Film

Lethal Weapon 4

Name: Lethal Weapon 4
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Released: 1998
Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock

The fourth instalment of the buddy-cop franchise finds Riggs and Murtaugh ageing into their roles as protective, world-weary detectives. It's louder and sillier than its predecessors, leaning hard into comedy while maintaining explosive set-pieces. For those who love the chemistry between Gibson and Glover, and aren't precious about narrative coherence.

TMDb rating

3.3

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Another ageing action hero fighting impossible odds in a single location. Same era, same willingness to be both ridiculous and thrilling, with Bruce Willis doing what Gibson does: making quips while bleeding.

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Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have the kind of effortless banter Riggs and Murtaugh perfected. Michael Bay's excess matches the franchise's energy, and the action is genuinely inventive and fun.

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Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker hit the same comedic-action sweet spot, with Chan's physical comedy offsetting Tucker's mouth. It's unpretentious and genuinely entertaining, with action that surprises you.

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The DNA of the buddy-cop film: Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte's real chemistry and genuine antagonism. It's taut, witty, and the action feels consequential because the characters actually matter to each other.

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Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as cops with fractured brotherhood, riding an actual train through elaborate action sequences. It's silly but genuinely inventive, and the chemistry between leads keeps it afloat.

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Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley defined the wisecracking cop movie. It's lean, funny, and moves like something's chasing it. The action serves the character, not the other way around.

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Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell playing cops who actually dislike each other—at first. The action is baroque, the one-liners are terrible in the best way, and both leads commit fully to the silliness.

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Shane Black wrote Lethal Weapon; this is him remaking his own template with regret and tenderness where the original had adrenaline.

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as a private eye and enforcer forced to work together in 1970s LA. Shane Black again: the formula is identical to Lethal Weapon—two men who shouldn't like each other, solving crimes through accident and luck—but with period texture, melancholy underneath, and real warmth.

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Both are crime films where the partnership or alliance between morally compromised characters becomes the whole engine; both find humour in specificity and character detail rather than spectacle; both are about survival through talking and thinking, not just shooting.

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