
technically, Like he's the one who makes it all the way to the
27:41
end, but I like, I'm trying to think of my favorites.
27:46
Obviously, we've got Gary Busey as Mr. Joshua.
27:51
He burns his arm at one point to to really show how in community
27:56
is, Yeah, loyal. I don't remember who the boss
28:02
is. I can't remember his name.
28:04
Something I don't know McAllister candister there is
28:12
there's references to like Hunsaker being a Vietnam War
28:17
buddy of Murtaz and Riggs I think was in Vietnam.
28:23
I don't quite know their lore. I yeah, I can't remember if he
28:28
said he was in Vietnam or something else, but he was a
28:31
sniper in the war, in a war. McAllister was this commander of
28:38
Hunsaker's company and is continuing to launder money
28:44
through Hunsaker while bringing in and selling heroin in LA.
28:50
So yes, mostly a drug OPS I was going to.
28:53
Say I don't know anything about importing drugs.
28:57
So when they were explaining it, it all kind of went over my
29:00
head. Maybe I'm a little more innocent
29:04
than I think I am, but you explaining it also went over my
29:07
head. I was like why do they need to
29:09
do it in? Like why do they need to get
29:12
Hunsaker involved at all? Like I don't I don't understand
29:15
any of this. But got a bank?
29:18
Yeah. I guess like yeah, all of that
29:21
was a little weird to me, but but the villains were good.
29:24
I think. Besides Gary Busey, my other
29:28
favorite is the I don't know if he's supposed to be Red Chinese
29:34
or North Korean, but the torturer Indo played by Al
29:39
Leong. Yeah, he's not very big in this
29:43
movie. Like he's only in for one scene,
29:46
but it's so iconic that like I'm pretty sure he got cast as a
29:50
torturer in other things. He was a a henchman in other
29:55
things. Like he he had a pretty
30:00
important role and a pretty iconic visual in this movie.
30:07
I don't know he's in much other things.
30:10
Apparently he was in Napoleon Dynamite.
30:14
Really. I'm trying to think of when.
30:17
Yeah, I guess. I guess I have a reason to watch
30:22
that movie again, as I don't know if I've said it before, but
30:26
every time I watch that movie I like it more.
30:29
Like I'm, I'm down to go back to Napoleon Dynamite, I think, to
30:33
try to. Find I agree that for his brief
30:38
time in the film, he probably is the most recognizable villain of
30:42
Lethal Weapon. You may not know Lethal Weapon,
30:44
but you'd know that he is. He's there.
30:49
Yep, You've probably seen his his particular scene.
30:54
He is, I mean, of this movie, I think he's the most iconic part
31:01
of it. Like this.
31:03
This movie has a lot of good stuff that sets things up, but I
31:08
think we're going to get to the most famous imagery in the next
31:14
two sequels. I.
31:17
I I think that for the most part, the only two things
31:21
visually that I think other people reference besides well,
31:25
the only other thing besides the torture is the first time they
31:32
enter the mansion and some guy starts shooting at them and then
31:37
they shoot them into the pool with the covering and they have
31:41
to jump in and try to get them out.
31:44
You've we've had many movies since then do some form of the
31:50
pool covering is going to kill you type of deal.
31:54
Yeah, oh man, I have it playing in the background at 2 times
31:59
speed and again, I think it may hold up a lot of my score.
32:05
They're talking to Hunsaker before he gets assassinated and
32:10
there's people in black out on his mansion grass and he's in
32:15
there with a bunch of like eggnog things.
32:17
And I had to, this is a funeral. I was like, wait, what are they
32:21
doing here? Oh yeah, His daughter just died
32:23
like 2 days ago. They're having a funeral and
32:26
nobody says a word about it, but it lives in the background.
32:31
I yeah, absolutely love it. And they all panic when the
32:35
helicopter comes in and starts firing, like it is very lived
32:40
in. This is a world that feels like
32:43
it exists and people would be here.
32:48
Yeah. It is interesting how much
32:51
storytelling is just done in the background of this particular
32:55
movie, with maybe the emptiest scene being that anything that
33:00
happens in a household. So whether it's Riggs, Murtagh
33:03
or that mansion or the apartment where the girl jumps, anytime
33:10
you're at a house, that's where things start to really get
33:13
intimate. But if it's any form of public
33:15
location, the public is there. So I, I think that is the main
33:25
scene that starts you swimming through the rest of the action
33:29
for the next hour. Because immediately they go to
33:36
like Gary Busey reports that oh, there's cops.
33:39
And then 5 seconds later Gary Busey's shooting rigs on the
33:44
street through a window. It's like, oh, we nothing else
33:50
is important. He said go kill him.
33:52
He's going to go kill him next thing we're doing.
33:55
Oh. Man.
33:57
Race around. You just reminded me and OK, I'm
34:01
sorry if I'm stealing your Thunder, but they they created
34:05
deception. They're like Riggs is dead.
34:09
And the, the big my 10 out of 10 scene is when Gary Busey calls
34:15
the police station posing as a as a reporter.
34:19
And he's like, we heard there was an officer involved
34:21
shooting, and just one of the detectives is like, yeah,
34:27
Detective Riggs is dead. And I was just like, they're in
34:31
on it already. Like, so many cop movies.
34:35
Like, you got someone who makes a critical error, but in this
34:38
one, probably OK. The most unrealistic thing about
34:44
this movie is that the LAPD is competent and this scene proves
34:48
it. Yeah.
34:53
Like they are famously the worst Police Department in the United
34:58
States all the time. They have been for my entire
35:03
lifetime. There has never been a time
35:04
where people have said the trust the LAPD, they'll get the job
35:08
done. No, they are the bottom of
35:11
America's policing force and they have been for my entire
35:15
life. And I don't know why it excites
35:19
me whenever I get to see the LAPD being competent.
35:23
Like, like, could you imagine a world like that?
35:26
Like that's why. Yeah, I well, it feels like a
35:32
bunch of dominoes just starting to fall because they have to
35:38
start acting on the information because they know that heroin is
35:42
being trafficked and now they got to put a stop to it.
35:45
So it's Showtime for an hour. They kidnapped the daughter.
35:52
They kidnapped Murtagh's daughter.
35:55
That's I think it it, it explains a lot of the family
36:00
scenes without the family scenes having felt too, too much.
36:04
Like give me 5 minutes of the family.
36:07
Yeah, they interacted pretty well.
36:10
I have no complaints about the actors portraying a family
36:14
together. It worked pretty well.
36:17
Yeah, I I liked this family. Murtagh's family was a solid
36:26
family unit. All of these actors totally
36:29
bought it. What I can't remember is if we
36:33
ever saw the girlfriend's boyfriend.
36:36
Because on purpose. I know.
36:40
Well, that's the thing. He is killed off off screen, but
36:44
when they talk about the kidnapping, they mention that
36:47
they find that kids car and that he's dead and they're like wait,
36:52
wasn't he supposed to go on a date with your daughter?
36:55
And that's how they find out the daughter's been kidnapped.
36:57
And now I'm just sitting here like, did this fictional
37:01
character never even get a face on screen?
37:04
Like so he was always just talked about off screen.
37:10
I think so. Like because I always see now I
37:18
would have to look at what they say about it.
37:21
Because for some reason I thought that Gary Busey's face
37:28
was the one that had nimples and he had been playing the long
37:32
game of getting Murtagh's kid. And I was like, well, that
37:39
doesn't really make any sense. They didn't know Murtagh at all
37:42
before he finally showed up. So because he dies off screen, I
37:48
thought it was a fake out, like, oh, it was actually Mr. Joshua
37:54
this whole time. That would have been like. 13
38:00
yeah that would have been such a twist your teenage daughter is
38:07
dating a 30 year old like special forces guy ex special
38:12
forces. Yeah.
38:15
But it's the 80s, like maybe yeah, that takes them to to the
38:22
desert. Yeah.
38:26
I bet. And where Riggs, Riggs is, Ruse
38:31
is swiftly revealed. Like, I think it's maybe two
38:37
shots in and they're like, the only person who can make that
38:39
shot is Riggs. He's still alive.
38:43
Yeah, I he has at least three kills, but he does reveal
38:49
himself to try and save the guy's Murtaz daughter.
38:55
And I think it was a interesting capture of the good guys.
39:00
Like they tried their best against a heroin ring and
39:07
they're going to pay for it. Yeah.
39:10
And that's, you know, one of the features of a noir movie is
39:16
having the good guys lose. And it is, it does make you feel
39:22
sympathetic for the heroes, and it makes you realize these are
39:25
human beings and human beings fail.
39:28
And maybe these guys are going to fail.
39:31
Maybe this was their last failure and they're going to
39:34
die. Almost basically.
39:37
Yep. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the movie I
39:40
mentioned earlier is another noir movie.
39:44
It's kind of a buddy detective, except that the the two leading
39:49
detectives are private eyes. They're not cops, so they don't
39:54
have the Police Department behind them.
40:00
But they also similar to this one, they have a moment where
40:04
you're like, Oh no, they lost like they didn't make it.
40:09
And I don't know if that's just. Shane Black having an
40:13
understanding of the genre or if that's just what he wanted to do
40:17
because I'm pretty sure Iron Man 3 Iron Man loses towards the
40:23
end. Is that a noir film?
40:28
Yeah, well, now I'm sitting here like, maybe that's a Christmas
40:31
noir, or maybe it's just that Shane Black likes to make his
40:35
heroes lose right before they can win.
40:38
I I think it's fair if it's like you don't have, I feel like for
40:44
all of the bluster that they built up rigs Zimmerta with of
40:48
like, oh, he can shoot really well.
40:50
It's like, well, you're still just two dudes against yeah,
40:55
Army. So like, I would expect you to
40:58
lose, but I thought you had a fighting chance.
41:01
You had a plan, just more than some good guys have, like the
41:07
Illuminati. If I might drop a name or two.
41:12
It takes us into our finale, which is kind of a sweeping
41:20
finale because we begin calmly with both characters getting
41:28
tortured in different areas. So, like, no one, yeah, like
41:32
nobody's shooting each other, but you know it.
41:35
This is the lowest point of the intensity.
41:39
Is everyone getting tortured. Murtaugh is beside himself.
41:44
He is not taking the torture very well.
41:48
Whereas Riggs who is physically getting electrocuted, it seems
41:53
to be doing just fine. I feel like Mythbusters did a
41:58
debunking of that car battery because you can't even
42:01
electrocute somebody with that like to in that setup it would
42:07
not break the how would they call it, like the resistance of
42:11
your skin because yes, it has enough to start a car, but it
42:17
does not have enough to shock you like that.
42:20
Well, don't try it at home under our advice, but I'm, I'm curious
42:27
in looking it up, so maybe I'll end up trying to find that just
42:32
to at least watch that section because yeah, it is such an
42:38
iconic image. I had never even considered the
42:41
realism of it. And yeah, that's where it's
42:44
like, it does seem really like if you have not watched Lethal
42:50
Weapon, you may still know that bit of torture.
42:53
Yeah, yeah, he's standing under a shower and someone with a car
42:59
battery connected to two sponges just keeps jabbing him over and
43:03
over. Meanwhile, Gary Busey is just
43:07
standing by until he finally leaves.
43:13
Yeah, and that is what kicks everything off.
43:16
All we got to do is get rid of Gary Busey and then Riggs is
43:20
ready to go. Ham.
43:21
Go action *. Let's see, it's like more than
43:26
no, it's like an hour and 49 minutes and I think the guns and
43:30
after the torture and stuff start about 1:30.
43:33
So you got a good 20 minutes of guns blazing, really like.
43:38
Yeah. The end is maybe 2 minutes of
43:43
resolution, but they both happened at the at the house.
43:50
One, he's beating the guy up, and the other, he's coming in
43:53
for Christmas dinner. OK.
43:58
So I'm going to agree with you in that I at least kind of find
44:03
the shootout to be relatively boring.
44:08
In the cars and stuff. Yeah, bad guys die and blah blah
44:13
blah. I I know we kill the main bad
44:15
guy at some point during the shootout because the last one
44:20
standing is Mr. Joshua and I don't know why he goes back to
44:26
the Murtagh house. Maybe he thinks he's going to
44:29
kill the rest of the Murtaghs. Revenge.
44:32
I don't know. Yeah, something, but it it leads
44:35
to a fight in the yard. Someone hit a fire, I forget
44:42
what. That's called fire.
44:44
He came by, Joshua came by, shot the cops in the car, their car
44:48
free rolled into it and so then that guy threw it.
44:51
Up OK, so that's where the water comes from.
44:54
And then we're going to have a mostly shirtless, very wet mud
45:01
fight between Mel Gibson and Gary Busey.
45:05
And it kind of holds up. It kind of reminds me of They
45:09
Live when the two lead actors are having a a street fight and
45:15
it's very visceral and it's not like an action movie of standing
45:20
up and taking jabs at each other.
45:22
It's it's dirty and it's people tackling into the ground and
45:28
get, you know, positions changing left and right.
45:31
And in that regard, I think it's the best scene in the finale.
45:37
I'm like, this is fantastic as far as a fight goes.
45:41
There's maybe a touch too much of the noir lighting coming in
45:47
because a lot of the rain from the the fire hydrant is like
45:51
obscuring it, but in a decent way.
45:54
Like I still know that it's two dudes just going all out to try
45:59
and kill each other. And obviously the crowd around
46:03
them is just cheering for for Riggs.
46:06
There's no one cheering for Mr. Joshua, which at some point
46:10
shouldn't let him know that he is not going to win.
46:14
Like even if he beats Riggs and kills Riggs, he's still getting
46:19
arrested. Fighting for the pride of it,
46:22
man. Exactly.
46:25
Yeah, Nothing. None of it makes sense or works.
46:29
And yet I love it. I love that.
46:31
Maybe just a little bit long, but I think it was mostly fine.
46:37
9 out of 10, mostly fine, yeah. For that fight, olive green 9
46:42
out of 10, mostly fine, a little ridiculous.
46:46
It just don't. Just don't think about it.
46:48
Turn off your brain. I think a lot of it turn off
46:51
your brain helps it. I think it's that little bit of
46:58
familiarity where I've never watched Chucky and gave it
47:02
decent scores. I've watched 75% of this film
47:07
multiple times but even now just watching this time like oh after
47:13
going through Chucky and trying to get what other movie
47:17
franchise felt sparse. There's so many people around
47:21
and yet it's still not. It's not unbelievably
47:29
overpopulated. Like I feel like other movies
47:34
would put 3 or 4 cop cars at the Murtaz house.
47:40
This one just had two dudes and one car.
47:43
And I'm like, that's fair. And they don't they, they, I
47:47
don't think they have names given to them.
47:49
They die. And it's just understood that
47:54
these were additional population of LA.
47:57
When he's doing the run on foot, there's a million cars.
48:01
And then like I, I think I'd be interested in the behind the
48:06
scenes actually of this one because I want to know how much
48:10
shooting they did on site. Like the houses are probably, I
48:17
mean, I don't know, it's like a real house on a real street, but
48:21
could be on a set. Yeah, I don't know, Like I'm not
48:26
familiar enough with LA to know what what's real and what's just
48:33
a set, what's in a studio lot somewhere.
48:36
A lot of the stuff in the city I think has to be real.
48:40
But I, again, I don't know. I've never been.
48:43
I've heard that there are times, at least in modern filmmaking,
48:47
where they will film in a completely different city
48:51
because it feels more like the city that they're emulating.
48:55
And so who knows, maybe there's a Hollywood look alike somewhere
49:01
out there, but I don't. In the 80s it had to be filmed
49:05
in LA. Oh, I think, yeah, I I want to
49:12
watch behind the scenes. Well, I'll do that at some
49:15
point. Oh, well, Riggs wins, and that's
49:23
just the fight. He also wins the friend lottery
49:27
and comes in for Christmas dinner or something.
49:31
Yeah, I do think I rolled my eyes a little bit at them both.
49:35
Just, you know, I actually like that.
49:38
I thought it was funny. It's a detail that makes the
49:41
world. Seem less white picket fence
49:44
more like since he says that about the meatloaf.
49:49
And. In the very next breath, his
49:51
wife's like, you're an asshole and you're being an asshole.
49:54
And I'm like, OK, fair. If if she can say that to him
49:58
and he can say that to her, I feel like there's a little bit
50:01
of love there. OK, yeah, they they've got to
50:03
love each other at that point. That's just the way it's got to
50:05
because otherwise someone's getting kicked out of the house.
50:11
Yeah, I I got to say my biggest thumbs down.
50:15
The thing that kind of haunts me.
50:17
I don't know if this is the very end of the movie, but at one
50:20
point, like there's there's been this question over the whole
50:25
movie of like, is Riggs really suicidal or is this all an act?
50:31
At one point he's like, it's real.
50:34
I've got the bullet that I'm going to do it with.
50:36
Like we even see him put the gun in his mouth and then do like,
50:40
yeah, he seems real. And then at the end of the movie
50:44
he's like, no, I'm not going to do it.
50:45
I'm I've, I've never, I was never going to do it.
50:48
I'm good. And I don't know if this is him
50:50
trying to be like, I'm fixed now or if this is the movie saying
50:55
like, he never was going to do it.
50:58
It was always just an act. He had no follow through.
51:03
I don't know. It just kind of cheapens the
51:06
rest of the character to have it just kind of hand waved away to
51:10
be like and guess what, never been suicidal.
51:15
Never never was going to do it like what I feel like.
51:20
That maybe some what do you call it, bravado, just straight
51:27
denial of he is portrayed as being pretty close the the
51:35
Murtaugh stops the hammer from hitting the gun.
51:38
He takes the gun out of his mouth.
51:40
He he does gift away the hollow point bullet to merchant at the
51:47
end and it's like it feels like I I feel like it's still giving
51:56
the character some depth of I'm in denial and I'll I'll deny it
52:02
till I die that I didn't actually want to do this but
52:06
like but also here's the bullet to stop me from.
52:09
Doing it like so maybe you're right.
52:11
Maybe. It is a bit of the.
52:13
Like yes, I was going to, but now I'm not and here's my proof.
52:20
Here's my totem. You can hold on to it forever.
52:26
Well, we're we're here at the end.
52:30
There's not much to talk about except our scores.
52:32
So let me just tell the audience that on this podcast we do
52:36
ratings, not grades. The primary difference is where
52:38
you find the average in a grade, the average is a 7 out of 10.
52:43
But in movies, we say the average is a 5 out of 10 because
52:48
we're not grading these things. Nobody's going to be held back a
52:52
year because their movie got a 5 out of 10.
52:55
No, the average is the middle. It's where it lands.
52:59
So if you hear that we called a movie A5 out of 10, we're not
53:02
saying it's a bad movie. We're saying it's right in the
53:05
middle. So with that said, Justin, what
53:08
do you think of 1980 7's Lethal Weapon?
53:12
I didn't really land on a score until.
53:15
We were talking because I did want to find.
53:20
Justification. For why I really rate it so
53:26
high, it's and I think I found them because the world feels so
53:35
much bigger than these two guys and they just happened to get
53:42
this case for taking down a heroin ring.
53:45
And like, I still feel like there's other stuff that could
53:51
be happening for the LA Police Department.
53:53
So let's see these guys be heroes.
53:59
And 55 is our average. 6 is above average.
54:06
I think my original familiarity with it gives it one more extra
54:12
point. And I think it's justified by
54:15
the population of the movie. I've given it a 7 out of 10.
54:21
I think 774 extras good. For the the feel that they.
54:28
Give like the kid extras we didn't really talk about.
54:31
They're good. They have a whole little scene.
54:33
There was a whole little scene with those little kids, and they
54:36
are. So funny.
54:37
Yeah, I forgot all about them. That's the comedy.
54:41
And it works. And I yeah, I think like I was
54:48
trying to compare it to extras that exist yet don't matter.
54:54
The funeral at the guy's home, the where else were the people?
55:02
The I think the first suicide location, there's a million
55:09
people. Watching those cops people and
55:12
they're talking about happy birthday to.
55:13
Murtagh and stuff exists comparing that to a good movie.
55:23
Or I don't know, maybe we'll get to ranking.
55:25
It's not a franchise, but like the extras in Tenet, they're
55:31
around the protagonist and the Robert Pattinson character in
55:36
the cafe where their first meeting, but I don't care about
55:40
them. They they're just kind of there.
55:44
And the extras, even the extras that are like time travelers,
55:47
like the rest of them, don't really carry too much for me.
55:53
Where like, oh, this guy is getting assassinated, but
55:58
there's people in his house and there's this.
56:02
There's so much set dressing that makes it feel so much more
56:07
relatable than something like tenant.
56:10
Like, I could be a cafe in any European city.
56:13
I don't know. I don't care.
56:15
But yeah, Seven, I think that's fair.
56:18
I think that's a very fair score and I'll be honest, when I had
56:23
watched it, I had said that I was at A7 and then I just kept
56:29
thinking about really Riggs and his whole mental health crisis,
56:35
and that's kind of what brings me down to a six.
56:41
I just don't know if the movie has aged so well with Riggs's
56:49
emotional distress. I don't think they ever tell us.
56:53
Explicitly. But he is suicidal because his
56:56
wife is dead. We get to see him holding a
56:58
picture of her. We know that she's dead.
57:01
We don't know how she died. We don't know what happened or
57:04
why he feels so hell bent on killing himself.
57:08
But it's, it's made to at least it's God.
57:16
I got to organize my thoughts before I try to say this it it
57:21
makes me think that they had it in their head that they wanted
57:25
to really confront the idea of a suicidal cop and showing their
57:33
ability to come out of it through the support of a good
57:37
friend. And what they gave us was one of
57:41
the best male friendships in all of cinema, The best in
57:46
television and probably the best of all time is in Scrubs.
57:51
But I would say #2 is a lethal weapon.
57:54
Like I'm, I'm, I think. Those two.
57:57
Are the two best male friendships in media?
58:01
And I really think that this movie excels in showing that.
58:09
Otherwise, it's kind of a little bit boring, especially at the
58:13
beginning, and it's a little bit hard to follow.
58:18
Like you get to see who the bad guys are.
58:21
So there's not really a mystery to solve.
58:24
Like, you know who did it because we're introduced to
58:27
them. We get to see them on camera.
58:29
But so like, it's not much of A crime movie for the detective
58:35
side. It's more of a crime movie in
58:37
the action side. I I'm I'm solid on the six.
58:41
I think the best thing about this is the friendship between
58:45
Riggs and Murtaugh. It is definitely a watchable
58:49
movie and I'm glad we watched it.
58:52
But even having 20 years distance from the last time I've
58:57
watched this franchise, I do know what's on the horizon.
59:02
And it's hard to be like, wow, this movie was great when I know
59:06
how great this franchise can be. And it's also just thinking in
59:11
terms of other movies that we watched.
59:13
I was bored at the beginning. That's that's a killer.
59:16
Like, if I'm tempted to grab my phone, that's usually something
59:20
that's hurting a movie's rating, and I was pretty tempted for the
59:25
beginning of this one. Understandable.
59:28
Well. That gives us a show.
59:30
Average of 6.5 out of 10. Nice and easy.
59:35
That's the thing about having two hosts, you know, we have a
59:38
lot of crazy ratings, but, you know, I think it's room for
59:44
growth and it's still starting us above average.
59:48
Like this is a good place to start with a franchise in my
59:51
opinion. It's a pretty short franchise,
59:54
but. I'm looking forward to watching
59:57
the rest and I probably will end up disappointed because I did
1:00:00
not have them on repeat on VHS. I do think I got to watch 4 when
1:00:07
it came out. It's like 98 so I got to watch
1:00:12
it on like TBS or something. Something on TV still.
1:00:19
But yeah, that sums up Lethal Weapon one for us.
1:00:23
Thank you, listener, for listening to our first episode
1:00:28
of Lethal Weapon franchise, otherwise known as Lethal
1:00:31
Weapon. Because I don't know if they had
1:00:33
plans for a sequel, why would you name it one?
1:00:36
That would be interesting. Does anyone start with a one?
1:00:40
I would be interested. Dart.
1:00:42
No, but would be so funny. Transformers 1, right?
1:00:47
I mean it, it was many years after all of the other ones, but
1:00:51
it is a Transformers 1. It'd be funny.
1:00:54
So confident. It'd have to be like a.
1:00:56
Satire movie or something Anyway thank you for listening.
1:01:00
I was going to say watching Please like, comment or interact
1:01:04
wherever you find us. Share it to those around you
1:01:07
that may have also grown up with people weapon on VHS off of the
1:01:12
TV recording because I'm curious when VHS recorders came out
1:01:17
because that I feel like everybody recorded the fuck TV.
1:01:22
It was so fun. Go ahead and write comments
1:01:27
right? Nostalgia to our Gmail account.
1:01:29
We'd love to read them. If it's not on our social
1:01:32
platforms, it's potato chippicturespod@gmail.com.
1:01:37
Other than that, we tend to sign off.
1:01:43
And before I sign off, I'd like to note that 1987, his birthday,
1:01:48
I don't know if it's on the cake or whatever.
1:01:50
If anybody says it, he's turning 50 years old.
1:01:54
This is considered old compared to his younger partner who's 37
1:02:00
apparently. Well, I mean I would.
1:02:05
Give. I would give many lives to go
1:02:10
back to just 3737, but in in the.
1:02:18
Theme of the franchise. We're too old for this shit.
1:02:23
Bye, goodbye. The.