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As far as buddy cop movies go, it's hard to top the Lethal Weapon series. And as far as Blu-ray box sets go, the Lethal Weapon Collection is a tough one to beat as well.
The new Lethal Weapon Collection Blu-ray set released in the States last week contains all four films and a lot of quality extra features, including about two hours of new material. For those not familiar, the Lethal Weapon movies were all directed by Richard Donner and starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Gibson stars as Martin Riggs, a narcotics detective who is deeply hurt by the loss of his wife. In the first movie, he gets transferred to join Roger Murtaugh (Glover), who is celebrating his fiftieth birthday. Gibson is a loner, living in trailer with his dog on the coast. Murtaugh is a family man, with a wife and three children. Their lives and personalities could hardly be more different, which is why they work so well together.
Riggs is a headstrong, dive right into the action style cop while Murtaugh is more analytical. Together the duo encounter ex-Special Forces drug smugglers, a corrupt South African diplomat, a former cop turned villain, and a Chinese crimelord. Action and laughs abound throughout the series, each movie building from one to the next, although they aren't necessarily better from one to the next. My favorite remains the first actually, but all four are well worth watching and make for a great lazy Sunday viewing. Some of the comedy is a little predictable and a bit grating, especially with repeated viewings, which is why I would recommend spacing viewings out at least a year, but the action remains a treat. The characters of Riggs and Murtaugh are always interesting and strong too, but as the series went on, so did the list of characters, with Joe Pesci being adding in part two and then Rene Russo in three and four, along with Chris Rock and Jet Li in four. I wondered as I watched part four for the first time that maybe Donner and crew just tried to do too much in one film, kind of like what Spider-Man 3 did. As a martial arts fan I enjoyed seeing Jet Li in his breakout American role, and wasn't surprised to hear in the extra features that they had to ask him to slow his movements down for the camera. I thought the fourth movie was a little better than the third, primarily due to Li, but again, all four movies are excellent entries to one of my favorite genres -- the 80s/90s action flick.
If you are looking into this review, though, you're probably already plenty familar with the movies and you're just looking for information on the set. Whether a gift for Father's Day or just because, I'm happy to say that Warner Brothers did an outstanding job with the entire box set. Seriously, my only gripe would be the artwork of the box itself, and that's a negligible gripe at that. Everything else -- from the sturdy construction of the cardboard box to the video quality -- is superb.
The set contains five discs, each movie on its own disc plus a special bonus disc. The back of box contains a nice synopsis of each movie and the case is about as compact as it could be, which is great for those of us with lots of cases on our shelf. One thing I really loved and appreciated was that the only thing that pops up before you get to the menu is the Warner logo. Unlike some releases that are forever tarnished with annoying trailers, Warner did the fans justice here. That said, each disc has a consistent design, and the disc menus are identical throughout. The disc menus contain a still image of Riggs and Murtaugh, and a single row of selectable options. These include Play, Setup, Scenes, and Extras. While you idle, the classic saxophone tune played in the first movie loops, and it sounds great, making this one of the better idle menus on any disc I have seen or heard. Anyway, I was stunned with how many spoken languages were included -- about a dozen, with subtitle support for twice as many lanaguages, giving you an idea of just how universally acclaimed these movies are I suppose. Extra features include the following:
LW:
-Audio Commentary w/ Richard Donner
-14 Scenes (7 Deleted, 7 Extended) (29m44s, untouched)
-Music Video ("Lethal Weapon" by Honeymoon Suite) (3m22s, SD)
-Theatrical Trailer (1m27s, untouched)
LW2:
-Audio Commentary w/ Richard Donner
-Stunts & Action (3m45s, SD, vintage behind the scenes feature of the tow truck chase scene)
-Trailer (1m28s, SD)
-3 Deleted Scenes (4m12s, SD)
LW3:
-Audio Commentary w/ Richard Donner
-3 Del Scenes (3m43s, SD)
-Music Video "It's Probably Me" by Sting & Eric Clapton (5m1s, SD)
-Teaser Trailer (1m36s, SD)
-Theatrical Trailer (2m28s, SD)
LW4:
-Audio Commentary w/ Richard Donner, J Mills Goodloe, & Geoff Johns
-Pure Leathal! New Angles, New Scenes, & Explosive Outtakes (30m32s, SD, vintage feature narrated by Danny Glover going over films 1-3)
-Theatrical Trailer (2m20s, SD)
Bonus Disc:
-Psycho Pension: The Genesis of Lethal Weapon (23m50s, HD) - 2010 interview Director Richard Donner and actors Glover and Gibson, also writer Shane Blake, and Warner Brothers Executives in separate interviews chime in.
-A Family Affair: Bringing Lethal Weapon To Life (29m33s, SD) - Features Mic Rodgers Stunt Coordinator for LW 1-4, also the Director of Photography, and Production Designer Riva along with production footage.
-Pulling The Trigger: Expanding the World of Lethal Weapon (29m46s, HD, 2010) - Chris Rock, Mark Canton (former VP of WB), and more of Donner/Glover/Gibson interview.
-Maximum Impact: The Legacy of Lethal Weapon (22m28s, HD, 2010) Rob Daly CEO WB, Rene Russo, and others reminisce about Lethal Weapon.
Great movies, great extras, all of the packaging and menus are also great -- what about the presentation quality? In a word, it's outstanding. From the original 1986 movie on through LW4 from '98, the presentation is flatout impressive. I'm not a videophile, but as someone who has seen hundreds of HD films over the years, I can honestly say the quality of the Lethal Weapon movies here was amongst the best I have seen especially for "older" films like this. DTS-HD 5.1 for all four movies compliments the images beautifully, as every witty joke and gunshot is heard to great effect. It's obvious that a lot of care was taken in not only the image quality, but of this entire release.
To the summary...
