lethal willis, with a help

Rating: Null/10 (25 December 2007)

in the beginning there was Willis. He has qualities as an actor that don't match any "action actor" before him. He talked to you, the viewer. Remember the first two die hard? he was complaining, cursing, all that alone. That wasn't a monologue, that was a dialogue, with the audience, with you. It was a dialogue because there was a response, the audience got in touch, the audience cared. So in that respect, i think no one has ever came any close to matching Willis' abilities, and we have some really messy attempts, Nicolas Cage would come first here. Anyway, there were films which attempted already the more direct approach of actor touching the audience, such as High Fidelity (Cusack) or Alfie (Law). Die Hard 1 was a trademark in acting for cinema for this matter alone. Together with that first film, we had the first Lethal Weapon. Another approach, another mark. This was more easy, because it didn't depend that much on the quality of the actor performing, but on the fun two actors could have acknowledging their differences and fighting them. Because it was easier, and because no one could make the things Willis did as well as he did them, this second formula came to be the most used one. And here we see this Die Hard trust on the idea that 2 is better than one. So we have Glover impersonated by Jackson, most of the "fun" coming from him messing with McClane. Die Hard becomes Lethal Weapon, maybe because Willis wanted to try, but most probably because the producers thought it was "saffer" this way.
However, the plot saves some things. The bad guy is more clever than athletic, he controls, and the story is all about the good guy trying to catch up for the clever plan the bad guy has. The twists between revenge-robbery and the understanding of who's in control are well worked out, all and all, this comes to be a positive experience. It helps setting some standards for what today we expect from an action movie (that notion is right now being questioned by the super heroes flicks) but it's not influential or good as the first two die hard.
My opinion: 3/5