Lethal Weapon 4 | 1998 | Final | UK Quad

Lethal Weapon 4 is a 1998 film directed by Richard Donner and is the fourth and final instalment in the Lethal Weapon film series. It was co-produced by Richard Donner and Joel Silver. The screenplay was written by Channing Gibson. Lethal Weapon 4 stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock and Jet Li in his American film debut.

The storyline follows LAPD detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, trying to stop the Chinese Triads from conducting their illegal business in the US. Chinatown’s mob boss, Uncle Benny, has imported Chinese slaves to pay for an artist to create counterfeit Chinese currency. The Triads will use the counterfeit currency to buy the Four Fathers (heads of the Triads) back from the Chinese military.

Principle photography was completed at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios in California, USA where the producers used three stages. Other locations used for filming included Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles and Malibu in California.

When Lethal Weapon 4 was released it received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 52% rating with the consensus “Jet Li’s arrival breathes fresh life into a tired franchise formula — but not enough to put Lethal Weapon 4 on equal footing with its predecessors”.

Roger Ebert gave Lethal Weapon 4 two out of four stars, saying, “Lethal Weapon 4 has all the technical skill of the first three movies in the series, but lacks the secret weapon, which was conviction. All four movies take two cop buddies and put them into spectacular and absurd action sequences, but the first three at least went through the motions of taking the plot seriously (and the first one did such a good job, it made my ‘best 10’ list of that year). This time, we’re watching an exercise”.

Despite the mixed critical reviews, Lethal Weapon 4 was a commercial box office success. Produced on an estimated production budget of $140m, it took $34,048,124 on its opening weekend in the US. It went on to take $285,444,603 in total worldwide box office receipts.

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