Our Flick of the Week is “Lethal Weapon 4,” which once again stars those cut-up cops Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) who yuk it up so much on the job that you wonder if they got their training at a police academy or a comedy club. Their specialty — and, wow, does it become wearing — is to yell patter at each other during an action scene: “Take my careening squad car, please!”
Their assignment this time — as if it matters — is to bust up a Chinese gang trading in illegal aliens and bogus currency. But villains have never been a big deal in this series; one-liners and exploding fireballs are. I think I counted four of the latter in the first hour here.
The key supporting players — or because they joke, too, opening acts — are back including the annoyingly talkative mob accountant, Leo Getz played by Joe Pesci, and Gibson’s now-pregnant love interest (Rene Russo).
Here’s the bottom line on this series now: When every quiet moment is interrupted with a vehicular crash, and every crash is interrupted with fraternal joking, you end up feeling as if you’re watching a machine-made entertainment more than free-flowing movie. Just for variety’s sake, someone should have thrown the script pages of “Lethal Weapon 4” into the air before cameras began rolling. Rated R. (star) (star)
– SMALL SOLDIERS. Director Joe Dante rework his “Gremlins” story into a battle between a new set of children’s military action figures and supernatural aliens. Not enough is made of the soldiers, save for their macho leader, and the aliens wind up being little more than stooges. I did like, however, how the toys automatically punch out of their clear plastic packaging so you can begin playing with them. That’s an idea waiting to be ripped off by the toy industry. If the ads for this film suggest an entertainment at the level of “Toy Story,” forget it. Neither the story nor the animation is at that level. PG-13. (star) (star)
– = New this week
