The Lethal Weapon Anthology: A Review of "Lethal Weapon 2"

So we've got the dark, brooding, action, buddy-cop movie in Lethal Weapon that created quite a legendary flick. More so than a lot of flicks that had come out at the time. More memorable duos would come and go, but Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh became one of the first and most lovable duos. Their side characters would even get promoted to being far more memorable characters too, as Murtaugh's family would all be played by the same actors & actresses for all four films. That takes some commitment. But while the Murtaugh family and Martin Riggs were becoming memorable characters in American pop-culture, a sequel would develop and release in 1989 that would introduce another two memorable characters, the likes of witch where interesting new spins on pre-used ideas; Joe Pesci as an eye-witness under Federal protection, Leo Getz (Whatever you need, Leo Getz... get it?) and Joss Ackland as the villainous South African apartheid supporter, Arjen Rudd. Lethal Weapon 2 was another stone-cold action classic upon release, and let's dive in and take a look at how this sequel easily contended, arguable even topped the first film.

Lady, please. This movie is rated-R. Cover yourself up.

Two years after the events of the first film, LAPD sergeants Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) are pursuing unidentified suspects transporting an illegal shipment of gold krugerrands. What are krugerrands besides something really hard for us dumbass Americans to say? A South African coin first minted in 1967. The Afrikaner apartheid government of South Africa subsequently orders Los Angeles consul-general Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) and security agent Pieter Vorstedt (Derrick O'Connor) to warn both detectives off the investigation; they are reassigned to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), after an attack on Murtaugh's home.

It soon becomes clear that both cases are related: After an attempt on Leo's life in which Riggs has to dive out of a window to save him, Riggs and Murtaugh learn of the former's murky past laundering money for vengeful drug smugglers. Leo leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his unscrupulous "associates." Diplomatic immunity, as put in the film, simply means that the officers "could not even give" Ackland's character Rudd "a parking ticket". Which, I mean, you wonder why more ambassadors from foreign lands with angry citizens visit other countries more often. The way this guy is going around, toting his Afrikaner ID and saying he's immune means he could probably kick some old lady off of a bridge or something and get away with it. I love diplomatic immunity.

Usually I laugh when I'm sitting on top of
high explosives, too.

Though instructed to leave the case alone, Riggs begins to openly harass the South African consulate, defying Rudd and romancing his secretary, Rika van den Haas (Patsy Kensit), a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder all of the officers investigating them while Murtaugh deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling ring in the United States to Cape Town via Los Angeles Harbor. Two assassins attack Murtaugh at his home, but he kills them in the ensuing fight, though Leo is abducted in the process. This sequence of events also holds one of my all-time favorite moments in the entire Lethal Weapon franchise as well as one of the most well-known action movie moments ever; when Roger Murtaugh's toilet is rigged to blow... resulting in the infamous "toilet bomb". It's a pretty tense scene with bomb squad officials and LAPD guys filling the Murtaugh's house and lawn while Riggs pulls Roger into a cast-iron tub to narrowly avoid a toilet explosion. Wild stuff.

Mel Gibson trying desperately to shove that hair
underneath a common household ball cap.

After killing many of the investigating LAPD officers that Riggs and Murtaugh work with, Vorstedt seizes Riggs at van den Haas' apartment and discloses that he was responsible for the death of Martin's wife years earlier during a botched assassination attempt on Riggs. He succeeds in drowning Rika, but a vengeful Riggs manages to escape, dislocating his shoulder to escape his harness and swim back to the surface before drowning himself. That's another thing I forgot to mention; Lethal Weapon 2 starts the trend of Riggs dislocating his shoulder and popping it back into place in order to get himself out of sticky situations. He phones Murtaugh, declaring an intention to pursue Rudd and avenge his wife, Rika, and their fallen friends; the other policeman willingly forsakes his badge to aid his partner. After rescuing Leo and destroying Rudd's house, they head for the Alba Varden, Rudds' freighter docked in the Port of Los Angeles, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with hundreds of millions in drug money.

While investigating a guarded 40 foot cargo container at the docks, Riggs and Murtaugh are locked inside by Rudd's men. They break out of the box, scattering two pallets of Rudd's drug money into the harbor in the process. Riggs and Murtaugh engage in a firefight with some of Rudd's men aboard the Alba Varden before separating to hunt down Rudd. Riggs confronts and fights Vorstedt hand-to-hand, culminating when Riggs stabs Vorstedt with his own knife and crushes him by dropping a cargo container on him. The fight's pretty brutal, with Vorstedt using spin-kicks and superior technique to overwhelm Riggs and then knifing him and dragging him around the boat. Rudd retaliates by shooting Riggs in the back multiple times with an antique Broomhandle Mauser pistol. As Murtaugh takes aim to kill Rudd, he claims "Diplomatic immunity!" in the movie's pivotal moment, and in the commonly spoofed and tributed response, Murtaugh kills Rudd with a single shot from his revolver, spouting that "it's just been revoked". He then tends to Riggs, sharing a laugh with him as more LAPD personnel respond to the scene to clean up.

I know you all say it with him when you get to this part:
"DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITYYYYY"

Lethal Weapon 2, as I said, is a movie that arguably tops the first movie in the series. It's got memorable action moments, great dialogue, very moving chemistry between characters, and that Lethal Weapon wit starts to seep through with the inclusion of Joe Pesci as Leo Getz. There's a memorable and hilarious scene where Leo goes on one of his many "They fuck you" tangents. He has one in each film from here on out, and this one is in regards to drive-thrus and why you should never use them. Joss Ackland is a terrific bad guy, and it really says something about how great of an actor he was because he also played a very memorable and warming good guy in The Mighty Ducks, as Hans the hockey shop owner and Gordon's mentor. Being one of the last great action movies of the 1980s, released in the summer of 1989, it was paving the way for changing tastes, but what we get next... once again, is arguably even better. I love Lethal Weapon 2, just as much as I love Lethal Weapon. Both solid, A+ films in my opinion. Check in later on for when we talk about the introduction of more great characters and chemistry next time...