Lethal Weapon: HD-DVD Review by Chris Boylan on BigPictureBigSound

Published: 2006-06-25 - 22:15:00

Lethal Weapon: HD-DVD Review

By Chris Boylan

The Film

"Lethal Weapon" made an impression on many people during its theatrical run in 1987, myself included. While the tale of a loose cannon cop being paired with a more seasoned "by-the-book" old-timer is not entirely original, the actors inhabit their characters with gusto, and play off each other well. This leads to an enjoyable, if somewhat predictable, ride. Lethal Weapon's success led to not only 3 sequels, but a host of lesser rip-offs that are better left unmentioned.

As background, the "crazy" cop Martin Riggs (Gibson) has recently lost his wife in a tragic accident and now leaps recklessly into dangerous situations, perhaps hoping for a criminally-assisted suicide. But (of course) he's too skilled to be taken out that easily, and manages to escape these situations mostly unscathed, leaving behind a trail of dead bad guys. The old-timer Roger Murtaugh (Glover), who's pretty good in a scrape himself, takes a different approach, preferring to play things safe and, when possible, to resolve situations without the use of deadly force.

When fate throws these two together, and an old friend of Murtaugh asks for his help investigating his daughter's death, a seemingly straightforward suicide investigation reveals a web of deception as well as a large-scale drug dealing syndicate organized and operated by some seriously bad dudes. Along the way, in the course of pursuing the investigation, and saving each other's skins, the two reach common ground and learn to appreciate each other's opposing views. Believable? No. Predictable? Maybe. Fun? Sure!

The Picture

As with earlier Warner titles on HD-DVD, "Lethal Weapon" features a 1080p (1920X1080) 16:9 HD transfer from film, which offers a noticeable improvement over previous DVD releases of the film. Details are crisp and clean, image artifacts are few and far between. Not a reference disc, by any means, due to the dated material, but a significant improvement over the standard DVD.

The Sound

The cheesy 80s soundtrack, comprised almost exclusively of original music composed and scored for the film, and with contributions from Eric Clapton, comes across quite clearly, although at times the dialog is slightly buried in the mix. This left me diving for the remote to adjust the volume on more than one occasion. But part of the spoken word issue may be related to the actors themselves - Gibson's aussie roots sometimes creep through his forced American accent, and Danny Glover occasionally delivers his lines with something less than full articulation.

But gunshots and explosions have nice attack and deep sonic heft, and sound effects come through cleanly without sounding fake or out of place. Overall the blend and balance of this discrete 5.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus mix is very good to excellent.

The Extras

The extras are limited, and nothing we have not seen before - a single trailer and some deleted scenes played back-to-back with no breaks between them and no commentary as to why they were omitted. I'm surprised Warner did not include the recent 117-minute "Director's Cut" of the film on this HD-DVD, but chose to include the 110-minute theatrical edition instead.

Frankly, I don't think the deleted scenes detracted much from the overall story with their omission, but it would have been ideal to include both versions and allow the viewer to select which one he or she wanted to watch. The format supports it, and that option would have allowed this version of the film to offer something that previous DVD releases have not.

Final Thoughts

Fans of the Lethal Weapon franchise will want to own this version of the film, if only for its superior sound and picture over previous video releases. I would have liked to see the option of viewing the director's cut, but again, the theatrical version stands up well on its own and provides plenty of action-packed enjoyment, particularly in glorious high definition. Considering the picture and sound quality, and its low retail pricing ($19.95), this HD-DVD gets my recommendation.

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