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34
10,000 B.C.
37
Air I Breathe, The
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47
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Bonneville
42
Bucket List, The
70
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59
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36
Eye, The
46
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41
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65
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57
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68
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67
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xx
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35
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58
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41
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9
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48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
50
Other Boleyn Girl, The
90
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44
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46
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36
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47
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63
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62
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12
Strange Wilderness
59
Under the Same Moon
32
Untraceable
55
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46
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
60
What Would Jesus Buy?
51
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
17
Witless Protection
43
Youth Without Youth
90
Persepolis
78
Control
70
Caramel
68
Honeydripper
67
In Bruges
66
Darfur Now
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
65
Grace Is Gone
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Chronicle of an Escape
63
Signal, The
62
Spiderwick Chronicles, The
60
What Would Jesus Buy?
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Definitely, Maybe
58
Lost in Beijing
57
Flawless
57
Hammer, The
55
Walker, The
54
Charlie Bartlett
52
Be Kind Rewind
51
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
50
Other Boleyn Girl, The
49
Cassandra's Dream
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Boarding Gate
47
Semi-Pro
46
Finishing the Game
46
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
46
Bonneville
46
Rambo
44
Rails & Ties
44
Chaos Theory
43
Youth Without Youth
42
Bucket List, The
41
Mad Money
41
Funny Games
38
Flash Point
37
Air I Breathe, The
36
Eye, The
36
Remember the Daze
35
Jumper
35
Flakes
34
10,000 B.C.
32
Untraceable
30
Cover
29
Fool's Gold
17
Witless Protection
12
Strange Wilderness
9
Meet the Spartans
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Lethal Weapon
Warner Bros.
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence, nudity and profanity
Starring
Mel Gibson,
Danny Glover,
Gary Busey,
Mitch Ryan,
Tom Atkins,
Darlene Love,
Lycia Naff,
and
Jackie Swanson
Reckless cop Riggs and family man Murtaugh are partners whose work routine is never routine. (Warner Bros.)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Comedy
|
Crime
|
Drama
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Shane Black
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Richard Donner
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 25, 1997
Theatrical: March 6, 1987
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
110 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
In a movie with the energy of this one, we're exhilarated by the sheer freedom of movement; the violence becomes surrealistic and less important than the movie's underlying energy level.
90
Washington Post
Richard Harrington
After watching Gibson and Glover grow accustomed to each other, develop trust and confidence in each other and charge bullheadedly into dangerous situations, you can't help but hope there's a "Lethal Weapon II." It would be one of the few times a sequel would make sense and dollars.
90
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
Lethal Weapon opens with a shot of Mel Gibson in his birthday suit and just gets better. Likewise we meet costar Danny Glover in the bathtub, fêted by his family on his 50th birthday. This endearing double exposure introduces us to the vulnerabilities of these superduper heroes, an odd couple of cops who mature into friends as they quell crime.
88
TV Guide
Staff (Not Credited)
Gibson is truly frightening as the cop about to go into orbit, and Glover is a standout as the down-to-earth lawman with very much to lose.
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Lethal Weapon sinks an unexpectedly sharp hook at a delightfully unique angle, and never once lets up. A purposefully off- kilter flick, it fakes one way and moves another, thwarting our conditioned responses and fuelling our happy surprise. [6 Mar 1987, p.D1]
80
Empire
Gavin Bainbridge
The pace never slows, the jokes never miss and the stunts never disappoint in this macho-dream of an actioner.
80
The New York Times
Janet Maslin
The film is all fast action, noisy stunts and huge, often unflattering close-ups, but it packs an undeniable wallop.
70
Variety
Staff (Not Credited)
Lethal Weapon is a film teetering on the brink of absurdity when it gets serious, but thanks to its unrelenting energy and insistent drive, it never quite falls.
70
Time
Richard Schickel
What a concept! Mad Max meets The Cosby Show. What a surprise! It works better than a fastidious mind might imagine. One reason is that Mel Gibson himself has been recruited to play Lethal Weapon's lethal weapon, Los Angeles Police Detective Martin Riggs. [23 March 1987, p.86]
63
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
The skies are thick with whizzing bullets and strings being pulled by Shane Black's crude script and Richard Donner's cement-mixer direction. Predictably, the chicks-and-ammo stuff is punctuated by TV cop show repartee. [6 Mar 1987, p.36]
60
Wall Street Journal
Julie Salamon
Lethal Weapon is vulgar, violent and predictable. Yet, in some outbreak of id, I got caught up in the shenanigans of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as a mismatched cop team. Mr. Glover is more than solid and Mr. Gibson has added a kind of raw humor to his repertoire that is extremely sexy. [5 Mar 1987, p.1]
50
Los Angeles Times
Michael Wilmington
At bottom, Lethal Weapon isn't much. It's a big, shallow, flashy, buddy-buddy cop thriller; it attacks you like a stereophonic steamroller, flattening everything behind it. Snatches of "Hustle" "Magnum Force" and "48 HRS." float above this plot like scum on a polluted lake, and the holes in logic and mindless climax are (or should be) embarrassing. [6 Mar 1987, p.4]
30
Chicago Reader
Pat Graham
Unfortunately, director Richard Donner doesn't pay much attention to text, subtext, or anything else; his 1986 film is empty glitz in search of a style, with arbitrary action substituting for ordinary narrative coherence.
12
Chicago Tribune
Johanna Steinmetz
The melodramatic clumsiness of the script, and, in one scene, its gratuitous endorsement of marijuana, betrays the youth of its writer, recent UCLA graduate Shane Black. And veteran director Richard Donner, whose credits include another cartoon movie, can't seem to thread the scenes together in any meaningful way. [6 Mar 1987, p.G]
 The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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