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28 Friday, March 20, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Mel Gibson And Debra Winger
`Open Up' In Fast-Paced New Films
Bim, barn, splat, pow, zing,
and wow!
That's what Lethal Weapon
(Rated: R) is like.
To call it an "action" film
seems some how insufficient,
for this is more than action.
It's like a celluloid tornado. It
clobbers you.
Some of the sequences hap-
pen sofast that they're over
before you realize what's
happened. You gasp for
breath and then let out a
sigh of relief, or even a nerv-
ous laugh.
Even in this hyper-hyper
age where everything is
bigger-than-life,
Lethal
Weapon will excite you with
its pace, its pith, and its
punch. It's also laced with
laughs.
Mel Gibson fans will love
this one for you see more of
Mel than ever before. And
Mel does more than ever.
He's loose. He opens up. He
lets you see what's happening
inside.
But let me inject a quick
word of caution. Lethal
Weapon is not for the faint-
hearted. There's plenty of vio-
lence, blood and gore. Maybe
there's almost too much. That
thought occurred to me as we
got to torture and head-
bashing in the final se-
quences.
The basic set-up and story
line are fairly simple. Gibson
plays a spaced-out narcotics
cop who's known as a "crazy"
on the force. He got that way
from his training with the
CIA in special forces, a tour
in Vietnam, his experiences
as a cop, and finally, the traf-
fic accident death of his wife.
Gibson is teamed up with a
50-year old black police vete-
ran, played by Danny Glover.
Glover is a stable, family
man, the complete opposite of
the strung out Gibson.
The pairing of a black and
white, who are personality
opposites to boot, might re-
mind you of 48Hours with
Eddie Murphy and Nick
Nolte. And well it might. For
Lethal Weapon's producer,
Joel Silver, also produced
that earlier ebony-and-ivory
adventure. In a time-honored
Hollywood tradition, Silver
has sought to reprise success
with another version of a
previous blockbuster.
But I'll be darned if Silver
hasn't managed to come up
with a good picture. There's a
script that races along, char-
acters with some fresh twists,
and dialogue that sounds
newly minted.
Gibson and Glover are put
on the case of an apparent
suicide: a young hooker who's
killed herself by jumping out
of her high-rise apartment
Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon."
window in the startling open-
ing sequence. It quickly be-
comes apparent that there's
more than meets the eye as
the team learns of the girl's
tie-in to a drug ring. And
then we're off and running to
catch the bad guys.
There's not a lot of mystery
here for we're shown the bad
guys early on. And boy are
they bad!
To demonstrate how de-
voted his henchman are, the
head bad guy orders his chief
lieutenant to hold out his
arm so he can apply his ciga-
rette lighter to it. Of course,
the flunkey never flinches.
The burnee in this case is
played by Gary Busey. He's
not one of the more
stereotyped roles in Lethal
Weapon, that of the sub-
human emotionless "albino"
mercenary. But then, we
must remember that the pro-
ducer is also responsible for
several Arnold Schwarzeneg-
ger epics.
Hey, gang, one other point
to note: there's no sex in this
one! Gibson is too busy flex-
ing his biceps and exercising
his pecs as he single-
handedly Rambo-like wipes
out the mob.
Black Widow (Rated: R) is
leisurely in pace compared to
the Gibson grabber. Theresa
Russel plays a cold-hearted
psycho who marries rich old
men and then knocks them
off for their money. Debra
Winger is the government
justice department worker
who's out to catch her.
The beginning moves along
briskly as we see Russell dis-
pose of spouses numbers one
and two.
We never see hubby
number one, except in photo-
graphs, and Dennis Hopper is
colorful in a too brief appear-
ance as spouse number two.
Things slow down a little as
we get to victim number
three, adroitly played by the
slick Nicol Williamson.
We really gear down to a
crawl, however, by the time
Russell is working on in-
tended victim number four.
This one is played by the
least interesting or attractive
of all the men, Sami Frey.
Frey is written and played as
a total wimp. Not only does
he fall for Russell's obvious
maneuverings, but the mo-
ment she's off the scene and a
more real Winger appears, he
immediately declares his love
for her. (Remind you of a
song? "When I'm not near the
girl I love.")
Another thing, someone
wasn't paying attention be-
cause Sami Frey's coloring
changes from scene to scene,
from sun-tanned, to pale, to
sun-tanned, to grey. C'mon
guys, let's get with it.
Black Widow is entertain-
ing in a modest way,
nonetheless. Russell is very
effective as the murdering
mistress. And Debra Winger
does one of her best jobs ever.
Like Gibson, here's a major
star who opens up more on
the screen than in any prev-
ious picture. Always loose,
Winger seems to throw away
her last inhibitions in this
one.
The film would be a lot
more interesting if we saw
into these two main char-
acters even the slightest bit.
Why does Russell keep mur-
dering, even after she's got-
ten millions? Why does
Winger bury herself in her
job and ignore the oppor-
tunities to develop a relation-
ship with a man?
After the draggy middle,
the picture picks up steam for
a clever ending. No, I won't
be a spoilsport and give it
away.