The Lethal Weapon score has to be one of the worst pieces of film music. The first movie, especially, is incredibly tight with some solid action and drama, but every scene is undermined by the most awful wailing saxophone. I forgot just how overbearing it is.

Someone had fun writing the synopsis over at Sky Cinema, mind.

You can kind of see why they jettisoned the Vietnam backstory for the sequels as the timeline makes no sense; Gibson was 30 when the movie was made but, according to the script, Riggs was a special forces sharpshooter for the army in 1969, when he would have been 13yrs old.

He was in ‘Nam until the end of the war in ‘75, but he was married to his wife for 11yrs, which cuts it very tight (but not impossible) for the ‘87 setting (we know this because The Lost Boys is showing at cinema where they call it ‘this years hit movie’).

So Riggs basically went to Nam as a 12yr old, immediately became a Special Forces sniper, stayed in the country for 6yrs before coming back home and immediately marrying his wife, which he’d have to have done as an 18/19yr old. Then became a police detective.

I’d forgotten just how well-made Lethal Weapon is. Donner brings a deft soft touch to the movie, creating not just believable leads but a really decent supporting cast too. There is real room for their relationship to breathe, punctured by nice humour and great action sequences.

UPDATE ON THE LETHAL WEAPON INTERNAL TIMELINE: In Lethal Weapon 2, Derrick O’Connor claims he killed Riggs’ wife 4 years ago, which puts her death 2 years before the first movie, meaning they married in 1974, a year BEFORE he returned from Vietnam. This whole franchise is a lie.