The Rewatchables - ‘Lethal Weapon 2’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan break free from the straitjacket to rewatch ‘Lethal Weapon 2’, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Joe Pesci. Hosts: Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Lethal weapon too. Wow. It's next. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are coming your way. Everybody's favorite weapon is back. I'll take two of them out if you take one. Let it get.

You take two, I'll take one. Lethal Weapon 2. I'm not a cop tonight, Roger. It's personal. Rated R. Now playing at a theater near you. All right, Chris Ryan is here. Van Lathan is here.

It was just me and Chris for Lethal Weapon 1. We brought in the big guns for Lethal Weapon 2. Lethal Weapon 2 is just a better movie. As much as I love Lethal Weapon 1, Lethal Weapon 2, one of the greatest sequels of all time. We've litigated this before in the podcast, but I'm just going to do it again. Because our argument is great.

Godfather 2, is the greatest sequel of all time. If you're doing the Mount Rushmore, Terminator 2 is in there. I think that's when we brought this back up again. Lethal Weapon 2, Dark Night, aliens, before sunset, Empire Strikes Back, and there's maybe one or two more. Van, what's your Mount Rushmore? Is Lethawrushmore?

You don't even have to give them the other three. Is lethal weapon two on the Mount Rushmore? You know what? It wasn't before this rewatch. I got to be honest with you, I had never thought about it before, but it is now. I hadn't never thought about it before. But lethal weapon, too, is superior to the first in almost every way. You're right about that.

But you inception did that into my mind. I had never thought about it before. Chris, I was shocked by how good this movie was. This movie came out 32 years ago. And it's like they basically perfected the 80s action movie. They took all of the pieces. And we've been covered them a lot on the rewatchables. They took all the pieces that worked, dumped all the pieces that didn't work.

There's no dead spots in this movie. It fucking moves. I was writing down most rewatchable. scenes. I'm like, am I going to have 20 rewatchable scenes? I just was shocked by how good this was. What was your reaction rewatching? They keyed in on this thing that Glover and Gibson probably uniquely are suited to do with each other because they obviously adore one another, where they basically just make a 1940 screwball comedy on top of a cop action movie. Like the speed of the dialogue, the speed of the performances, like these guys are like psychic with each other. It's like

watching two like guys who've played in a jazz combo for their whole lives be together on screen. And when you watch it, you're like, I haven't, you know, you realize that there are jokes that you never noticed, even if you've watched the movie a hundred times in your life. Vane, is it complicated for, I don't want to dive into the whole Mel Gibson thing, but he's so unbelievable in this movie. It's like, he's, in my opinion, probably the best person you could have in an action movie where he combines like the every guy thing with, he's an unbelievable athlete. He's fucking funny. you really do believe he can beat anybody in a fight.

He managed to kind of carry himself almost like LeBron in round four of the bubble playoffs where just like he's got seven nagging injuries and you can kind of feel them all in the last half hour of the movie. It's basically he checks every box. I kind of feel like this is why this movie is not discussed because all the shit that happened with him and he gets canceled.

He might have been one of the first people that gets canceled. So we have this weird complicated relationship with his film library, and yet he's fantastic in this movie. And re-watching this again, how did you deal with that in your head? Well, I had this little skit play out where Mel Gibson went to the producers of the movie.

He was like, for the sequel, I want there to be an impartide subplot. And then they didn't write the apartheid subplot that he thought they were going to write. It's like, because the movie is weirdly an anti-racist movie. It's railing on those guys and their power and all of that. So when I watch it, I'm like, I get the same feeling that I get with any of these, man.

I get like, damn, you fucked it up, dog. You fucked up Martin Riggs for me because, like, to your point, he is perfect. This is an action comedy without a comedian. Most of these big action comedies that we see They have a comedian in them If you're talking about your rush hours And your Beverly Hills cops and your films like that This movie didn't need one

Like this, it's so well written The chemistry is so undeniable between the leads And you have a A number one Bonafide movie star In your lead position, charismatic, vulnerable, all of that by Mel Gibson And then he went to moonshadows A couple of decades later

I'm gonna fuck it up. But I'm gonna pretend like he didn't even do that for the sake of this and just move on from it. But yeah, of course I felt that. You feel a little bit of a, you feel a little sad watching it as you're having the great time that you're having. Yeah, and the scale of one to OJ and the naked gun

of how it affects the rewatch, it's probably, you forget about the Mel Gibson stuff. And he's kind of bounced back weirdly. He's popped into some movies. but I just was watching this thinking like, wow, this guy was a borderline unicorn. All the stuff Bruce Willis doesn't die hard. I think Bruce Willis is unbelievable and die hard. But Gibson is taking all of that.

Plus, he's doing nine other things and you feel bad for him. You're worried about him. You're kind of worried for a sanity that he might snap. You totally believe he can get out of any situation. He's fearless. What else am I missing, Chris? It's like the difference between all these other 80s action movies that use basically the same motivation, which is either a threat or the loss of your family. So, like, you know, in so many

other, like, Schwarzenegger movies where it's just like, you came after my daughter. And, like, that is what's motivating him to just go buck wild on people. You get the kitchen scene and lethal weapon, too, where he's making chili. And he just tells the gold pen story. And you're just kind of like, I'm, like, weirdly, like, affected by this. This is crazy. This is lethal weapon, too. And I've kind of, like, stopped everything I'm doing. And I'm just watching Gibson kind of like, not quite tear up, but it's like the very real human moment when Darlene Love's like, yeah, I didn't really mean, you know, I didn't mean to pry. And he's like, well, we've never talked about it. And then he tells the story. And you're like, holy shit, I can kind of

see exactly where Martin Riggs kind of emerges from out of this incredible tragedy. Yeah, he does a good job of kind of pocketing the damage and then having it spill out in really realistic ways versus like the typical Hollywood hitting over the head with, hey, this guy's damage. Here's the scene of him sadly looking at pictures of his dead wife and all that stuff. It's really well handled. I wrote down... Even in a small moment

in that scene, just real quick, when he reaches for the pen. Yeah. Like notice when she's got the pen, when he reaches for the pen, the pen might might have well been Thor's hammer. It was so heavy in his hand. That's a brilliant scene.

I watched it three or four times last night. When he reaches the pin is like, oh my God, like he's reaching for all of that grief and all of that trauma. He's like, oh, I keep losing this. Yeah. Yeah, I keep losing it. Really, because he keeps flirting with moving on.

Like, he keeps almost losing it because he's got a new family. He's got a new purpose. But every time he tries, the pin, like, it pops back up and he has to grab it again. It's like, it's amazing. The movie really is fucking amazing. I wrote down

Pesci doesn't show up. It's like 27 minutes. And I wrote that at the 25 minute mark. It's unbelievable how good the first 25 minutes of this. And Pesci hasn't even shown up yet. Pessie, we can talk about this. Now, he was basically nowhere. Go and look at his IMDB.

He kind of peaks some raging bowl. He was an easy money with Rodney Dangerfield. By 87, he was in some TV movie called Half Nelson, which they then spun off into like seven episodes. of a TV series got canceled. This was not a guy who was about to become an A-Lister, and he ends up in Leitha Whipin, too. He really did become a phenomenon in this movie.

He came to a big selling point. Everybody loved this movie. Everybody loved him. And within a couple years, he's doing Betsy's wedding, Goodfellas, Home Alone, the Super, JFK, my cousin Vinny, Home Alone 2, cameo in the Bronx Tale, Jimmy Hollywood with honors, and then Casino.

That's all in six years. Yeah. And it's all because of this movie. But I think what's neat about him in this movie is you do feel like he's playing a character. This doesn't feel like Joe Pesci. Like he's almost doing like a Saturday Live character, right? This is a hot take.

And I've thought about this a lot. I know where you're going and I think I might support it. This is a superior performance to Goetheas. Come on, man. Oh, no. I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to for zagging. Come on. Van, man, come on.

Come on, man. Can I make the point? Yeah, go ahead. Can I make the point? Go ahead. I'll make the point. Goodfellas is sort of a one-note, angry Joe Pesci. I watch this movie a couple of times, right?

A couple of times, and he's not on the screen as much, right? But I watch this a couple of times. He is deep, deep, deep into character here. Like, he's, I feel. like he's showing a little bit more. Don't get me wrong. Because the Pesci and Goodfellas character has been rehashed so many times that I think maybe

I'm muted to it because he played the same guy, casino, and then they tried to do it again an Irish man. Well, not his character so much, but like, to me, I had more trouble seeing Joe Pesci in this role

than I have seen him in so many other things that he's kind of been in. It's a hot take, but I really was impressed with how he performed in this movie. Like, I never paid attention to it as much. I will say that what he does in this role compared to what it was probably on the page is like a huge, huge improvement. Right? Like, I think that Leo gets, I mean, we're going to talk about the various versions of the script that there were before lethal weapon too.

But like, by all accounts, he comes in and he's just like, here's how I think this guy should be. here's how I'm going to play him. And Richard Donner's just like, great idea. Go for it. Hold on real quick. I just thought about the, I just thought about the scene where he's, when he's playing a joke on,

what's his face? I take it back. Hot take, you take your take back? I take my take back. I just thought about a hot take expired. I'm sorry. Recently biased.

Go ahead, Chris. It's fine. It was an expirable hot take. Go ahead, Chris. Yeah. That was kind of like the Chinese rocket falling to Earth. And it just, it burned up on reentry.

but it was beautiful to watch go up. I don't even know what I was saying. Oh, it wasn't really much of a part on the page, I don't think. And I think you can just see, I don't even think like the other people who were up for this part were not like superstars. It wasn't like Anthony Hopkins was up for this role. So it's really interesting to see what he does with so little. Well, it's basically Gibson and Glover are like two buddies who've been playing in the backyard

every day on their basketball hoop. And Pesci becomes the adjustable basketball hoop where they're like, oh, wow, look at this. We can bring this down to eight feet. He's just this toy that they can play off of and play with. And, you know, this is a relationship movie. I think my favorite, the action movie I've seen the most times is 48 hours.

That becomes a relationship movie. I don't know how it happens. There's just switch flips, and all of a sudden those guys love each other. But that's why we had such high hopes for the sequel was it was like, oh, they'll really dive into it. It goes the opposite. They screwed up.

This was like they had a really nice relationship from the first movie. And they built on it. And I was doing some of the research on it. I was reading one of the old premiere magazines about it from 89. And they were basically, Donner said he felt like this was the lethal weapon one and a half,

not lethal weapon two. He wanted to be a continuation of it to dive into their relationship in a better way to make it almost seem like that. At this point, they were an old married couple, which is why that chili scene you mentioned is so important. but Peschi comes in as the toy that they can play with,

and that becomes a blueprint now for, what, 30 plus years of action movies? We try to even see them in the sequels. It was like, Chris Rock, he's going to be the new Peschi. And it just wasn't as good, to be honest. But we've seen this in action movies constantly. You have the basic main people, and then they try to give them the toys.

I think this movie invented that, and I think probably did the best job. I don't know about your good fellow's take, though, Van. Yeah, no, fine. I don't know if you back on that one. No, you know what it was? It was, it was me watching the film last night and being so overly impressed. Because like even, even when he's in the, he's in the back seat of the car, he's about to go on the legendary.

They fuck you have to drive-through thing. There's a point there to where he says, okay, I counted him eight times. And I'm thinking to myself, whoa, Are there eight okays in the script? Like it, it, it, like, he's just, he's really deep into the character. And that's a character he's never played again. But, nah, I just thought about it. No, he was, Bill, you're right.

Like, the, the, playing with the toys scene, like, when he shows up, when they show up at the hotel, and he's like, oh, old six shooter. I didn't know they made those. And he's just like, I bet the kid has an automatic. Like, it's just like, he's bouncing in between those two guys. And it just, you can just tell they're having the time of their live. It's really great. I was looking at the box office mojo for this year.

And man, what did we do to deserve 1989? Just so many winners, so many bangers. Batman came out that year. Oh, my God. Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, which I know Van loves. Lethal Weptain 2 was the third biggest movie of 89. We had the look who's talking, honey. I shrunk the kids combo.

Back to the Futures 2. Ghostbusters 2. It's funny. this year is being criticized as like, all right, why are we doing all these sequels? But a lot of the sequels are really good. And we also had we'd drive Miss Daisy. We had parenthood, dead poet society, when Harry Met Sally, War the Roses, Steel Magdalas, Christmas Vacation, born on the 4th of July.

Field of Dreams, Tangle and Cash, Vance favorite Harlem Knights. I love Harlem Knights. Yeah. See Love, Pacino's comeback, Major League. It just goes on and on. What are there like 10, 15 rewatchables in there? Oh my God. Yo, I just gotta be real.

Are we getting... Is it a function of... A serious question, tangent. Is it a function of us getting older? Or is it... Or do they just not make them like they used to? No, no. It's 100%.

This is not a Charles Barkley on the TNT set complaining about too many threes. They don't make movies like this anymore. Think about how many different genres Bill just rattle off. And think about how many of those movies are essentially like... either a romantic comedy

or just like a good drama, like dead poets or something like that. Those are just movies that they just don't make anymore. By the way, I'm going to keep going. Lean on me, Weekend at Bernie's Roadhouse, do the right thing. Come on, man. Glory. Sex Lies of Video Tape.

Lockup. Say anything. I mean, it's just, it's an amazing run. I think part of it is you have a lot of the directors who were influenced by the 70 guys finally able to make movies like Spike and Cameron Crow and people like that. But then you also just, you know, there was more,

oh, fabulous Baker Boys was in there too. Cries and misdemeanors. Yeah. Yeah, this is, 89 is just bonkers. You know, like, there was just so much less competition for attention back then. Yeah. Because I still so distinctly remember the pandemonium around Batman when it came out and like the lines down the block to get into it. And it was like, movies were pretty much like the central cultural experience you could have back then.

You know what I mean? Like rap was exploding and like there were. different musics that were like obviously growing at that point. But like I feel like that was like pre-TV being like, oh, you got to stay home and watch this great TV show. It was like, you went to the movies. That's what people did. Yeah, you went to the movies pretty much every weekend. I was looking at Premiere Magazine. They do the fall movie preview issue and had it for 1990s. So I was just thumbing through it. It got to the holiday part and there were like 20 movies. It was like, Godfather three, Goodfellas. It just like, it kept going. I'm like, oh my God.

How did we have, now we would be lucky if we had three movies that weren't comic. Van, I don't mean to piss on comic book movies. I know, I know you love them. No, it's getting, it's getting to be too much. I'm longing for the days of Tango and Cash. Tango and Cash is a delightful, R-rated romp. It's a mutated baby of sort of lethal weapon and Beverly Hills cop. But it still worked.

It's like one of my favorite films. And it would be the 20th or 30th best movie on the list that you just, that you just rattled off. And they just simply don't make films like that anymore. Every film has to be IP. Every film has to be, it's like, it's like almost every film is a, it's not, movies are not movies anymore. They're more marketing engines for either the stars of the films or the IP that they represent. And I don't know it feels weird for me to be railing on this. It's a 41 year old guy.

Everybody else is like, hey, fuck you. But I'm saying, like, it just, nobody comes up with a cool idea and then goes to make a movie anymore. They go, okay, let's take your idea and then use it to reboot some IP that we've had 15, 20 years ago. It's just, and that's not me being a dick. I'm just saying that's a really diverse, in terms of story, at least, group of films that were executed with a lot of hard. People just going out there to tell a story. It's like, it's a different time. Well, most important, Van just, your resume has been accepted.

for the Tango and Cash rewatchables. Can you imagine? It's an incredible 20-second resume hand in, and it's been accepted. Because that movie is off the chids. Oh, my God. Producer Craig, have you seen Tango and Cash? No, I haven't.

Oh, my God. What are the great prison movies of all time? It's also one of the great, wait a second, wait a second. What is the plot of this movie? I know. Or they're just like, they go back into prison. Carrie Hatcher is Stallone's sister in that movie, right? Yeah, Kurt Russell.

Oh, my, it's a special movie. Anyway, with Lethal Weapon, we have to mention two more things. I mean, the context of every weekend, there's some banger coming out. And for this movie to kind of climb above the heap and become the third biggest movie that year is no small achievement. There are a lot of good ones. The villains in this movie, this is too good for what's age. the best. Thank you so much for doing this. I was worried that if I said it, you would be like, save it. No, it's too good. I mean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, that's where we probably peaked with

villains. We actually have an arc melting all of them at the end of the movie. Spoiler alert. This one, South African, Aryan bad guys capped off with the leader of it, who's just the most evil, perfect, I hate this guy guy I think we've ever had. And then he's got his henchmen who's got literally the Hitler haircut. He's hitler. He's got the comb over. He's missing everything but like a little wispy mustache. And it's just they nail it.

The accents are great. What are they missing? Is there any holes in their villain resume? No, they don't have it. There's no nuance. There's no ambiguity. There's no, well, maybe these guys had a point. There's no like, oh, they're cool like Hans Gruber.

These are pieces of shit that you want rigs to fuck up. Like, you want him to fuck them up. And it is like, it's so thrilling. when he fucking brings the stilt house down, you're like, get in their ass, rigs, do it. Yeah, they're just basically, they have evil accents and a lot of money. I don't really understand any other thing

they have going on as villains. Cougarans are the original Bitcoin, Bill. You got to get on the Cougarand. There's just trunks full of stuff and yachts, and I guess they're stealing stuff. It's not really explored. I don't really care. It's like having 40 bond villains at once, right, Van?

Yeah, and they're using very simple terms to explain their evil nature to the audience. They're rich. They want to get richer. They don't care about the rules and they're racist. Those are the reasons why you hate these guys. We don't need to go back into what happened to them in childhood and make them three-dimensional characters. They're cutting corners and they hate black people. It's like, boom, Riggs, Riggs is the opposite of them.

Riggs loves black people He's a member of a black family Like really there's a There's a There's a television show here Where Riggs actually gets adopted by Roger It's some reverse fucking different strokes type of shit Right like he's a member of their family

It's like all of us together It's like Briggs's chilly night Riggs is cooking again Riggs is cooking again He's putting he's putting like produce into the chili He's cutting up big ass onions and shit I don't know what he was there But anyway, also yeah, and it's just give it to you simple.

These guys are going to win. These guys are going to lose. Boom. I love that they were like, hey, did we make these guys evil enough? Let's have a meeting. Yeah, no, they actually, he was, uh, no mustache Hitler was actually the guy who killed Riggs's wife. It's so weird because you get to that point and you're just like, man, I, I hate these guys. Like there's no, there's, I have no mixed feelings.

There's no, like, I don't know. You want me over. You have my hate. You're so cool in this movie. It's like, you're so cool in this movie. It's like, you're just like, you're. just like, I cannot wait for these guys to get mowed down. And then it's like, and then they also killed Vicky. You know, I can't believe it. It's, it's a shame because I think there was a ton of

potential for racist South Africans as villains. You know, you think about in the 80s, we had a, you know, you had cartels, you had Libyans, you had Russians, like there was all types of villains in 80s action movies. But lethal weapon was a one and done with the South African villains, man. The South African racist just were, you couldn't do better than this. This is, it's, it's, it's, It literally is Apex Mountain for South African villains. It is true. If you do like cartels, like ultimately, those guys are just driven by money,

which you can make them as evil as possible and they can kill whoever. For these guys, they're also motivated by money. They've got ideology. But also this horrible ideology that you're like, oh, I double hate these guys, which is a really hard thing to achieve. You know, the thing about it was that it was touchy, right?

There was a huge divestment cost. that was in the, I guess all throughout the ages. Yeah, not going to play Sun City. Yeah, but there were, there were places that didn't want to do it. There was people that were in business with South Africa, and it wasn't, and obviously we're going to talk about Shane Black at some point during this, during this podcast and just the, I'm sure you guys talked about it in the other one, just the absolute sort of storm that he was as a screenwriter and as a creative.

if he was just like the first rock star that I got. He's the first time I can remember hearing about the guy who wrote the movie. You know what I mean? At least being at the age I was at then. But yeah, so it wasn't, I think, and it wasn't cut and dry. I think a lot of, I think a lot of films had, so the product placement was starting to become a big deal. And a lot of these companies weren't fully divested from South Africa.

I can remember my siblings being in college at the time being like, yo, we got to get this person to divest and get this person in divest and what? whatever. And by the time, a lot of companies did, you know, we're only talking about a couple of more years to where things changed in South Africa. So maybe people missed the boat because it was a real political issue. Yeah, I remember, I remember you two, like, that was like a big thing for you too, was like them not playing in certain venues there or not touring to there. Yeah. You'd almost be like if there were like a lot of NBA players with business in China, China. Oh, exactly. Oh. Right. Yeah. I mean,

To be real with you right now, that's your point though. Like, we can't do a bunch of movies. Do you remember the Red Dawn remake that they did fucking terrible, I'd have to say? We didn't need it. The Red Dawn remake, they actually changed the villains from the Chinese to the North Koreans because China's a huge market. And we're ready to say fuck China, but only with a small F. So we can't be like big about whatever is going on over there

because we don't want to miss out on the back. Just like the NBA. Just like the NBA. We're going to take a quick break and then get to the first of the categories. One second. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list. Not one more.

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Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. You know, I was going to do this for have fast internet research, but I think it's important to talk about the Shane Black thing now that Van brought up. This was a really strange time where all of a sudden we had superstar screenwriting. because it was Shane Black, but then we also had Joe Esther House with basic instinct in 92. And there was just, you know, Hollywood evolves from the 60s and 70s where they start buying

books as IP. Robert Stigwood buys a New York magazine article that becomes Saturday Night Fever. And they start thinking of IP in all these different ways. It goes through the 80s. And then eventually they realized screenwriters just creating new IP, maybe we should throw money at that. Shane Black was one of the first people that happened. to Leithful Weapon 1. That fucks him up. He has a whole bunch of issues, but he did write the Lethal Weapon 2 script,

and he's been pretty open about how cool it was. Riggs dies in the end. He is considered his best piece of writing. Which is no small thing. If he's saying, this is the best thing I wrote, that means it was good. And he obviously has written like a critically acclaimed movie in Kiss Kiss Kiss,

bang. A lot of people think the Iron Man 3 is at least the best Iron Man movie, if not one of the best Marvel movies. I mean, he's got a bunch of really, really, obviously last Boy Scout, but this movie, this script that he wrote, is just not available online. So it's one of these

cool things that is just like the legend that you, like I've read the same description in this script's called Play Dirty. I guess it would maybe was lethal weapon play dirty or whatever, but you read the description and it is a pretty different movie and it is a different outcome and it, to your point about it being

lethal weapon 1.5, it would have put the perfect capstone on the Riggs story. I don't think it would have been the popular sensation. I don't think people would have been like, I'm going to go see that movie three times in the theaters. But it would have been like the perfect endpoint of the Riggs character. And yet a brilliant decision not to kill off Riggs. If we're just talking about fundamentally, they were able to make at least two more. Probably there's a fifth one that might be coming at some point. Maybe not with Gibson.

But I think it was smart to keep them alive. At the same time, This really did sound like a cool movie. Apparently it was really dark, really bloody. And at the end, Shane Black has said Riggs has to basically sacrifice his life for Merta. For this family that he has joined. It's going to be either one of the two of them. I don't know what the actual thing was. They have a, it's like Riggs has a fight with Peter basically in a forest fire.

Like he had a fire in the hills. And they goes out to like, yeah, you're right. sacrifice himself for him. So then when they actually film this movie, they filmed two different versions of the ending. And they had Riggs die in one of the endings. The test audiences were obviously like, what the fuck? How do you? You can't kill Riggs. So then they use the different ending. But the original ending, he dies in Glover's arms. And then the cameras come back with the helicopters like how it is in the actual ending. But then they film the other side where they're laughing and then it films up. And that's that's how played out. Van, good decision.

not to kill Riggs, I'm guessing? In your reminder, would you have gone for the glory of just like the unbelievable Toy Story 3 type ending and that's it? No, of course it was a good decision not to kill Riggs. And by the way, Chris, some of the nerve contingent is going to be all over you about that Iron Man 3 take. It's a very controversial movie. I happen to love it.

But some people... Is that the hipster take? Is like Iron Man 3? Not to me. I think it's great. But some people are going to be like, I hate Iron Man 3. The only good Iron Man was Iron Man 1. I liked it.

But, you know, it's very controversial. I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Donner first got the script for Play Dirty for the shame black version of this. And there is allegedly a scene where a plane full of cocaine explodes over Los Angeles coding L.A. in like a dusting of cocaine. And what, Donner, he just be like, huh. So, okay. And he just gets out his red marker. he's like, well, we're going to put a pin in this one and maybe we come back to it.

And it will be real cocaine too. We're not using sugar. Oh, by the way, I went to a party at Shane Black's house for New Year's one year. What movie do you think he had the most memorabilia of all throughout his house? I would say last boy scott. It was Iron Man 3.

Yeah. What was the party like? Huh. Well, Chris, I think you've been invited with the Midnight Boys for Iron Man 3. I think you earned your invitation when they break down Iron Man 3. We make Tango and cash at Shane Blacks House. Right. New Year's Eve, I think, like 2018 or something like that.

It was fun. It was a lot of fun. So this movie, they spent $30 million. It would have been a lot more if they blew up a plane of cocaine. It made $227.9 million. led to a couple more sequels, both of which were made in the 90s. Roger Ebert, three and a half stars. Of course.

Quote, Lethal Weapon 2 is that rarity, a sequel with most of the same qualities as the original. I agree. I would even say that it had better qualities than the original, but Roger was in. Can I just make one statement about the one versus two thing? Yeah, go. on paper lethal weapon one is a more coherent movie than lethal weapon two like i understand why everybody's like lethal weapon two dusts lethal weapon one it's a much more fun hang it's a much funnier movie it's got like these incredible sequences i'm just saying that like the story of lethal

weapon one does make more sense than like why are the like so these south african guys are just operating without impunity bringing in cocaine killing cops wives like having gun fights having oozes and they just throw up their card and say diplomatic immunity and now there's a fight at this shipyard like lethal weapon one actually kind of makes sense. I think that's a fair point. I think so too. Yeah, and you also think like they would have at least hinted at the South Africans and lethal weapon one.

Right. But I will say this. I think the reason why people love lethal weapon to more, a lot of it has to do with just the character of Riggs himself. Mm-hmm. The Riggs in the first film was such a live wire and such an

unpredictable guy, right? So crazy that it's heartwarming to see him settle in in this movie. And even though he's settled in, he's still as fierce, he's still as

brave. It's just like you watch it and you, even to watch the scene where they're watching the condom commercial, which is a fucking fantastic scene. So good. It's just fun to watch that guy get drawn back into reality with this family. And even as I say this, once again,

Mel, why'd you fuck this up, man? Why'd you fuck it up? I watched that scene is so good and so believable. I'm like, Mel, why? Well, like, why, Mel? Anyway. That'd be our social media breakout for this.

You're just going, why, Mel? Why? Mel, I can't not do it. Mel Gibson said the single most racist thing I've ever heard anybody else. It is the single most racist thing. Mel Gibson told Oxana, if you get blanked by a pack of, a pack of in words, a pack. Like we run around in packs.

Mel reduced us to wolves in Yellowstone. Mel. Anyway, love the movie, though. Let's audible to the categories. Most rewatchable scene. God damn, this movie comes out flying. You know, sometimes with rewatchable movies, it's almost better to catch them 25 minutes in.

The 48 hours is like that. You kind of want to catch it right when he's going to visit Reggie Hammond. But all the way through with action movies, it's okay if you skip the first 15, 20. Die hard's like that, too. Diehard, it's like, you really want him when he's in the Nakatomi Tower. Maybe he's cleaning up in Bonnie Bedelia's office. And then that's where you want to kind of join it.

This one, you want to join it when you see the opening credits. You're like, we're off right away. The opening car chase, it's great. We get to see Mel Gibson running and contemplate his place in the great actor movie running Pantheon, which I think he's the Usain Bold of actors. It's him and Terminator 2 guy in the finals. Robert Patrick. Yeah,

Tom Cruz. Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. Tough semifinals loss for Cruz to Robert Patrick. I would actually say there's a late arriving and again, recency biased John David Washington case to be made.

Oh. I agree. Oh, that's a good one. That's almost not fair. He played football on college. I know what I'm saying. He's like busting ass. You know who else runs a lot?

Like Snipes. Snipes, good runner. Snipes used to get his motor on too. Good runner. Eddie Murphy, secretly pretty good runner. He had that kind of a jog sprint thing that he had in a couple of different movies that I enjoyed. Anyway, this opening car chase,

we get Mel Gibson running, get an awesome Gibson Glover 1940s comedy cop argument. And I fucking love when they go into the police station and the guys start betting. And the guys, and they make the bet and he's like, wait a second,

I know nothing about the wave station wagon. The bet's off. It fucking kills me. Just like all the nuances of those. cops, they nail with the rubbers and all that stuff. That's one of the best parts of this movie. Anyway, that opening car chase is amazing. And then it goes right to the straightjacket scene.

How the hell did you do that, man? Well, I dislocated my shoulder one time and I can just do it whenever I want to now. Oh, goddamn, man. Does that hurt? Yeah, it does. But not as much as when I put it back in. Oh, my God. Our next scene, after we do this whole giant,

is a car chase is him trying to get out of a straitjacket. Everybody talks about like, are video games bad for kids? Is movie violence bad for kids? Let me tell you something. Being an impressionable teenager when I saw this movie and being like, wait, can I pop my shoulder out and pop it back in again? That seems fucking awesome. That's terrible, terrible, terrible example to set for kids.

Yeah, that's fair. I love that scene. I don't even know how they came up with this, but it's so great for so many levels. it shows how athletic, how much pain he can endure. Also, him in a straitjacket. It's Chekhov's shoulder dislocation because he uses it when he gets almost drowned. Absolutely. They come back to it.

And also, he's a masochist a little bit. Like he does. And that's why I love the little trope of the, the psychiatrist popping up in that scene. Every time he does something crazy, almost like she's Jimmy Cricket or something. But he's willing to do that on a whim for a bet to win. he's willing to put himself through that type of pain. So think about the type of pain. He's willing to put himself through

for something that's righteous or something that matters. If he'll just do that on a random day at the station, you know? One thing I would love to hear if we have any any listeners who may have served in like the police force in the 80s is was it was it a truism that like if a bunch of downtown was destroyed in a car chase that the police department was liable for the bill? because in this movie and in Beverly Hills cop,

the captain's like, you know how much damage you caused downtown? And now the department's got to pay for it. It's like, does that how that works? Like, does the department have to pay for all the mailboxes that got destroyed and all the farmer's markets that got driven through in action movies? Yeah, you have that. And then also, why were 80s cops so, like, brilliantly sarcastic all the way around?

Yes. Every place. That, we went away from that somehow by the two. thousands. These guys aren't just brilliantly sarcastic. They're brilliant. So, like, think about it. They find the Coogran, right? And they go,

don't you remember the triangle trade? Like, slaves to rum? The police don't know nothing about that shit. What are you talking about? Like, I'm just being for real. All of the things that they keep talking about, even in the car. And they go, Alva Barden, and he's like, oh, Hitler's girlfriend.

And then Murtaugh goes, no, that's Eva Braun. Come on, man. Like, they don't know that shit. They don't know nothing about that shit. But these guys are smart, capable cops. We need, cops got to start watching more jeopardy. That's what we need.

Cops got to get their knowledge. More trivia. Yeah. I think Mark Furman might have single-handly ruined this narrative in the mid-90s. Right. Cops knew what was going on. The cops had a sense of humor. It was just, it immediately ended overnight.

The chilly scene we mentioned. And that scene is just really important. I was supposed to be meeting her for dinner and, you know, one of those romantic dinners for two. I was up to my eyeballs in work. And I forgot about the whole thing. I guess she waited a restaurant for an hour before she decided to drive home alone. And midnight before I got home, I got home to her ringing phones and naturally I answered it. They told me she was killed in a car crash.

You'd have been driving it. I guess we'd have been all right, huh? Anyway, I remember falling down on my knees and I started shaking all over. I remember thinking I'm losing it. I'm just losing it. So there I was, lying on the living room floor. Lying there. And I'm seeing under the couch.

And I see this gold pin. Gold pin just lying there under the couch. I've been looking for it everywhere. I've been looking for, having seen it in two months. There it is. She wasn't much of the house cute. And this voice goes off inside my head, you know, kind of like a drill instructor.

I really heard it. It said, get up, now! I didn't feel like it, but I got up. Muckles was still working. and I drove to the hospital and identified her in the morgue and signed her out with my girlfriend. I wouldn't say it's the most rewatchable scene

out of everything we're going through here but it's a really, really important scene for the Riggs character and one of the reasons this movie's special. Pessie shows up immediately there's an evil 80s room service guy who's even got the little mullet.

He could have easily, he could have put him Roadhouse. You could have put him in Tango and Cash. It didn't matter what movie this guy was in. He had to be in one of them. And he shows up with the room service. Pulls out the gun terribly.

Pesci. And then all of a sudden they're all going out the pool window. He's so obviously a South African villain when he shows up. Oh, my God. And they're like, oh, cool. Burger and fries. And he's like, hello, gentlemen. And it's just like, this guy is not room service.

Would you like to eat, Kaffa? You know what I mean? It's like the whole thing, boy, that by the way, man. I got to be honest with you. We didn't know what Kauffer meant when that came out, but we tried it on. We tried it on. We tried to say it. So my mom put a stop to that shit.

Oh, my God. My mom was like, look, I don't need another vile word coming out of y'all mouths. Stop looking at all of this. But, yeah, I had never heard of it before, man. Bill, we got to address one thing, though. And I don't know. I was going to ask you this. So I originally thought that the hotel Leo's staying in is in, like, Century City or something.

The J-dub. That was the downtown original J-W. It's the original one. It's not the one in L.A. Live, though. O.A.L.L.A. wasn't built yet. Where was the J-W.? So that was the J-dub where, like, the standard is now in the original downtown L.A. Oh.

Yeah. See, I thought that it was the same J-dub and they had, like, refurbished it or fucking, like, that J-dub was the part of it. the parking lot for the Staples Center until basically 2009. Gotcha. The pool drop. I forgot how cool and amazing and awesome that was.

I had just kind of forgotten that was in the movie and he's going out the window and they fall. It's just a great stunt. Great 80s movie stunt. It's also a great way of like redoing something from the first movie because they have the pool shootout in the first movie and it's just like, oh, they fall in

and then the pool covers there. But in this one it's like, let's up the ante a little bit. I have the house bus slash car chase The surfboard The surfboard All that stuff That whole scene like It's crazy

There's like four awesome scenes like that In this movie that just have a beginning Middle End with lots of action Followed by some sort of money shot The toilet scene So I'm old enough to remember this In the original trailer

Was the toilet scene Yes And that was just the trailer because it was like, we don't need to actually show a real trailer. People know what lethal weapon is. And they just started with the toilet scene, and that was it. And that's how they promoted the movie, and it worked. It made me want to go see it.

Do you want to talk about the toilet scene now? As opposed to what's aged the best toilets? Well, so here's what I've written now. One of the great action movie scene premises, I think, of all time. Yep. Everyone's worst nightmare to sit on a toilet that has a bomb on it. after you've finished your business I think is way up there

at least for me I don't know about you guys maybe it's lower for you guys how long was he there I have like 12 hours 18 hours yeah they said because his legs are his legs are numb they don't really hint at what the smell situation is there

I think they just the thing that always jumps out at me is like he's got a toilet full of shit and everybody's coming in there acting like they don't smell and just kind of ignore it Why don't we all just agree that he makes the decision that he can flush and it won't set the bomb off? The only thing that will get set the bomb off is as if he stands up. No, because he went to go, he noticed the toilet paper, which means he was reaching for the toilet paper.

But he doesn't say, as I was sitting down, I noticed this on the toilet paper. It was that I'm reaching for the toilet paper, which means he was sitting on his own stink bomb for like 12, 18 hours. None of the characters mentioned this. I just think it's a really weird choice to not have somebody be like at least like wave something from their nose what kind of hemorrhoid does Glover get from that?

18 hours like that violates just Google sit on the toilet too long. This was going to be my most rewatchable scene and you're really going out of your way to like set all the romance out of it. And uh, him saying guys like you don't die in toilets. Why didn't he plant a bomb and Trisha stove?

Think of all a needless suffering Could have ended it right there. Yeah. Me sir. I'm a toilet honor. Guys like you don't die on toilets. Anyway, I'm here and I'm not planning on going just now. Let's do it.

One of the better lines we've had in a movie. And when Jarvis is like outriggs, get out, and he's just like, nope, nope, nope. And then he's just like, this guy, he's been sitting on this thing for 12 hours. he's not going to be able to move. I'm going to go with him. I'm doing this with him. The best part of that scene, though, Danny Glover always reminds me so much in my dad.

By the way, I have a theory that this movie actually was terrible for Danny Glover's career, or these two movies. But, like, Danny Glover always reminds me and my dad, right? And the scene where he says it without saying it. He looks at him. That's exactly what my pops does that whole deal. He looks at him. And he just does it with his eyes.

And then Riggs goes, yeah, and he goes, I mean it, man. He said, I love you. Yeah. He's like, I love you, bro. I know. Yeah, he's like, I know, I know. It's just, Shane Black just got it. And those guys are like playing a symphony together.

It's so amazing. I don't know if it's ever worked this well in the movie since I got to be honest with you. That type of chemistry from your two leads is just, it's great. That whole scene the way they orchestrated, Riggs finding him. And then I love when he's like, Riggs, don't. use the open channel, man. Come on. Like, and he's just like, oh, no, yeah, absolutely.

Like zipses. And then the next cut is just like the sirens and all the bomb squads and all the cops. The whole fucking department. Yeah. It's also realistic that they get out of it. The way they set it up where, no, no, no. It's ludicrous. But the way they set it up, I actually buy it.

Or it's like, all right, I'll pull you into this specially sealed off bathtub we've created and somehow this is going to be okay. It shouldn't have been okay. I assume in real life they blow up every time. But they set it up, the way they film it, it just seems like it. That actually might happen. Even if they lived through it,

they would have concussions that would take them out of the mix for like two weeks and be bleeding out of their ears from the explosion sounds. Yeah, the fucking C4, a foot away from them. Yeah, it'd fuck you up a little bit. I had that in the nip-ex. There's definitely some hearing issues after that. That would have been amazing, yeah. He tries to have a relationship with Patsy Kedzey Ked.

He's like, what? No, I was going to make some chili. Yay, I can't. Tonight-ness. I love, I mean, this scene's ridiculous. It's so good when Gibson breaks into the office to confront all the guys. They don't just kill him right away. I don't know why they, he should be shot in five seconds.

But when he does the, well, well, well, it's the master race. So good. It's so fucking good. Well, it's the master race. And he's got, that's, that's mine. I love that scene. It's the master race. I hope you realize the trouble you are in right now.

Well, as usual, you people have got everything all upside down and turned around and back to front. Gentlemen, show Officer Riggs into the street. I love when he shoots the fish tank and I love when the evil guy's like, pick him up with your hands. Pick them up with your hands. Like, how else would you pick him up with your feet? I really like that scene. Gibson's trailer getting shot up is just a great action movie scene. I don't know how he survives, but that's the point of all these movies.

But I like when he's escaping with Patsy Kenza, and he's like, what are you doing Saturday? Like, they would just add the date. Good, good Pallas Verdes kind of scenery there, Chris. Yeah, I love that. Palace Verde is a location not really explored a lot in the movies, but very beautiful. Gorgeous. And nobody cares. Nobody cares.

And the palace various people, they made it packed. Don't tell anybody how cool it is here. It's like one of those places. I used to, during the pandemic when I was trying to find, we used to just drive up there. I'm like, no, who lives up here? No, they don't want anyone to know. It's a cult.

It's beautiful. You can sit all the way to Malibu, and it's clear and nice. And they got a whole little community up there. Zoe had a soccer game there once when she was like seven or eight. And it was like on a cliff. It was soccer field on a cliff and you could just see all the lay

and we're like, where are we? People live here? What is this? Pretty cool place. All right, Riggs escapes. They don't kill Riggs. I guess we could do that and pick a nits later,

but they decide to put him in the straight jacket, which is perfect. You know where it's going. The moment you see him in the straight jacket. Pretty iconic image of when he's underwater and he sees dead Patsy Kentsett. It's for some reason, those underwater things that's like that in Jaws

too and Dreyfus sees the guy the dead guy's head. For some reason people seeing things underwater out of nowhere they kind of stick in your brain for some reason. Yeah. But that whole scene's really good. Riggs, I can't believe how many rewatchable seeds are. Riggs yanks the house

down off the stilts. What a great advertisement for pickup trucks. So this costs $500,000. They made a replica of the house. I read about This Premiere magazine that is shot by shot breakdown of this scene for like the November 1989 issue.

They built a replica of the actual house so they didn't have to tear down. But the house that it seems like they're tearing down is a real house. And then they redid it. And did that whole thing. And then I got Gibson versus Adolf, the big fight scene at the end that you know is coming. Glover shoots him diplomatic immunity. He shoots the bad guy who's just been revoked. classic 80s.

80s that you always have to have that little plan where it's saying, did I miss any rewatchable scenes? Because I think I have 12. I got one. I think you did. I got one. Yeah. I didn't want to have 20, but add some more.

Drop cloth scene. The drop cloth scene. He's like, he's like, when he's like, you lost a million of a dollars, you know? Like, and he's like drinking an amstel out of a class and eating his dinner. So I love that scene, the drop cloth. Um, they fuck you in the drive-thru. Oh, my God, yeah. Hey, Leo, don't eat the tuna.

Oh, where were you? I just said that. I'm not eating it. I'm not eating too. Come on, let's go back. Hey, we're not going back, so just shut up. Oh, sure. Don't go back.

Okay, okay, don't go back. That's it. That's what they want. Let me tell you, can I give you two guys a friendly piece of advice, okay? Don't ever go up to the drive-thru, okay? Always walk up to the counter. You know why? Okay, okay, okay, I'm going to say.

Okay. They fuck you with the drive-thru, okay? They fuck you at the drive-thru. They know you're going to be miles away Before you find out you got fucked, okay? They know you're not going to turn around and go back So they don't care who gets fucked Oh, Leo, yes, okay, sure

I don't give a fucking nutty this tuna, okay? They fuck you in the drive-thru is Brilliant, so brilliant that they brought it back, they fuck you with the cell phones You know, but they fuck you in the drive-thru It's just so hilarious He's so upset about the tuna He thinks that the drive-thru people

this is the funniest thing about they fuck you in the drive-thru, which it happens, you know, it happens when you go through the drive-thru. He thinks they're doing it on purpose. Yeah. He thinks they think there's some rapscallions there at the drive-thru. They're like, we're going to give this guy a tuna sandwich and he's never coming back.

It's just funny. It did make me averse to drive-thrus for a while, though. Growing up. True. I was like, oh, fuck you with the drive-thru. I think I'm going to go in. Right. I have the toilet scene for most rewatchable.

Basically, because there's so many nivars. because there's so many nitpicks in it too. It's just perfect. It's perfect for rewatchability. All right, we're going to do the rest of the categories. We'll take one more break. If you're a QuickBooks customer

looking to grow your business without the growing pains, you need the Intuit ERP. Upgrade to Intuit Enterprise Suite in a matter of hours. It's the AI native ERP from the makers of QuickBooks. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP.

What's age the best? The condom stuff with the daughter that all pays off with the rubber with the rubber plant joke. It's just classic cop humor where the guys are all hiding the plant and then they walk away and it's just a hundred and he doesn't want to laugh

and then finally he, I just love that shit. That's the kind of stuff that makes a movie for me. So I'm a kid when this is happening, right? Because I see this movie on cable, right? I'm a kid when this is happening. My pops gets to joke way before I do. And when I say,

I've never seen somebody laugh with their entire soul. like this man was laughing at that. I didn't know what, when I first saw the movie, I was like maybe nine or ten, I didn't know what the big deal was. I didn't have any frame of reference to know that, hey, condoms and sex and all of that,

when he saw the other guy and the guy starts talking, my dad lost it. So I would watch that scene intently, trying to understand what was so funny. And it wasn't until I had to understand condoms to understand that scene. So it was, but it, but now you look at it, a room full of cops, like a testosterone male workplace, and your daughter's about to go have sex on the Palace Verdes Beach with this black funk dude.

It's like, yeah, of course. Great stuff. Another would stage the best. Chris, young Dean Norris. Yeah, yeah. A little bit of hair. Him and Nestor Serrano. Just, just cruising around.

It's great to see him. Mention the bad guy with the blonde Hitler hair. I don't know why he didn't try to do the wispy mustache. That would have been too much. Two on a nose. Yeah. The bad guy's South African accents we've mentioned, but I'm just going to give special applause to who is the dickhead now, eh?

How we does South African. Chris, I thought for sure you would be unveiling a South African accent for this. South African is hard. It is hard to do. You're saving it for the Blood Diamond podcast? That's right. I can do Leo, it'd be like Blood Diamond, but I can't do. Yeah, it's really hard to do it.

Joss Ackland, who plays the Russian diplomat in Hunt for October, is pretty good with a variety of different accents. Patsy Kentsett. Age the best? Great job by her in this movie. Not sure what happened. Not sure why she wasn't in our lives and more stuff. I have some notes.

You have some notes? Go ahead. Yeah. So, like, so Patsy Kensen has no, her character has no culpability working there? Nothing. That's the only job she could get? Nothing. She has no idea what's going on, even as,

Cases of cash and dead bodies are being brought out of the office Mr. Rudd here in the morning faxes. It's like, what do you think he's doing? Like, who do you think you're working for? He's like, here's your coffee. I don't know how to explain that part. Obviously, didn't bother Mel Gibson. Maybe that should have been a warning flag for all of us.

Didn't care. You just says your boss is not a nice guy. No. She looks great in this movie, though. She looks great. Your boss is upholding a racist system of division. Come on. You know what's going on.

By the way, it was a tough crowd for her at that point. That was if, for her at that point, so it's tough. You're talking about the golden age of Pfeiffer. It's like all the female singers that tried to come up through the Beyonce and Rihanna era. Yeah. Like you, it's just hard. Don't leave out, please don't leave out Greta Scotchy out of this argument. But there are a lot of them is my point.

Like Meg Ryan's about to come on. there's a crowded field at that point. My buddy Steve Bishop, aka Bish, one of my best best friends from high school, we actually got in a Greta Scotchy Patsy-Kenstead argument once in like 1989-90 Ridge. That was a thing that happened. They were on each other's corner,

and yet Michelle Pfeiffer owned the corner, and they just had no chance. Michelle Pfeiffer is just going to be the first choice for everything. But anyway, great job. It was Patsy, right? It wasn't Patty. Patsy Patsy.

That's Patsy. All right. I want to make sure I didn't get the right. The soundtrack, we didn't mention in lethal weapon. Should we just mention

one of the last big Patsy Kentson facts that we need to address? Oh, go for it. She married Liam Gallagher. Mmm. That tastes a lot out of you. And that was like

peak partying Liam Gallagher. Okay. Well, she was also originally a singer and a band. Yeah. Yeah, she was. Yeah. Big deal.

The soundtrack, Eric Clapton. we forgot to mention Lethal Weapon won the pod movie about that. Dick Clapton does all the guitar stuff in this. There's a George Harrison song in this. They just did a nice job with it. And then for What's Age the Best, just a decision not to have Riggs die.

I think financially is age the best. Any other What's Age the Best for you guys? I just think the introduction of like the Pesci, the introduction of like the microwave man coming off the bench and just completely like injecting the movie with adrenaline in the middle of it. and having him be really like such like a brilliant comic character. And it's it's hard to break through that chemistry with Riggs and Murtaugh,

but like he's just like, it's like he's been doing it since day one when he shows up. Yeah. I got something that I only think about because I did the Wire podcast. Okay. Nail guns. Yeah. Oh.

Yes. This was the first time I had ever in life seen a nail gun. I didn't know. And I think they introduced. nail guns like that because not a lot of people had seen nail guns. That's why the nail gun is such a big device. And another rewatchable scene where they fight in his thing. He used the nail gun to kill all those guys. That's the one that we miss too. I mean, it's just, I mean, you can't miss any. The whole movie's damn near rewatchable. But that nail guns and then the Snoop nail guns scene in the wire, nail guns aged really, really well. Really important advice for Snoop. What's age the worst? I had the nail gun scene in what's age the worst. Not the actual scene, but they shoehorned Glover after he kills him and he goes, nailed them both.

It's just like that kind of the worst version of those bad 80s action funds. It's tough to imagine, like, Riggs gets gunned down and Danny Glover's like, your diplomatic community has been revoked. Your boy is dying. Yeah. More with stage the worst. The love story, it goes on for like maybe three minutes too long. If you're looking for, this movie is still under two hours, which I think is great.

If you're looking for anywhere to edit, maybe we could have sped that part up a tiny bit faster. There's a random Donald Trump reference, which just kind of was like, ah! I have my number one choice for Woodstage to worst, though, is Riggs, especially in this movie, his bullet avoidance strategy of basically just diving on the ground and doing flips. As like, that's going to avoid the machine gun if you just dive forward and roll and jump back up, the gunman's going to be like, whoa! What am I shooting at? Like, I just have no idea. I don't, they film it in a way where it seems like this is such a great maneuver, but I don't know if it would.

I think you would still get shot. Were you in Vietnam? Fair. I was that. I'm just asking, like, you, I feel like he has more to say about that. You know, he was in Noms. I think if we work with a rifle, I think a machine gun is where it might go sideways. Because you could just kind of move the machine gun left to right.

It's like, oh, that guy's rolling. I'll now wait him it this way. Any other words, stage the worst? I didn't really have a laugh for this. I just ultimately think, like, it, it does, we don't need the South African guys to have killed Riggs's wife. Bro, fucking talk your shit, Chris. I hate that shit. Because it's like she, Patty Kenza is his light at the end of the tunnel.

It's like, I am becoming a full human again. And then they take that away. And that all makes sense narratively. She's working for them. They know who she is. They, they kill them or whatever. him being like, by the way, we have been operating

this like criminal conspiracy in and around Long Beach in Los Angeles for years, in which time we killed your wife before lethal weapon even started. And you guys just haven't been able to sniff us out since then. Like it's just an extra bit of motivation

where it's like, if Patti Kensett is killed, I still believe Riggs pulls the house down on stilts. It's not like he needs like that extra bit of a chip on his shoulder. I agree. And I, Bill knows from, the New Jack

City podcast that I hate it when they do that. Like when it's revealed that Nino Brown is actually the one who killed Scottie's mom. I'm just like, come on, bro. Like, Nino's bad enough. We don't need another thing. I do think, though, that maybe the reason why they did that is because Riggs was

so attached to his wife that they wanted to give him some closure. Maybe they're, you know what I mean? Yeah. But there's actually some kind of like, I like the fact that it might have been just like the one night he doesn't drive her home, she gets into a car. accident. I think the story, I think it's more affecting that way. Yeah. To be honest with you. Yes, I completely

agree. And obviously, if I say what's age the worst, two things age the worst. Number one, this movie got to be that guy. This movie is fucking just like classic propaganda. They break every single rule. Riggs

has zero warrant when he goes into their house. You know what I mean? Like, they just are. And this is classic propaganda. Every single rule about policing

that we're trying to add they break it now. And two, I just got to say it again. Mel, fuck. God damn it. But I might,

that's the last time I'm gonna say. Jesus, man. Why, Mel? Why'd you do it, Mel? Maverick and Maverick to all of these other movies.

I can't fucking even watch hostage now. You fuck the whole thing up, dude. Keep your fucking shit to yourself. Damn it. One other thing about the reveal with the way

That actually just could have been the plot of lethal weapon three. Ransom. Yes. It could have been. Yes. They could just save that. Tucked it away. Casting what ifs.

I only found one, but it is a bombshell. The original choice to play Leo before Pesci. Our guy. Very near and dear to our hearts here. The rewatchables. Joey Pants. Wow. Had a conflict.

He was doing the last of the finest. Yeah. I don't even know what that was. and couldn't do it. And so Joey Pants, come on Joey Pants. So anyway, he paves the way for the Joe Pesci era.

He would have rocked it, to be honest, would you? Yeah, he would have been great. They also were thinking about DeVito, apparently. Hmm. Eh. That doesn't work. Too lovable.

Which leads us to the Joey Pants Award for best that guy. So obviously, Josh Acklin's going to win because I didn't know his name until I saw this movie, but I knew him from Hunt for Red October and this movie and all this.

just never knew what his name was. Special shout out, though, to Boggs from Shawshank, who gets shot pretty early in this movie by the South Africans. He's great to see Boggs again. He's in aliens, too, as is Jeanette Goldstein, right? Is that her name? Yeah. Yeah, Jeanette Goldstein.

I have to be honest with you, I could make an argument that all the cops are that guys. All of the cops. I mean, not, not Dean, but it just dawned on me that the female cop that dies on a diving board is Edward Furlong's mother. And she's Vasquez and aliens. Vasquez and aliens. Yeah. And then the black cop, that guy with the curly hair, he's in diehard. He's in diehard. And then one of the other cops is also in Babel.

I could argue that all the cops are. There's a lot of that guys in this movie. The person who is competing most with Joss Acklin, though, is Jack McKee, who plays the dude doing the construction on Mertar's house and is basically. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. He's a good, that guy. He is in a hundred different things. He's in the paper. He's in rescue me. He's in like so many different things. Vincent Hanna, give me all you got a word for best

overacting. The evil bad guy really over-evils it in a way that I liked and enjoyed. But he definitely dials it up. I think he's our winner. Also, Riggs when Riggs is in full vengeance mode. I'm not a cop tonight, Roger. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. The Dionne Waiter's Award.

I think Joe Pesci is eligible and he should win. He's eligible to the extent that I would almost change the name of the award. Yeah. He's so amazing. Yeah. Recasting Couch? I don't know if I would touch this movie. I mean, I guess you could say one of the South African bad guys should be somebody that we know in some way.

Like it could have been, I don't know, some wrestler from the 80s or something. Could have been like the Ultimate Warrior who's like the fourth South of Africa. but I don't want a nitpick with that. Halfass internet research, we pretty much covered everything except for Grand Theft Auto 5. Pretty iconic video game. One of the main protagonists

finds out the wife is cheating on him with a tennis coach and then pulls the lethal weapon and pulls the house down on stilts. There's an homage to lethal weapon. That was the only new piece of information I found. Apex Mountain. Gibson's still probably not,

but we're after this movie, he could basically do whatever he wants for the entire 90s. And unfortunately, he can do whatever he wants, which leads to a lot of the Mel Gibson issues we eventually have. But I would still say it's Braveheart. Glover, I think yes. And this seems like the perfect time for Van to give these two movies who are bad for Danny Glover theory.

Okay, so these movies come out. Danny Glover is playing an older cop. But he's still actually only like in his 40s. Yep. And I think, so this same decade, Danny Glover had done the color purple, you know, done some other film. He's places in the heart. I think he was in. Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon. I think the movie aged Danny Glover in our subconscious, like 30 years, which when you look at a 40-year-old actor then, or if you look at a 45, 46, 47-year-old actor now, there were still roles Danny Glover probably could have played. But, but, like, he's, he's 74 now. He's only 74 now. Yeah. Yeah, he was 43 in this movie. Right.

So that, think about what's playing 50. 50, right? Yeah, something. And when you think he's 43 in this film, think about what 43 is. I'm 41. Right. You know what I mean? And so when you, when you look at it moving forward, I think the aging of Danny Glover

in. this movie kind of like it took him out of contention for some roles that he probably should have been in you know that he some things that he probably should have been able to do i was shocked how many movies he's been in if you go look at his i mdb he's he's he's like in 200 movies and this is it's done a lot even since 2000 he's in like a hundred movies he just has been working all the time i would have assumed after the four lethal weapons that was it but he's he must like to work. You remember Predator 2? Predator 2 was

almost the movie to where... That was supposed to be his star turn. Like his star turn to where it was going to be like Danny Glover can now go do this. But you kind of didn't buy it because like Murtaugh is feeble. He's the falcon of this whole franchise. He gets his ass kicked

every time. He wins just by guile or luck at the end. And Riggs is the young, hot, virile hot shot. I think the character sort of went on to define him. I think you're right. I think he got trapped by the character. Angels in the outfield, maybe the one time he was able to break out of a tiny bit. Richard Donner, I'd probably say yes. I think at this point, he owned a big chunk of this movie and could do whatever he wanted to. Patsy Kentson's...

I think also he wins whatever battle there is for the soul of this franchise from Shane Black with this movie. Yeah. Because the Shane Black idea is obviously a lot darker. And Donner's like, let's keep it light, let's have fun, let's make these movies and make some money. Patsy Kentsit, obviously. Evil South Africans. Yeah. Gotta be, right? Yeah. Bad things happen in houses on stilts.

I'd say absolutely. Ramsey's condoms, Apex Mountain. Has there been a better, more important, Ramsey's condoms moment? Ramsey's had a run, though. It did, but I don't,

I think of this movie first when I think of Ramsey's. By the late 90s, Trojans, I think, overtook Ramsey's. I don't know, I don't even know why Ramsey. I don't even know what Ramsey's is. Well, Ramsey's is a condom company. I never, I wasn't around. Yeah, it was like a Trojans rival. It was like the

Pepsi to Coke's Trojan. Why is who is who is Ramsey? It's like Ramsey like the he's like a Pharaoh. Oh, we're talking about the Pharaoh Ramsey. Man, why why don't know, why don't we got like no Abraham Lincoln condoms? I also don't know why yeah. Why do they have to have like like classical connotations? You know, right? Abraham Lincoln condoms will set you free from disease. or pregnancy. That makes a lot more sense than, like, I don't know. Ramsey was bad.

He was keeping my homeboys down over there. Whatever. Go ahead. I don't think they cared in the late 80s. Separated shoulders, Apex Mountain. Yeah. Ooh, let me think about this, though. Trying to think of a better separated shoulder.

Emmett Smith had one in the NFC championship game that year. They played with and he had like 130 yards. That was a good one. I feel like Tony Romo got dropped on his shoulder. or like a bunch of times by various Eagles defensive linemen. Well, I'm trying to think of

like somebody with a separated shoulder who still was fighting through it and succeeding in some way. I think this might be it. Breeze came back after the separated shoulder. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's another one. That's right.

Yeah. Diving board bombs, definitely. That seems kind of cool. It doesn't seem C.G. No, I think it's about, I mean, it might be a dummy, but it's definitely a very, it's very well- good.

Nail guns, I say no. I think Snoop in the wire. like that nail guns were an intricate plot device and the wire just seemed more important. Picking Nits. So the helicopter comes in the opening scene. I never understand. Don't these cops see other movies?

Just shoot at the blades. What are you guys doing? They're just like shooting at the bottom thing. Just shoot at the blade a couple of time. But for as much as these cops break all the rules, they weirdly respect certain things, like where they're like, oh, well, they got diplomatic immunity. We got to stand down.

You know what I mean? Maybe they're just like, well, we can't shoot it. a helicopter. Well, another shooting thing was, he might be right. Another shooting thing was, I don't know why they didn't kill Riggs. It's the classic action movie device

where it's like, should we kill this guy? No, let's actually give him a more complicated, longer way to die that he might be able to get out of. And before we throw him in the water, give him even more motivation

to drive himself to get out. Yeah. Right. Takens like this too, where they just could have killed Liam Neeson and take him. And instead they'd leave them just in handcuffs on a pole.

Oh, no, you guys finish it. There was a reason why. Why? Because remember, I watched that so many times. He says, remember, if they don't him and they shoot him a bunch of times, the people upstairs at the party are going to hear. Oh, so that's right. They have to wait. Yeah.

So the guy goes, kill him, do it quietly. I have guests. So that's why they were trying to suffocate him or do it. But first they wanted to find out what he knows. So they tried to have, they half-ass explained that. Yeah, they could have put one bullet in him. Or used the silence. right, which I'm sure they have access to.

I don't know if they were doing condom ads in 1989. I just flagged it. I can't remember. I don't think so. I'm going to say no on that. They weren't really doing like cigarette ads in 1989. I'm going to say no on that one. And then Riggs thinking it was a good idea to bring his girlfriend back to her apartment

after they just survived this bullet barrage of for 20 minutes. And then he's like, I'll see you guys later. Why can she go wrong? With Murta's like wife's sister and Bellflower you know She works for these terrible

South Africans they know where she lives She's like all right Talk to you tomorrow Oh By the way We totally miss the Apex Mountain What was it?

Bellflower Oh There's actually a really good movie Called Bellflower They came out a few years ago though Okay I haven't seen that Any of their picking nets? Yeah

What's up How come Riggs When they go into the toilet scene And Riggs is like he's like, I was just so excited to read my my issue of deep sea fishing. And Riggs is like, is that the one about deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida? And it's like, do you guys read deep sea fishing magazine like that?

Where you're like just on first name basis with the feature well? With the issues? Yeah. My problem with that scene is that it's Roger who has the boat. Right. So it's like, Roger might. Yeah.

Roger might. Is that the one with the, the, see fishing. Riggs wouldn't know that. Yeah. Like, what does Riggs know about the damn? It brings us in a freaking trailer with his dog watching three stooges. He's not reading

Deep Dive magazine. Right. Which is my picking net, by the way. Yeah. This dog is poorly cared for. Riggs spends all of his time at the Mertas. Right. The place is getting shot up. Yeah.

Like, who's looking after this dog? Bill and I have discussed this. Bill and I have discussed this. various formats. I think we did it on hottest tape. This is an action movie trope. It's an action movie trope. People leaving the dog for 15 hours.

In the 80s, there was just a different relationship to pets. And it was like, the pet will figure it out. Okay. Yeah. So here's the thing. Me and Kalika just went to Hawaii. We put Bozeman up in a $100 a night pet hotel to where before we went to sleep every night, we pressed a button, gave the dog treats.

on the thing that we could see. We could see him, right? We would tap a button, like, and then he could hear us, which is probably torturing my little G. Because he hears my voice, but I'm not right there. We did all of this. So when I'm watching this movie on vacation, I'm thinking, yo, who's looking after this dog?

Nobody. You know what? The streets. The streets were looking after the dog. That's how we used to do it. The dog will be fine. Yeah, it was like, the dog is fine. You would hire a 12-year-old for $2.

day to come by and open a can. And that was how the dog was taken care of. Well, the all-time dog negligence movie is once upon a time in America. Brad Pitt's dog is alone for days at a time. In a trailer. Anyway, all right.

Could this be remade as a 10-episode? Netflix show, next category. Obviously not. Probably in answerable questions. So diplomatic immunity was, is this a movie device or a thing? Is this a thing? If you have it, you could just commit crimes,

left and right. It's never really explored in the movie. I've found it confusing. I did some Googling. It doesn't really seem like it's a real thing. There is like, I always get very excited content in like the current events when like issues of extradition do come up, where it's like, you know, like a diplomat's wife got to a car accident in England, but they won't bring her back, but they refuse to let her go. Like it's, I get into that just because I always imagine somebody being like diplomatic immunity after they commit some heinous crime. Yeah. The diplomatical community didn't work for Leangelo Ball. He went down there

and he didn't care. He wasn't from there. He's not a diplomat. I know, but at the same time, they threw the book at my G. Like they, like he went down there. First of all, can we just real quick? I want to pick Nits about his life. I know you're looking at the clock bill. No, no. I was looking at the pool guy.

I want to pick Nits about his life. Why on God's Green Earth did that boy go to China to play a game and steal sunglasses. Can any, have we ever talked about that? What was the ex-why did that happen? Why they stealing sunglasses?

That's why he's the Black Sheep Ball Brother. He's like, who's the third Hemsworth? I don't know. You know, you talk about the shorter. Yeah, I know the guy. No, there's the shorter Hemsworth? Yeah. He's like that guy.

Somebody should make a show with all the third brothers. She's got third brothers. Daniel Baldwin? See the Baldwin that? Yeah, but didn't Daniel wind up being like the cool Baldwin? Or is he the one who got completely like red-pilled? Which Baldwin went out of it? The third Franco.

Craig points out there's a third Franco. There's a third Franco? Yeah, there's third Franco. Oh, Jesus Christ. Frankie Franco. Yeah. The only answerable question I had is could it actually work to pull a house down that's on stilts just with a truck?

because there's a lot of houses that have, especially like in California on mountains and stuff, could you actually do this? My guess is no. If you can, then those people are, they basically sign their own death warrant by getting into the house

because an earthquake is going to come and destroy the home. So I'm guessing that they took some liberties there. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? The surfboard? Surfboard's good. I'm going to want the goal pin. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's good. I think the surfboard's a good one. I think you keep the fake blood on it, though. Bill, you asked about the Netflix series, and I do think, obviously, like the Leighal Weapon TV series came, I think it came and went. Yeah.

I would like to see if we're just going to play around the IP a little bit, is what happens when there's, like, a hype house-type place, and then in next door moves the South African consulate. Are they still even? And like Logan and Jake are trying to do pranks. And the fucking drug dealing South African guys are like,

you got doing it pranksia. And they're like, my boys just tried this sick prank on these South African diplomats. That would be good. That's a good way. Oh, my God. You know what I forgot to put an Apex Mountain is this was the last, Eddie Murphy starts the era of those

high school jackets Oh yeah, Riggs is Barstie Jacket. And then Riggs has his version That was like a nice little four year run of varsity jackets That kind of came and went I'd like to bring those back

Yeah, I think they look great I even think when Patsy Kents said Dead wearing the jacket I thought she looked great And then dead in the jacket It's just I've never seen those jackets Not look awesome Yeah, my school's sending me one

Like I lost mine Like you actually got destroyed And Hurricane Katrina and like my school is like sending one, it makes you feel powerful and youthful to put on your leather jacket, your letter jacket. You're like, you know what?

I'm a fucking man right now. That's why those guys wore them. They were in their late 30s, still trolling around LA. Varsity jacket. We're wearing a varsity jacket. Looking like complete fucking tools, but it worked.

I got to say those things are fucking hot. like they're basically like wearing a fire retardant suit on the upper half of your body. So to wear those in LA is an aggressive move. There's a lot of stuff happening in in all 80s LA action movies that is like pre-global warming. That is like everything that happens in the Hollywood Hills is just like a fire issue. Like now like you can't pull down that house without lighting up all of Mulholl and Drive. Yeah, that's true. That would have been a fire for three and a half weeks.

Right. All right. This is where Van tells us that Joe Pesci won the. the movie. Who won the movie, Van? I'll be honest with you. I think Joe Pesci won the movie. I'm serious.

I'll be honest with you. Obviously, Riggs wins the movie, right? Obviously, Riggs wins the movie. So this is more like a, this is like a 1997. I'll tell you what situation this is. This is the 1997 Hiseman Trophy.

Or maybe it was 98. Remember the Hizman Trophy where everyone just assumed Peyton Manning was going to win the Heisman and then so many people because they assumed Peyton was going to win the Hizman they voted for Charles Woodson that he just ended up winning

when Charles Wilson won the Hizman that's who Joe Pessie is in this situation So you're going to throw your vote to Pesci knowing. I'm going to throw my vote to Pesci knowing this is how Anthony Hopkins went up with it went out on Oscar. You know that right? Yeah. Well, Bozeman's going to win but I'm just going to vote for Anthony

just for the hell of it. don't even get me fucking started on that. If not for a, Bill, God damn you. If not for other. Ben, you can't come back. You're still in time out because you said that Pesci is not as good as he isn't. He's better than he isn't good fellas. Look, that was, look, I still got jet lagged.

I regret it. But what I'll say is this, if not for other developments that night, you would have heard a lot more. from me on that situation. Yeah, you're still doing victory laps. Right. But anyway, so that's the only explanation I can give for saying Joe Pesci. I'm just,

Riggs is so clearly the winner that I'm just throwing a bone to the other guy. Chris, you have Gibson? I have Gibson. So I think the right answer is Gibson wins the movie, but then the title is vacated, like how we vacated NCAA football titles

where there was cheating. He was the Reggie Bush. It was, yeah, he was Reggie Bush. The title vacated like 15 years later. So he actually, there's no winner of the movie. The title's been vacated. The movie, but Pesci makes the movie. Fair. It's great.

How sad would, how upset do you think Mel Gibson would be if his title was vacated and then it was given to Danny Glover and how he feels? He's probably against that. But you know what the crazy thing is? They're boys. Those guys, they're friends. They're still boys. Yeah.

It's just so odd, man. I just can't watch hacks already. the same in the world. What are we doing apocalyptic rewatching this, man? Well, just for the listeners, we're not done with action movies from the 80s one.

We went a little out of order with Lethal Weapon, but the next one I think we're going to do is Beverly Hills Cop 2 down the road, which brings an incredible argument with it of, was that actually a better movie

than Beverly House Cop 1? I'm prepared to have that argument. I'll do that later in a few weeks. Chris Ryan, Van Lathen. It was a pleasure. As always, good to see you guys. Thanks for being a... Mel, why?

That's it for the rewatchables. Next week, very excited to announce we're going to be back in the studio. The first time we have done a podcast all together in 15 months. Be Sean and Chris, and we are breaking out one of the most important movies

we've ever done on this podcast. So stay tuned. Get ready. You have a week. Thank you.