Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

"Let's live to regret this." Riggs (Mel Gibson) to Lorna (Rene Russo)

That's not a great line, but it's what Riggs says when he's willing Lorna to hold on after the bad guy has almost fatally shot her. And it's about the only line in the movie that stood out even a little bit. Beyond that, if this film had a writer, he wasn't being paid for the dialogue.

In the first film, they immediately draw you in with a naked woman jumping to her death. In the second film, they start with a high-speed chase. In this film, we get a song playing to pretty fire behind the opening credits. Maybe the opening is foreshadowing, as the Riggs will make sure that the bad guys burns in the end, but I thought it was definitely the weakest of the three openings.

But really, after the bomb scare sequence, I checked out. Riggs wants to go in to disable the bomb, even though he has no training in that. He's willing to risk his life -- again, if he's no longer suicidal, why? -- but more confusingly, he's willing to risk Roger's (Danny Glover) life. Why would he let Roger come into the building with him? Why would he put Roger's life at risk, especially when he's a week away from retirement and he's promised Rog's wife that he will keep him safe?

Who's the bad guy, and who cares? Although I complained about the bad guys in the first two movies being flat and one-dimensional, at least I knew who they were and what they stood for. In this one, I just didn't care at all.

Bottom line, I guess I'm still looking for more character development and something more to the relationships. You can't just bring back Leo (Joe Pesci) and make him Rog's relator. Why on earth would Rog hire Leo? And beyond that, he doesn't have a purpose in the film.

Meanwhile, Riggs no longer mourns for his dead wife, which is fine, but in this and the last movie, he finds two women he likes, hooks up with them immediately, and then makes it seem like they are "the one" and he will stay loyal to them until the end of time. Is that what he did with his wife, too? Just hook up with her on the first date and then decide that she was the one he would be with until the end?

Lethal Weapon 2 was a step down, and Lethal Weapon 3 is a lot more than a step. Everyone reviewing Lethal Weapon 4 says it's the real stinker of the series, and yes, I plan to re-watch it anyway, because I don't remember anything about it... But how can it be any worse than this one?

Rating: 1/5 stars

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