BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: The Gang's All Here! Pure dynamite! The LETHAL WEAPON team has done it again, putting the match to the fuse and putting the WOW! back on the screen for LETHAL WEAPON 4. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh, with Joe Pesci riding comedy shotgun as chatterbox Leo. Murtaugh is still the family man. Riggs is still the gonzo loose cannon and - what's this? - family man. His will he/won't he marriage to Cole (Rene Russo) is one of the new wrinkles in this powerhouse crowd-pleaser that also stars comedy favorite Chris Rock and international action star Jet Li. Wedding bells, ammo shells, explosive laughter - this one's fully loaded!

FILM REVIEW: The last instalment in this franchise feels like a high-school reunion film, at least for the people involved in making of it. There’s a plot, flimsy as it is, but unlike previous entries where there was a serious attempt to tell a story, this time it’s there just to provide an excuse to bring the ‘gang’ back together one more time, and you can tell they’re having their own fun working together as opposed to actually making a film. Don’t get me wrong; if you enjoyed the previous films and the characters then you’ll enjoy them in this entry, and it is entertaining in its own right, however, I can’t call this a film; it’s more like an assembly of footage that works the way a ‘greatest hits album’ would work, or maybe a home movie of that high school reunion I mentioned earlier. It’s big, expensive, bold and entertaining; but it’s not a film.

One of the ways you can tell this isn’t a film is through the performances by the main leads. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover look like their ‘acting’ this time as opposed to inhabiting their characters of Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh; much of the time you get the impression that they can’t believe they’ve been called back in to duty by Warner Brothers one more time. Their charisma, charm and skill is not at fault; it’s as good as ever and they’re still enjoyable to watch. However, there is a sense that they’re only present because they got a big fat cheque to reprise their roles and aside from that there doesn’t appear to be the same level of enthusiasm as in the previous films, or in other words, the characters seem pale imitations of their former selves. This extends to the rest of the recurring cast as well; Joe Pesci is perhaps the most unfortunate. His Leo Getz character is now the butt-end of all the jokes, as opposed to being that as well as an important character, as he was in the previous two films. Only newcomers Chris Rock and Jet Li actually bring something new and fresh to the table, but even then, the framework for the story isn’t particularly strong so their contributions unfortunately don’t amount to much.

Another problem is the complete lack of atmosphere or drama; it’s all very mechanical like director Richard Donner is going through the motions. The chase scenes are spectacular but not dramatic, and in some cases are over the top (when Riggs and Murtaugh leave a freeway, smash through a building, keep driving through the building, and the magically re-enter the freeway when they smash through the other side of the building). In the big climax, there’s a moment that’s meant to elicit the idea that Riggs might die (as he’s pinned by a concrete slab under water). Aside from a curiosity standpoint, you don’t really feel any sense of tension over whether he will die or not, and on top of that, when Murtaugh saves Riggs, the two guys get up, shake the dust/water off their backs and walk out of there with no sign of the massive beatings they just took from martial arts master Jet Li, or that Riggs spent a few minutes under water pinned down by a concrete slab. Okay, it’s an action film, it can be over the top, but whereas in the previous entries they probably would have gotten away with it, this sort of thing is just ridiculous in this entry because there’s no attempt made to suspend your disbelief.

I have rated ‘Lethal Weapon 4’ higher than my words would suggest; it’s not that I didn’t think this film was a fun way to spend a few hours, I’m just disappointed there was no attempt to recapture the magic or depth present in each of the previous entries in the franchise.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: This is a rare DVD in that it’s a single-sided flipper disc (one side has the feature, the other side has the extras). For a single-sided transfer the video quality is remarkably good, providing clean and crisp pictures throughout the running time, and because it’s single-sided, there’s no layer transition pause which is almost unusual in itself but welcome. The audio is fabulous, particularly in any of the action scenes where there’s glass smashing, cars crashing, and lots of swearing by our heroes. A great transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: Very interesting extras package in so far as it’s the only film in the series that has any. Did Warner Brothers think the only way people would buy this entry is to see the documentaries? Who knows. They are a good selection of extras though. There’s a nice 30-minute documentary which covers all of the films and is pseudo-hosted by Danny Glover, containing a number of great interviews and behind the scenes footage. There’s an interesting ‘B-Roll’ featurette which is an assembly of random behind the scenes footage. There’s deleted scenes from the first three films (although these are the scenes edited in to the Director’s Cut edition DVDs of those films). There’s a selection of video interviews with all the main participants and trailers. There's also addition French and Italian language tracks as well as subtitles (English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and English & Italian for the hearing impaired). A great collection of extras.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.