Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Richard Donner

Writers:

Shane Black (characters)
Jeffrey Boam (story)

Release Date:

15 May 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

The magic is back again!

Plot:

Martin Riggs finally meets his match in the form of Lorna Cole, a beautiful but tough policewoman. Together with Roger Murtaugh...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Internal Affairs | Police Officer | Gun | Policeman

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 20	12:30 PM	BRAVO
Tue. July 21	10:00 AM	BRAVO

Cast

Mel Gibson	...	Martin Riggs
Danny Glover	...	Roger Murtaugh
Joe Pesci	...	Leo Getz
Rene Russo	...	Lorna Cole
Stuart Wilson	...	Jack Travis
Steve Kahan	...	Captain Ed Murphy
Darlene Love	...	Trish Murtaugh
Traci Wolfe	...	Rianne Murtaugh
Damon Hines	...	Nick Murtaugh
Ebonie Smith	...	Carrie Murtaugh
Gregory Millar	...	Tyrone
Nick Chinlund	...	Hatchett
Jason Rainwater	...	Young Cop (as Jason Meshover-Iorg)
Alan Scarfe	...	Herman Walters
Delores Hall	...	Delores

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

118 min | USA:121 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #31813) | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | South Korea:15 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:18A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Ireland:15 | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 (director's cut) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Century Freeway, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Silver Pictures

Trivia:

Body count: 17

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The security guard at the hockey rink is replaced by a dummy as he is roughed up.

Quotes:

Leo Getz: Hey, guys, guys! You think I could get a gun this time?
Roger Murtaugh, Martin Riggs: NO!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Three Stooges Theme

A shameful offering from a shameless director

Awful, just awful. Re-watching this, I think part 4 is even slightly better than this heap of time-waste. This rivals Robocop 3 and Mad Max Thunderdome as the worst of the second sequels. I really liked the 1987 original, and the 1989 sequel was passable, but this installment pushes the goof-ball borderline-Three Stooges humor to the forefront, and offers an insipid and politically heavy-handed Donner anti-gun rant masquerading as a plot as the backdrop. I don't want to get too off topic here, but let me just say I find it beyond hypocritical and generally disgusting that a director can accept millions of dollars to make blow 'em up action films his whole life, and at the same time spew strident criticism of America's evil 'gun culture' to his audience in a vein attempt to brush up to certain elites in this country.

Remembering that funny Simpson's episode where the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon added that stoopid Homer pooch to boost it's ratings; so the Lethal Weapon films add first Pesci, then Russo, then Rock/Li in a painfully obvious adherence to sequel cliché. I don't even want to talk about this film it's so uninspired. Just let me say that a bigger budget doesn't mean a more exciting movie, and that turning 3 dimensional characters into 2 dimensional cartoons does not make a movie funnier. Also, an action movie (the Director's Cut I watched) DOES NOT NEED TO BE OVER 2 HOURS when the storyline is so predictable and moves at such a formulaic pace.

I recommend every action fan own the original Lethal Weapon and most fans own Lethal Weapon 2 on whatever format. But leave it at that. Pretend to yourself (like I do) that the LW franchise is a 2 film series along with Beverly Hills Cop, Robocop, and Mad Max.