Posted: 02/10/2011

Lethal Weapon 2 Review

by Robert Baum

Review: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Indiana Jones isn’t the only hero returning to action this summer, Mel Gibson is hoping to give Harrison Ford some competition. Lethal Weapon 2 reteams Gibson, co-star Danny Glover, director Richard Donner, and ace action mogul—with the exception of Roadhouse—Joel Silver. While not as dark as the original, the sequel does offer up great action, a despicable villain, and the likelihood of another hit. Remember, the first one was a winter release which took in a sizable amount by the time spring came. Remember too that sequels have a virtual built-in-audience prepared to see it at least once.
Having grown somewhat accustomed to one another, Martin Riggs (Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Glover) are partners again. This time they’re assigned to look after a nebbish named Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) before federal agents take him into custody. No this isn’t a replay of last year’s Midnight Run.
Getz has been laundering money for drug traffiickers and has been withholding more than his customary fee. Realizing it’d only be a matter of time until he was permanently retired or the long arm of the law caught up to him, Leo has decided to testify against his criminal employers. Providing Riggs and Murtaugh keep him alive before the accountant is placed in federal protection.
The drug dealers aren’t your ordinary pushers as Riggs, Murtaugh, and fellow officers discover. They are a cartel from South Africa and possess diplomatic immunity. Joss Ackland portrays the head of the illicit operations and comes across as a chief heavy from a James Bond film. Ackland does call to mind one of 007’s most noted of adversaries: Gert Frobe’s title role of Goldfinger (1964). Well in a few weeks 007 is set to tackle a drug czar as Timothy Dalton embarks on a new adventure in Licence to Kill.
Despite offering much of the same from the first film, the sequel isn’t disappointing. Predictable, yes. Clearly though Silver is looking to give Albert Broccoli’s long-running franchise a run for its money by putting Gibson into theatres for a second time as Broccoli is preparing to do same with Dalton.
Lovely Patsy Kensit (the love interest in Absolute Beginners, Julian Temple’s stylish mod musical fantasy flop from a few years ago) portrays Ackland’s secretary, unaware of her employer’s moonlighting as a narco nabob, with who Martin falls in love; Derrick O’Connor (Bob Hoskins’ fellow repair operative from Terry Gilliam’s Brazil) is a killer nowhere near as menacing as Gary Busey, who did similar duties in the first picture.
Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, who churned out the latest adventure for Steven Spielberg, offers his word processor for Donner just as he did two summers ago for films produced by Spielberg (Innerspace) and Donner (The Lost Boys). Though his duties for the 1987 releases were as a co-writer, this year Boam singly-handedly is responsible for the hit Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the all but guaranteed blockbuster Lethal Weapon 2.

Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.

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