Riggs and the 3 Stooges

LETHAL WEAPON 3 (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(original review from 1992)

I'd be hardpressed to dismiss "Lethal Weapon 3" because, as an essentially pure action movie, it works. Yet, stacked up against the first two, it falls quite short despite delivering exactly what it promises.

The movie, though, doesn't begin very promisingly. A huge building implodes, thanks to occasionally unreliable cops, Murtaugh and Riggs (played by Danny Glover and Mel Gibson). Rather than wait for the bomb squad to arrive, Riggs gets the bright idea of cutting the wires to the bomb, the wrong wires of course. Thanks to their conduct, they are relegated to traffic duty, which of course leads into an armored car chase (the movie hasn't really even started). Then we eventually get to the plot - a brutal ex-cop (Stuart Wilson) is selling illegal firearms to street gangs and also maintains an interest in real estate! Newest character to the series is the Internal Affairs officer, Lorna Cole (Rene Russo) who keeps cameras in interrogation rooms, unbeknownst to the police. A crime has occurred in one of those rooms and this ex-cop is the culprit. So it is up to the reckless Riggs, the retiring Murtaugh and this karate-chopping IA officer to bring down the cop and his henchmen, as well as some members from "Boyz and the Hood." There is also an annoying distraction with returnee Joe Pesci as Leo Getz, the mob informant from Part 2. I love Pesci but there is only so much I can take from a peroxide motormouth who is also interested in real estate!

To top it all off, there are chases galore with thundering sound effects and punches delivered to the noggin and the nuts that sound like clashing refrigerators (I saw this movie with a THX-sound-system back in 1992 that had a bass that would rock your seats). Bullets pierce flesh like there's no tomorrow. Riggs falls from three stories with only a dislocated shoulder (an injury he had in Part 2). People are hit by cars and trucks, including some of the villains, and the worst injury they get is a bruise. This is more of a cartoon comedy than the other films ever came close to being.

We get countless scenes of Gibson mugging, hollering and spitting at the camera with absolute relish. Gibson also has his share of one-liners, and Glover merely looks dumbfounded (best moment is when he fires his gun accidentally in a locker room). Rene Russo is simply too unbelievable as an Internal Affairs officer. Yet the frenetic pacing matches the frenetic acting. And for "Jaws" fans, there is a scene where Riggs and Lorna compare battle scars. Cute, but more appropriate to "Jaws" than this movie.

For sheer entertainment, "Lethal Weapon 3" fits the bill. But with an anonymous villain, a perfunctory plot and far too many action sequences, the film rings hollow and lacks the spirit of camaraderie that the other entries had. This movie tries to do too much with too little. It is clear that Gibson and Glover have chemistry and work as a cop team yet, unlike Murtaugh's final decision regarding retirement, "Lethal Weapon 3" was not the last word on this franchise.