Lethal Weapon 4

G

As a movie, Lethal Weapon 4 fails completely; independently as well as in comparison to it’s predecessors. But as a collection of seperate action and comic sequences the film is watchable. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are back as cops promoted to captains out to unfoil a malicious scheme involving… illegal Chinese immigrants?

No, it’s not very exciting. And that’s the film’s big flaw. Lethal Weapon 4 has some very exciting and clever scenes that entertain while they last, but it is missing a sense of urgency, so I never really cared about the plot. Nor is it very effective or heartwarming to see Glover’s character take aq family of illegal immigrants into his home because he takes a liking to them. It seems to be a far cry to make us care about how the movie ends.

Providing one of the few reasons to go see this film is Chris Rock, who joins the cast as Glover’s future son-in-law. He has a few good punchlines under his sleeve, if that’s what you’re looking for, and he adds a little verve to the action. Joe Pesci is still there, bitchin’ about everything and anything that goes on around him, but he proves to be just plain annoying.

As I said — the film has it’s moments. Look for a delightful comic laughing gas scene, and a surprisingly clever sequence on (and off) a tractor trailer. But there is no decent storyline or script to tie all of the scenes together, there is no conclusion to look forward to. It becomes more of a jigsaw puzzle than a movie really — it might as well have been a bunch of disconnected scenes glued together for all that really matters. The only thing worthy about the immigrant smuggling operation is the head villain, played by a charismatic Jet Li (a talented Hong Kong action star making his American debut). Otherwise — wait for video

-- Eugene Novikov