Meet the Murtaughs

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Rating: R

Runtime: 117 minutes

Box Office (in today’s dollars): 134 million (approximately)

Characters: Roger Murtaugh, Martin Riggs, Trish Murtaugh, Rianne Murtaugh, Nick Murtaugh, Carrie Murtaugh, General Peter McAllister, Joshua, Michael Hunsaker, Endo, Burbank the cat, Sam the dog

Cool Stuff: Party Nogg

Cool Music: “Lethal Weapon”

Cool Quote: “I’m too old for this shit.”

This is the last of the “I have not seen this yet” on my list of ’80s movies for my blog. I had seen Lethal Weapon 4 (when it came out in the theater in 1998), but I don’t remember anything about it. I am sure that if I had seen this movie when I was 11 or 12, I would have remembered that the movie is set during late December and the opening scene involves breasts and cocaine.... Merry Christmas! We are then introduced to the classic buddy cop duo of Murtaugh (the family man) and Riggs (the loose cannon). Sprinkled throughout the rest of the film are some bad guys (General Peter McAllister, Joshua, and Endo), a man I can relate to (Hunsaker), Burbank (the cat), and Sam (the dog).

So back to Hansaker ... his love of Party Nogg is the coolest thing from the movie:

Who wouldn’t want to party with this guy? He has six cartons lined up and ready to go! Unfortunately, it will be the death of him. There are several scenes that have some saxy music playing, but the musical gem is a song from the band Honeymoon Suite called “Lethal Weapon”. You might remember Honeymoon Suite and their amazing hit from 1986 called “What Does It Take”. And by you I mean me.... I loved that song! The cool quote from the movie is “I’m too old for the shit,” said by Murtaugh throughout this film and all of the sequels. After only having one bad language “cool quote” through the first 19 movies, two of the last three have contained profanity. Salty says sorry to all my followers who have kids.

This movie is probably the first buddy cop movie ever and definitely one of the more popular ones even today. I don’t know if I can come up with a list of my favorites, but I am pretty sure National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 would be somewhere in the top ten. Samuel L. Jackson and William Shatner in the same movie ... it really can’t get any better than that.

Next movie to review: Spaceballs