*. Inflation. I mentioned in my notes on Lethal Weapon 2 how fond the producers were of blowing up houses. Here things start off with the demolition of Orlando’s old City Hall building (brought down by a car bomb in the film, apparently) and end with the destruction of an entire suburban development. Or the demolition of the Sorento Hotel, if you stay until the end of the credits.
*. Speaking of that final explosion, is this one of the first post-credit sequences before they became all the rage? I really hate post-credit scenes, so if it is then this movie has a lot to answer for.
*. For the third time round, this isn’t bad. The theme song “It’s Probably Me” (sung by Sting) is catchy. The script might be the best of the series, with a few genuinely funny moments and snappy lines. Material from the earlier movies is woven in seamlessly. The scene where Riggs and Lorna fall into one another’s arms after undressing to reveal their scars is cute and clever. The action sequences are expensive and well produced and even have some fresh twists, including the disruption of a hockey game, an armored car chase, and Riggs hitching a ride on the front of a subway train to pursue the bad guys.
*. Of course none of it makes any sense, but that’s par for the course. If you make it past the first explosion without wondering too much about what Riggs and Murtaugh are doing playing bomb experts, or how they are even allowed to enter the building in the first place, then you can’t really question anything else.
*. It’s a running gag that Riggs is always getting in a foot race with people who are driving vehicles, and winning, isn’t it? Because that’s something else that doesn’t make sense (even given the shortcuts he’s always alerted to).
*. I do wonder why our two heroes never have any police back-up. If they’ve got the drop on the bad guys at the end, why don’t they just radio in for reinforcements instead of trying to take them out by themselves? Do they even consider this?
*. Despite all it has going for it, I can’t say I enjoyed this movie any more than the first two. The villains, which this series never did a good job with, are especially boring. I didn’t realize selling guns on the black market was such a big business in the U.S. Are there guns that are illegal in America? I thought you could buy a rocket launcher at a gun show if you wanted one, but I wouldn’t know. It doesn’t seem like the gang would be making that much money out of such a scam, but the producers probably figured they couldn’t go with having another bunch of drug-runners as the villains.
*. Aside from that, while it’s well done it’s just too familiar, giving a sense of having been over this ground before and now they might be trying too hard. Heaven knows they’re working the formula, but by this point the franchise was starting to seem tired. They probably should have blown it up and let Murtaugh finally retire. But the old orange had some juice in it yet.