Review of Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) by Jordan K — 20 Jul 2016

Lethal Weapon 3 is the precise part of the franchise where it realizes it is a successful franchise. A part of the problem with this installment is its typical sequel tropes - catchphrases, returning characters, recreated sequences from the previous films - it's a tiring reminder that this is the third out of what the producers hope to be many Lethal Weapons.

Riggs and Martaugh return for a third installment alongside their new partner, Lt. Cole, as they stop a former cop who has turned to running an armory with thousands of cop killer guns to sell to LA gangs.

Lethal Weapon 3 is the franchise in itself. The first two are great films and are some of the best action films ever - even the second one proved it was almost as good as the first, holding many of the same elements. Elements in the third is where it goes wrong. Like I said, the film really knows it is alongside Die Hard or Rambo in being successful 1980s action films, and making a sequel to a sequel is inevitable. Some elements that grow very tiring that go side by side with the franchise atmosphere is the return of Joe Pesci. Pesci was brilliant in the first but his character is useless here. He's simply there to draw in crowds - his name is even fit onto the poster just to remind you of the 15 minutes total he is in. His role is not that of an annoying comedic aspect this time - he is there for the presence of Pesci alone, his jokes not working this time, his character lazily put in the last minute. But it does make sense in a filmmaking point of view - Pesci was a huge name between the second and third films, with both Goodfellas and Home Alone in his filmography since. The film also has an annoying habit of tracing back to the previous films. They recreate the bathtub birthday scene from the first film's opening minutes just to remind you "remember that?" Or Pesci's speech about drive thrus in the sequel - he brings it back up, this time about hospitals, like an annoying one trick pony joke. We've heard this stuff before. Lethal Weapon 3 loses the grittiness and badassery of the first two films but it's hard to deny how much Glover and Gibson still work so well together and how their characters never shift towards something incredibly stupid to keep up with fads or something - like Pesci's character. Anyways, Lethal Weapon 3 is forgettable and somewhat regrettable. It loses its substance from the first two.