I have always loved the Lethal Weapon series right from the very first one that I saw way back in 1987 as a kid down to part 4 that introduced Jet Li to Hollywood in 1998. For this weekend I decided to catch up on all 4 parts again with my wife and also introduce her to the world of Lethal Weapon. All it required was to mention the series stars Mel Gibson and she was sold on the idea of watching all 4 parts over the weekend. Wish I looked like Gibson! Yeah right quit daydreaming says a voice in my head!
Lethal Weapon 1: Lethal Weapon 1, though its 21 years old, still holds up very well and looks good even after so many years. It has not lost its charm and does in fact hold its own as an action movie. Mel Gibson looks so good and even performs very well as the suicidal cop who is mourning the death of his wife of 11 years in a car accident. Danny "I am too old for this" Glover plays a cop who has turned 50 and also Gibson’s reluctant partner since everyone suspects Gibson to be suicidal and psychotic and no one wants to be around him when he goes off. Glover, however, has no choice in this matter and ends up partnering Gibson albeit reluctantly.
Coming to the story, at the beginning of the movie a young woman high on drugs jumps off a balcony to her death and how this ties in to her father an ex-veteran from Vietnam and his ex-buddies from Vietnam who are all into smuggling heroin into the US and how Gibson and Glover go about busting this operation forms the crux of the story. The action is really explosive and fast paced, Gibson running on the freeway with a gun in his hand and chasing bad guy Gary Busey is a sight to behold. There are lots of bad guys who get shot and killed, lots of explosions, lots of car chases and generally pretty much everything else you come to expect from an action movie. Lethal Weapon just did it way before anyone else and a lot better too, and even this many years later still looks good and is worth watching. The last hands-on fight between Gibson and Busey will still get to you after so many years and it’s so unlike Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme and more like a street brawl. Lethal Weapon 1 is pure entertainment to the core and my wife was sold on it and couldn’t wait for the remaining parts of the series.
Lethal Weapon 1 over we were forced to take a break before going ahead with Lethal Weapon 2 since there was load shedding and we had to go without power for a good hour and a half, yes we still have load shedding in India even in 2008!
Lethal Weapon 2: Power back on and my wife and I were ready to go ahead with 1989′s Lethal Weapon 2. Lethal Weapon 2 is more of Lethal Weapon 1, but does introduce us to more characters especially Joe Pesci as Leo Getz, a money launderer turned police informant who is assigned to Gibson and Glover to baby-sit and protect under the Federal Witness Protection Program. As the story goes, South African diplomats are engaged in drug smuggling and money laundering and using their diplomatic status and diplomatic immunity to go about this business nonchalantly since they cannot be prosecuted under international law, in fact as Joss Ackland playing Arjen ‘Aryan’ Rudd, Minister of Diplomatic Affairs for the South African consulate puts it across to Gibson and Glover "you cannot even give me a parking ticket". How Gibson and Glover go about shutting down this drug smuggling and money laundering business forms the main crux of the movie. Apart from this there is more character development for other characters from part 1, like Traci Wolfe playing Glover’s daughter, Darlene Love playing Glover’s wife, and others. The beautiful Patsy Kensit plays Joss Ackland’s secretary predictably after whom Gibson goes and as a consequence Ms. Kensit gets bumped off. Oh and it also turns out the guy who kills Ms. Kensit, Derrick O’Connor also killed Gibson’s wife of 11 years and that in fact it was not a car accident that killed Gibson’s wife. Predictably again Gibson gets to take revenge for the loss of both women in his life by the same guy.
Memorable line from Lethal Weapon 2, right at the climax Joss Ackland after shooting down Gibson says "diplomatic immunity" to Glover, to which Glover shoots down Joss Ackland and says "it’s been revoked". To sum it all up, in a nutshell Lethal Weapon 2 is just more of Lethal Weapon 1 and that is not a bad thing by any standard. Pure entertainment to the core again!
Movie over and my wife is in the mood for fried ice-cream and a chicken basket made out of noodles. The only eatery in town that serves this kind of food is Chung Hua located at Minister Road and with another branch located at Basheer Bagh and since Minister Road is much closer to home off went my wife, my mom and myself to good old Chung Hua. The menu consisted of soups Wanton, Thai and Hot & Sour (all chicken), starters Fish Majestic, main course Chicken Noodles Basket, dessert Fried Ice Creams and Fruit Salad with Ice Cream washed down with the Indian version of Coca-Cola known as Thums Up which is a pretty decent cola and also incidentally is now owned by Coca Cola. Food is pretty good at Chung Hua and can be recommended to anyone with eyes closed, but if its 5 star ambience that you are looking for then look elsewhere.
Back home after dinner and wife wants to catch up on things at home like cleaning and sorting out things. This leaves me home and dry to check out Grindhouse, Planet Terror, but that’s another blog altogether. Take care and have fun and lots of it too.
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