The Lethal Weapon Masterclass - Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

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This September is Masterclass month at Catching Up On Cinema!

September is the anniversary month of Catching Up On Cinema, and this year we're celebrating the completion of 5 years of weekly podcasting.

For this year's Masterclass, Trevor and Kyle will be reviewing all 4 films in Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon series of films.

This week, Kyle and Trevor review Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)!

Debuting in theaters in May of 1992, Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) pulls double duty as being far and away the most profitable of in the franchise, while perhaps also being the least cohesive and satisfying film in the series.
On par with Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) in terms of the scale and quality of its action and production design, Lethal Weapon 3 subs in Jan De Bont for Stephen Goldblatt as cinematographer for the production, resulting in silky smooth action shots, and anamorphic lens flares aplenty.

The first in the series to be completely divorced from Shane Black's pen, Lethal Weapon 3 is more focused on further crystallizing the characterizations developed over the previous 2 films than actually evolving them.

While not lacking for interesting situations for Riggs and Murtaugh to get into, the film very much represents a shift in the priority of the franchise from keeping the plot moving, to providing setups and premises for our immensely affable cast to riff off of.

Continuing the trend of growing the Lethal Weapon “family” of characters, the film once again features Joe Pesci, (somehow dialed up beyond the 11 that his character of Leo Getz debuted at in the previous film) and adds Rene Russo to the cast as Lorna Cole, Martin Riggs' high-kicking new love interest.

Additionally, Lethal Weapon 3 also features a largely wasted Stuart Wilson as its chief antagonist, as well as a host of familiar genre film favorites such as Sven-Ole Thorsen and Nick Chinlund in generic goon roles.

Often very funny, and packed with just enough action and stunts to never be boring, Lethal Weapon 3 is a fine sequel in a remarkably consistent series, however it is often lacking in focus, earning brownie points for featuring social commentary and earnest dramatic elements, but stumbling somewhat in its soggy attempts to tie it all into a cohesive whole.

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