Lethal Weapon 4

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 3 (Lethal Weapons 1, 2, and 3)
Year Released	1998	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	122 minutes (not 127 as per cover)	Other Extras	Cast & Crew Biographies Featurette-Pure Lethal-Outtakes 1/2/3 (31 mins) Featurette-Cut/Extended Scenes 1/2/3 (17 mins) Cast & Crew Interviews Featurette-B-Roll Footage (10 mins)
RSDL/Flipper	Flipper for Extras	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	4	Director	Richard Donner
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Mel Gibson Danny Glover Joe Pesci Rene Russo Chris Rock Jet Li
Case	Snapper
RRP	$29.95	Music	Michael Kamen Eric Clapton David Sanborn

    Mel Gibson and Danny Glover reprise their roles as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh. Joe Pesci as Leo Getz is reduced by this script to a cartoon-like buffoon with little comedic merit ("OK, OK, OK"). Rene Russo also returns as Lorna Cole, this time heavily pregnant with Martin's baby. Chris Rock, the most annoying comic in America, plays Lee Butters, who is married to Roger's daughter who is also heavily pregnant, all somehow unbeknownst to Roger. The main villain of this piece is Jet Li playing Wah Sing Ku, a representative of a Chinese Triad who prefers hand-to-hand combat to do his killing.

    Other than Jet Li who makes an excellent and very nasty arch-villain, all the other characters are one-dimensional, and quite secondary to the progression from one action sequence to the next. Interspersed between the action sequences are painfully bad attempts at the typical banter between the characters, which in the past had been very well done and was one of the hallmarks of the Lethal Weapon series.

    All-in-all, even though the explosions are bigger and better than ever before, and the stunts are bigger and better than ever before, Lethal Weapon 4 left me very disappointed. There is one bright spot - the DVD is rated MA, whereas the Australian theatrical release was rated M - some gore has been reinstated into this transfer.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was very sharp and clear at all times. Shadow detail was excellent, and there was no low level noise.

    The colour in the first 15 minutes or so of the movie was grossly oversaturated, and was terrible to look at. This improved, but remained quite heavily saturated throughout. This is a movie that is best watched with the colour control turned down a few notches.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of more aliasing than I would have liked to see in a current Warner Brothers transfer, but it remained at an acceptable level. Film artefacts were basically non-existent, as you would expect in a movie of this recent vintage.

Audio

    Dialogue was almost inaudible for the first 15 minutes of the movie, being both unclear and drowned out by ambience. This was very irritating and was a major problem with this movie, not that the dialogue was all that good to begin with. This did improve as the movie progressed (the relative volume of the dialogue, not the quality of the dialogue).

    There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The musical score was by Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn. Nothing remarkable here.

     The surround channels were aggressively used by the soundtrack for copious gunshots and explosions. It is a real pity about the nearly inaudible dialogue at the start of the movie, as otherwise this is an excellent soundtrack, superbly enveloping.

   The .1 channel, for the first time in quite a while on my system, received a serious workout, with nearly continuous use to support the special effects. It was well-integrated into the overall soundtrack.

Menu

Cast & Crew Biographies

    This is narrated by an oddly-animated Danny Glover, and consists of outtakes from the first 3 Lethal Weapon movies. This is a good watch.
Featurette - Cut/Extended Scenes, Lethal Weapons 1, 2 and 3 (17 mins)
    These are three separate featurettes showing a number of scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. They are presented sans narration, which makes them considerably less interesting than the Pure Lethal featurette, but they are a worthwhile contribution. They are presented in the original aspect ratios of the first three movies.

Interview Gallery - Cast & Crew

Featurette - B-Roll Footage (10 mins)

Theatrical Trailers - Lethal Weapons 1, 2, 3, and 4

Missing Extras

    The video quality is good except for early on where the colour is grossly oversaturated.

    The audio quality is great except for early on where the dialogue is all but inaudible.

    The extras present are comprehensive, and only lacking in a director's commentary track (this is present on the Region 1 version of this disc).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
19th May 1999