By Sabrina Cognata

A lot of people might argue that LETHAL WEAPON is not actually a Christmas movie, but we know what I think about these people and if you’re wasting time reading this and you’re one of these people, well stop reading, duh.  This is the story of two detectives: one that is insane and the other that complains about being old a lot, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) respectively.  This is a movie written by Shane Black.  Here’s two facts about Shane Black:  he basically invented and mastered the buddy cop genre and one time I ended up at his house in the wee hours of the night and partied until either I was asked to leave or I blacked out—too bad I cannot remember how things ended.  Oh well, that’s the life of Los Angeles party monster. 

Back to LETHAL WEAPON, it’s December and Christmas is creeping up on Murtaugh and Riggs.  Also creeping up on them is the mysterious death of Murtaugh’s friend’s slut daughter.  In the beginning of the movie she’s found naked after plummeting from a balcony to her death onto a parked car below.  As Murtaugh begins to investigate her death he ends up being partnered with Riggs who has the reputation for being a psychopath.  Murtaugh decides Riggs trying to get a psycho pension, but it turns out that Riggs is actually super insane and suicidal.  He’s been having a hell of a time living since his wife died a few years earlier. 

Riggs’s suicidal tendencies come in handy while fighting crime as he could care less about living and always puts himself right in the middle of things in order to do his job.  Every time this happens Murtaugh ends the scene saying, “I’M GETTING TO OLD FOR THIS SH*T.”  I swear to you it’s more charming than it sounds.  While trying to get to the bottom of that girls untimely death the two end up discovering a heroin smuggling ring and at this point you know where things are going THE GOOD GUYS GO AFTER THE BAD GUYS, DUH.


The bad guys are basically your run of the mill bad guy typecasts except for the fact that super insane bad guy that goes head-to-head with Riggs is Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey).  His boss is Peter McAllister (Mitchell Ryan) and when Riggs and Murtaugh get too close to figuring things out McAllister has his gang of thugs, lead by Mr. Joshua kidnap Murtaugh’s super cute daughter, Rainne.  Here’s where things go sort of haywire.  McAllister captures Riggs and Murtaugh when they go after him to rescue Rainne.  He has Riggs hanging like a piece of meat in a freezer dripping wet and being electrocuted.  This is probably why Mel Gibson is a mega celebrity because he looks amazing.  Anyways, Riggs is double jointed and frees himself from bondage.  He finds Murtaugh and his daughter and frees them also. 

McAllister and Mr. Joshua chase the trio back to Murtaugh’s house, but before they can do any damage to the Murtaugh family, McAllister ends up blowing himself up along with his heroin.  At this point Mr. Joshua decides to make killing Riggs his personal problem and the two have a barehanded boxing/martial arts fight in Murtaugh’s front yard that happens to be decorated for Christmas and is on fire because of the stupid exploding car.  After Riggs beats Mr. Joshua, he and Murtaugh end up shooting Mr. Joshua to death.  Merry Christmas kids. 


Later, Riggs is accepted as an unofficial member of Murtaugh’s family and is asked to spend Christmas with them.  As his gift to Murtaugh, Riggs hands him the hollow tipped bullet he’s been planning to use to kill himself with.  Thanks to Murtaugh and his super hot daughter Riggs decides he no longer desires to kill himself.  Finally, this man has a purpose.