When I told Ben that we were watching Lethal Weapon for this week's movie, he was shocked I own it. "Of course!" I said. "It's a great, stupid, 80s action flick. Why wouldn't I own that?"
This is the most offensive movie I've ever seen. Holy shit. I mean, it has aged like milk. 2024, watching a rampaging, suicidal cop harass young black children and hire underaged prostitutes to watch the 3 Stooges with him, well it HITS DIFFERENT. Absolutely wild.
And look, I get it. In 1987, this was fun. It was silly. But Mel "Hate Speech" Gibson asking Danny Glover, who has just fallen on top of him because of an enormous explosion, "what are you, a f**?". Well, I just don't know. No, I do know. It's awful. And I'm getting rid of this DVD before it haunts me like something out of The Conjuring.
The ending? When at least a dozen cops watch a shirtless Riggs ...box? a culprit, to the death? rather than arrest him... I. I just don't know. Nope. I know. I hate it. It's copaganda at its worst.
But the thing that will haunt me til the end of my days is the table full of room temperature egg nog that a man goes on to drink, straight from the carton, at his daughter's funeral.
Richard Donner is underappreciated as a truly GONZO filmmaker. I mean that in the Hunter S Thompson meaning. There must have been so much goddamn cocaine in the course of making this movie....I love his lens, though. Truly. I want him to get another shot at Lethal Weapon without all the... Mel Gibson of it all.
I hope Shane Black (screenwriter - look up his filmography) has gotten all the therapy. All of it.
WILD THAT I OWN THIS MOVIE.
The Michael Kamen/Eric Clapton collab on the score is unparalleled though. It has been parodied to death but that is because it is fucking iconic.
Digital illustration.
Takeaways:
-If there's an upside to being blocked and incapable of making art for months, it is that at some point, the cork is loosened and ALL THE ART POURS FORTH freely and easily. As with The Matrix, I find myself wondering if it's "my best" work or even "good" but then I think FUCK THAT. I'm making art. The action is good.
-I'm also reminded that I do kinda sorta like digital art. I struggle with it (like all art these days) but I do eventually hit a flow state with it and I honestly could have worked on that carton for a long long time. Just tweaking. I should do more digital art. I should do a lot of things.
-It is not the most grammatically sound thing I've ever written but I am too pleased with the "BASTARDS - MEL GIBSON - ASSHOLE - EGG NOG" eye catches to change it.
-Choosing a font was the most difficult part of this. Good lord I have thoughts and feelings about fonts and I wish I didn't.
-God I cannot wait to get rid of this DVD. What the fuck. There is so much to hate about this movie but my brain just couldn't get over that egg nog.
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