Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
By 1998, the Lethal Weapon franchise had become one of the defining pillars of Hollywood blockbuster action, a series that had, over the course of a decade, moved from a surprisingly raw buddy-cop thriller into something closer to a crowd-pleasing institution. The original 1987 film, Lethal Weapon, established a template that blended genuine menace with sharp comic timing, and its 1989 follow-up, Lethal Weapon 2, arguably refined that balance rather than diluting it. By the time Lethal Weapon 4 arrived, the franchise was a decade old and the commercial appetite for another instalment had to be weighed against the creative challenge of finding something new to say. The film centres on LAPD veterans Riggs and Murtaugh, now visibly older and dealing with a fresh wave of domestic upheaval, as they find themselves drawn into a case involving a ruthless Chinese crime lord with a very specific agenda around a family member behind bars. The script, credited to Channing Gibson, Jonathan Lemkin, and Alfred Gough, works from a premise that is serviceable enough, if hardly the kind of material that reinvents the wheel.
Richard Donner, who had directed every entry in the series, returned once again to hold the whole thing together, and his instincts for keeping an action film moving and his evident warmth towards these characters remain visible throughout. Donner, a director whose career ranged from Superman to The Goonies, had always understood that the Lethal Weapon films lived or died on the relationship between their two leads, and that conviction shapes the film's priorities even when the material around it is uneven. Produced through Silver Pictures and the Donner/Shuler-Donner banner for Warner Bros., the film had a production well within the established rhythms of a major studio action sequel, with the resources on screen and the polish to match. It is a polished but unremarkable production in that respect, competently assembled by a team that knew exactly what it was making.
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as Riggs and Murtaugh, and whatever else might be said about the film, their easy, weathered rapport is not something that can simply be manufactured. The supporting ensemble around them is, on paper, genuinely attractive: Joe Pesci reprises his role as the perpetually irritating Leo Getz, Rene Russo continues as Lorna Cole, and Chris Rock arrives as a new addition, bringing an energy that feels both fresh and, occasionally, a little at odds with the series' established tone. Jet Li, making his American film debut, is the film's primary antagonist, a physically electrifying presence who demonstrates in every action sequence exactly why he was considered one of the foremost martial arts performers of his generation. His inclusion gives the film some of its most kinetic moments.
On the craft side, cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, who had shot films as varied as Speed and The Devil's Advocate in the years prior, gives the film a warm, sun-drenched Los Angeles look that fits the franchise's established visual identity. The action sequences are lit with the kind of generous, high-contrast brightness that suits a summer blockbuster, though Bartkowiak also manages to give some of the quieter domestic scenes a slightly softer texture that suits the film's interest in ageing and family. Editors Dallas Puett and Kevin Stitt handle a 127-minute runtime that keeps the pace brisk through its bigger sequences, even if the connective tissue between them occasionally feels looser than it might. The score, co-written by Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton, maintains the series' familiar sonic signatures, with Clapton's guitar work giving the action a blues-tinged warmth that has been a consistent thread across the franchise's sound.
What began as a great buddy-cop franchise ends, I am afraid, with something of a whimper. Lethal Weapon 4 is easily the weakest of the series, the point where a formula that once felt fresh and funny starts to run low on gas.
That is not to say it is a bad film, exactly. It is perfectly competent, and the old chemistry between Riggs and Murtaugh is still there. It just feels tired.
The trouble is how familiar it all is. By the fourth time around, the beats are so well worn, the banter, the reluctant heroics, the ticking-clock set pieces, that it is hard to shake the sense you have seen every bit of it before, and done with more spark.
The film leans, rather sweetly, into Riggs and Murtaugh getting older and creakier, which lends it a bit of warmth, but it cannot disguise that the tank is close to empty.
It does not help that the villain is a distinctly middling one. For all that Jet Li is a formidable physical presence, the character never registers as much more than a functional obstacle, and a series this reliant on a strong antagonist feels the lack. Three stars. Not a bad watch, and a serviceable enough send-off for a duo I am fond of, but a cliched, going-through-the-motions end to a franchise that deserved to bow out on a higher note.
Lethal Weapon 4 sits in that particular category of sequels that are defensible without being easy to champion: the cast is likeable, the production is confident, and the direction is assured, but the cumulative effect is of a franchise coasting on goodwill it had genuinely earned earlier in its run. If you want a sense of where Mel Gibson was channelling considerably more energy around this period, I covered Braveheart separately, and for a companion piece on the experience of watching a franchise stretch perhaps one instalment too far, see also my thoughts on Predator 2. As a send-off for Riggs and Murtaugh, this is fond rather than inspired, a film that clearly loves its characters even when it cannot quite find a worthy enough reason to bring them back out one more time.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1998 | Watched: 2026-10-29
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) on YouTube
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