Did the psych team at the LAPD ever pursue the possibility that Riggs wasn’t crazy but was merely suffering psychotic episodes due to the weight on his brain from that huge, feathery hairdo? I mean, he’s one pair of latex pants away from being lead singer in a metal band. But I digress, which, thankfully, is something “Lethal Weapon” (1987) never does. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s tightly constructed, opposites-attract buddy-cop flick became a blockbuster and spawned sloppy sequels thanks to their chemistry (Danny’s buttoned-down, Mel’s unwound) and the fact that it’s fast-paced and not overambitious with the plot twists.
Archives for posts with tag: Christmas movies
Yeah, I know “Office Christmas Party” (2016) is stupid, but it’s appropriately stupid for the plot (epic gesture needed to save the company). It’s necessarily stupid for its genre (R-rated farce). Simply put, it’s just the right amount of stupid (although I saw the unrated version, so, technically, what I saw was extra stupid). Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have made like 377 films in the past few years, so they seem to be homing in on a formula in which they’re both uptight and everyone else is crazy (although I do wish the formula involved my seeing fewer penises).
It doesn’t take an effing genius to figure out “Bad Santa 2” (2016) wouldn’t be as good as the original because Bernie Mac is effing dead, so is John Ritter, and Heather Graham must have been too effing busy to answer the phone. Half the main characters (Santa-suited safe cracker Billy Bob Thornton, elf Tony Cox, clueless Brett Kelly) are back, but that’s just not enough. There was something about the original that made its degenerate nature a guilty pleasure. This one has too much dirty and not enough whimsy. Like a 21-year-old Thurman Merman, the effing innocence is gone.
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