LethalWeapon4 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Believe it or not, I wasn't yet a full-blown movie geek in 1998. I didn't even start saving my ticket stubs until the summer of '99. In all fairness, I hadn't been quite old enough to go to the movies by myself yet -- not much younger than any of my colleagues in the summers they covered, but young enough to spare you the math.

Every third weekend, my younger brother and I spent with our father, and a reliable way to spend time together was often to go to the movies or rent something and stay home. So by only (probably) going to the movies every third weekend, I only saw maybe six movies theatrically over the course of those eighteen weeks. I'll bold those that I remember going to see as I go along, and then touch upon the rest of the releases in between.

(By the way: the weekends in the summer of 1998 happen to line up with those of this summer. Let's see just how far we've come...)

More than two years ago, Erik wrote a post titled "Joe Pesci Returns!" and we were all excited. Of course, that return -- Pesci's first film role since 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 -- was just a tease. Fortunately, for those of us who couldn't get enough of him with that bit part in The Good Shepherd, the Oscar-winning actor is finally back for a starring role. And it isn't even a bad comedy a la Gone Fishin' or 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag. It's a new film from Taylor Hackford, whose last film, the biopic Ray, earned the director two Academy Award nominations. This one, titled Love Ranch, will also star Hackford's wife, Helen Mirren, who he last worked with on 1985's White Nights. The drama is about Joe and Sally Conforte, a couple who opened Nevada's first (and eventually largest) legal brothel, Mustang Ranch. Scripted by Mark Jacobson (The Believer), the movie will deal with the couple's problems with infidelity. Maybe we'll get to hear Pesci yell the line "You f***** my wife!" at whoever plays boxer Oscar Bonavena, who was shot dead by Mustang Ranch bodyguard Ross Brymer in 1976, allegedly because he was sleeping with Sally.

Hackford begins shooting Love Ranch in Albuquerque in late January and hopes to have the film ready for the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. He told Variety that he is mostly excited to direct his wife again, and that he had to beg her to make time for this. I bet she finally saw him fit to direct her after getting those Oscar noms (even though he has a statue for a 1979 short film he directed). Hackford also mentioned that Pesci was his first choice for Joe and seems fortunate to have convinced the actor, who apparently isn't too interested in doing movies much anymore. Certainly Pesci is a perfect choice to play this seedy "godfather of legalized prostitution," as Hackford calls him. Now, can Hackford please try to get DeNiro in for a cameo?

I was working at a movie theater in the summer of 1998, the summer Lethal Weapon 4 was released. One of my job responsibilities was to stand and wave goodbye to people as they'd leave their movies. (Armageddon came out the week before LW4, and I got a lot of mileage out of the line, "With all this waving, my Armageddon tired!"). I was excited about Lethal Weapon 4. I hadn't loved the previous installment, but Mel Gibson and Danny Glover were back, I had come to terms with the fact that Joe Pesci wasn't going anywhere, Rene Russo is about as solid a love interest as an action movie can get, I think Chris Rock is hilarious and I had heard amazing things about Jet Li. Plus, this would be the first Lethal I saw on the big screen. How could it go wrong?

Answer: In just about every conceivable way.

Lethal Weapon 3 was a mess, but it was a fun mess. LW4 isn't fun at all. It's downright boring. Everyone looks tired and uninspired (rhyme). The laughs aren't there. The action, aside from a great highway chase, is run-of-the-mill and confusingly shot. And there's a downright icky sentimental streak running through it -- a sappy side that is light years away from screenwriter Shane Black's original vision for these characters.