Lethal Weapon 2 ★★★★

MANY claim the first sequel to Lethal Weapon is better than the original.

Lethal Weapon 2, released three years later in 1987 and again directed by Richard Donner, is better in some ways but not in others.

It has more impressive action sequences, more laughs and just as strong adversaries, but it lacks the dramatic edge and tension created by Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs when we were first introduced to the unhinged, unpredictable and suicidal cop.

That aspect of Riggs’ character is still there, but not as dangerous and even muted during the growing relationship with Patsy Kensit’s love-interest character which never really works to the extent it should.

It’s well-known that Shane Black’s original script called for Riggs to be killed off, but the studio resisted and no doubt they would argue they were proved right with three more successful films in the franchise.

Two years after the events of the first film, Riggs has been well and truly adopted into the family of his partner Murtaugh, again played by Danny Glover, and the sequel retains the great on-screen chemistry between the two leads.

For better or worse, depending on your view, the comedy is very much amped-up with the introduction of Joe Pesci’s character, former mob accountant turned federal witness Leo Getz, whom Riggs and Murtaugh are ordered to guard.

Pesci can play this manic, obnoxious and a little lovable character in his sleep and does such a good job that Getz became part of the ongoing franchise. Many of the scenes with the three of them arguing are obviously riffing off Gibson’s love of the old comedy trio The Three Stooges.

In the sequel they are pitted against a drug and gold trafficking organisation that is protected by the immunity provided to a South African diplomat and his embassy staff.

Amidst the slapstick comedy there are dramatic shifts in tone when police officers start getting assassinated that don’t quite work and unbalance the film overall.

But there are so many thrills and laughs along the way that you are held within the film’s grasp throughout.