The Man Movie Encyclopedia: Lethal Weapon 3

Greetings, beautiful people.

With talks of Lethal Weapon 5 coming, I realized I never finished the original 4, so, let’s get to it….

Riggs & Murtaugh show up at a spot where apparently a bomb is in the basement of a major building. Murtaugh doesn’t wanna go in, but Riggs naturally does. Which, of course, would be perfectly fine, and the superiors would have zero issue with non-bomb squad guys from Homicide just sauntering in there to fuck around. Which is EXACTLY what they do! I mean, they take zero precaution, and Riggs decides that he can dismantle this, no problem. And Murtaugh is going along with this! They’re literally laying on a massive bomb and Roger apparently has zero issue with his non-bomb trained partner fucking with one that could, and does, level an entire building. Which of course happens because Riggs cuts a wire he shouldn’t, and the timer counts down much, much, much faster. As a result, they get busted down to patrol duty, with Roger having a week until retirement.

Riggs sees a guy jay-walking, and they decide to fuck with him, just to fuck with him. As in literally pulling out a gun and talking about killing him. What world is this taking place in that you could do this for laughs? But I do like how Riggs’ mentality is “Well, I just got in trouble for blowing up a building, so, let’s threaten to shoot a guy in broad daylight”. Once they finish here, they notice a fuss going on at a nearby bank where some dudes are looking to hijack a bread-truck, in disguise as employees of the security company. Riggs gets in the truck in an attempt to apprehend them, while Roger follows behind. Naturally, they end up making the bust.
Back at House Murtaugh, Leo Getz is showing a couple the house, as he’s now a realtor, and they’re selling. Elsewhere, at a neighborhood that’s being developed, we meet a man named Jack, and his business associate, Tyrone. Of the two guys who tried to rob the money truck, only one was caught. The other is here on the construction site, and he works for Jack. However, because of what he did, that might fuck up future operations, so, Jack has him drowned in wet cement. That would just about ruin my day. Jack ends up being right, as inside the gun of the guy they caught, he had high powered, armor piercing bullets in his gun. This draws the attention of not just Riggs & Murtaugh, but also Internal Affairs. This doesn’t sit with Jack, who’s a former Lieutenant, so he manages to get himself into the police station, and smokes the guy while he’s in an interrogation room.

Leo knows who Jack is, because at one point he got the guy season tickets for the local hockey team. Fortunately for them, there’s a game going on, so they head to the arena in hopes that Jack is there. He is, and Leo is the one who spots him and tries to apprehend him, resulting in Leo being shot. It’s only in the arm, and he’s taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, the guys head to a burger stand Roger loves, so Roger can cook up a burger for Riggs. While there, Riggs sees a drug deal going down, which results in a shoot-out, and Roger kills a banger that was shooting at him, that also use to be a kid that his son grew up with. Man, seriously, this entire movie is all about these guys just happening to be in the right place, right time. Or, right place, wrong time. Whatever.
Murtaugh takes it hard and goes into seclusion, meanwhile Riggs hangs with the Internal Affairs officer, Lorna Cole, as they discuss the case. Apparently the weapon used to fire on Roger had been scheduled to be destroyed, but an entire shipment, 15,000 guns, were stolen from a police warehouse. They head to a place that their now murdered suspect had called about a dozen times at one point. Once there, they discover some baddies loading up a shipment of guns and snatch the truck.
Riggs hasn’t seen Roger in a hot minute, and figures he’s hiding out at his boat. So, he heads there and discovers that he was indeed right, as Roger is holed up in a drunken stupor. He gets aggressive with Riggs, and they start having a screaming fight on the boat, and much to my surprise none of the neighbors in the nearby boats say anything

Caliber The 1st Mate: Oh…oh my goodness, I’m sorry, guys. I was being a total asshole and sleeping during what is apparently your guys’ time to practice for the Violently Drunk Screaming Fight Games, where obviously you guys are training for the gold. I mean, it’s a freaking Tuesday, at 2am, why WOULDN’T one be up, blind drunk, screaming at the top of their lungs? Can I get you guys a bull-horn? A PA system, perhaps? You guys wanna come over and spit in my shampoo bottle while you’re at it?

The next day they attend the kid’s funeral, and his mom slaps Murtaugh. Seriously? Oh, MY BAD. Yes, MY BAD. I’m SO SORRY that I didn’t let your son blow my fucking head off! I’m such a freaking jerk! I must be related to that guy who didn’t want people having drunk screaming matches at 2am on the harbor! They decide to go rouge, and get information the old fashion way, by threatening people with violence, and/or using violence to get where they’re going. Meanwhile, Jack Travis kidnaps the police Captain, and heads to the warehouse to get bullets. He manages it, but Riggs, Murtaugh, and Lorna show up and have themselves a good ol’ fashion shoot out. This results in a Lethal Weapon chase that sees Riggs hopping on a police bike, and at one point flying off an underdeveloped bridge.
They end up at the housing development where Jack has been holding down fort, shooting it out with the baddies. At one point Riggs siphons gas out of a truck with a hose, and lets it pour out as he drives through the undeveloped houses, so Roger can light it and start a huge fire trail, burning it all down. Which, yeah, would work, if it was pouring out fuel like the airplane in Die Hard 2.

Nevertheless, everything is burning, while Riggs, Murtaugh, and Lorna run around shooting anything that moves. Riggs ends up in a brawl with Jack Travis, that sees Travis behind the wheel of a bulldozer, and looking to cut Riggs in half. However, Roger tosses him an Uzi loaded with cop killers, and Riggs blasts through the scooper, killing Travis. Man, these bullets could kill Superman.

MAN MOVIE TALLY:
1-Liners: 3
Guys Beat Up: 10
Guys Killed: 17
Swear Words: 83
Boobies: 0
Explosions: 2
Chase: 3
Broken Bones: 1
Fight/Shoot-Out At Motel?: No
Guy Get Girl? Yes
Guy/Girl Smoke?: No

MAN FACTS:
Roger’s family gets in a break in this one, as it’s the only entry where his house isn’t broken into and his family threatened.

At one point Lorna says to Riggs “close is a lingerie shop without a front window”, and Riggs says he doesn’t get it. That line was actually adlibed by Rene Russo, and I don’t get it either.

The film was such a success that Warner Brothers bought multiple members of the cast both in front and behind the camera were bought brand new Range Rovers.

C’MON BENNETT, LET’S PARTY!:
Lethal Weapon 3 is my least favorite of the franchise. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just the weakest of the series. Jack Travis isn’t an interesting character, and neither is his entire plot. Plus the whole deal with Roger and killing the kid was even less interesting. Beyond that, I wasn’t in any rush or need to see Riggs get a girlfriend. All that said, the action, the dialog, the humor, Leo Getz, all top notch as expected from the Lethal Weapon gang. Definitely still a fun movie, even though it’s the weakest of the quadrilogy.
***1/2 Head-Butts out of 5

Any questions, comments, drunk-ramblings, feel free to send them my way, I always dig hearing from you, the beautiful people.
Instagram: @Caliber_Winfield
[email protected]
If you just can’t wait until next week, you can also find me at these fine places:
Only A Ninja Can Review A Ninja: The Man Movie Encyclopedia
The deadly arts contained inside these movies can only be viewed and reviewed by one man, Caliber Winfield. For only a ninja, can review a ninja. I cover all the classics, from Enter The Ninja, American Ninja, to the modern films such as Ninja Assassin and Ninja. I don’t want to say this book has both saved and changed lives, but this book has both saved and changed lives.
The Man Movie Encyclopedia: The Hall of Burly – Vol. 1 – A collection of the first 19 MME articles written for 411. You get all the classics like Commando, Robocop, and Die Hard, not to mention bad-assery such as Point Break and They Live. Beyond that, you also get two new articles. My Top 5 favorite action movies, and what I believe to be the Top 5 most over-the-top scenes in action movie history. I won’t lie, it’s the greatest self=help/martial arts instruction book of all time.
My Summer Vacation At Camp Crystal Lake – My brand new ebook that’s become so popular it’s charting on the album sales charts. I cover the Friday The 13th franchise in Man Movie Encyclopedia fashion, followed up by a few list-based articles, chronicling my favorite kills, moments from the franchise, and a few other subjects. $3 via amazon, or simply email me and get it for $2, either way, it’ll probably change your life.
Caliber Winfield On The Facebook –
Anything new that I do you guys can find here. How are we not at 100 likes? I mean, c’mon.
All Things Caliber –
I merged my wrestling website into my long standing website that’s been up for over 10 years. Anything under the sun, I’ve written about it.