Lethal Weapon (1987)

After having seen the whole franchise many years ago a return to the beginning of it all made me surprised how dark this flick is. At times it's utterly pitch black.

First things first. Villains! Though Gary Busey earned his only nomination for an Academy Award as Buddy Holly, I sincerely feel that Mr. Joshua is the best he has offered us in his career. A meticulous character of great villainy with just the right dose of absolute psychopath makes for a fantastic adversary to our friends.

As far as the buddy-cop-genre goes, there is nothing more important than the chemistry of the two leads. In this movie, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover deliver in full. Gibson as the emotionally unstable gung-ho semi-suicidal rogue and Glover as the methodical family-man with a whole different set of problems to tend to.

The earlier mentioned dark side of this action-flick is established pretty early on. With an absolutely heartbreaking scene of Gibson shoving a gun in his mouth during a Bugs Bunny Christmas Special with a picture of his deceased wife on his lap. He ultimately buckles under and throws the gun away, sobbing. There are more subtle clues too, though. Watch for Gibsons reactions as he on several occasions early in the film escapes from extremely dangerous situations before the botched suicide. Some gloomy and rather unpleasant torture-scenes of our heroes make for another surprisingly dark twist.

In addition to Gibson's lunacy giving the movie a lot of its dark edges it also works great on the comedy front. "You're not trying to draw a psycho-pension. You really are crazy. "

It's hardly politically correct, ridiculing psychology as a science (and in most other ways), making (funny) gay jokes and providing elements of HR no boss today would be caught saying. Personally, I find it funny. Even more funny is Gibson's relentless teasing of Glover. Pure comical gold. There are no romantic side-stories here, no unfunny comic relief, just a great cast, a good story and some very apt directing.

With an absolutely epic stand-off between Gibson and Busey, this is a gem of an action/suspense-movie and one of the best of its genre.

8/10