Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!CUNYVMS1!TFD From: TFD@CUNYVMS1.BITNET (Theresa F.M. Muir TFD@CUNYVM1.BITNET) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cinema-l Subject: cop movies Message-ID: Date: 5 Feb 90 22:05:00 GMT Sender: Discussions on all forms of Cinema Reply-To: Discussions on all forms of Cinema Lines: 18 Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM Gateway Original_To: JNET%"cinema-l@auvm" Original_cc: TFD I watched Lethal Weapon last night on NBC. This is one of the few bang-bang, car-chase-blow-up-houses-and-people-destroy-private-property, etc. buddy-cop movies I actually like. Let's face it, this is really a male-oriented genre, and most of them don't have much for a woman to like. So why this one? Well, the most obvous reason, is the two leads, a reasonably attractive man, and a reasonably spectacular one (I keep telling Mel to forget about me, it'll never work). Beyond that, the two cop characters ARE characters, in both senses of the word, full of neat little touches. Strangely enough, it's Glover, in the quieter part who overplays-- mugging, sighing, pouring on the perplexed pater familias, a la Cosby-- but his part is harder to get just right. I like Gibson's goofy, contrite grin after almost blowing Glover's head off, his habit of muttering to himself rather like Popeye, etc. AND, I have never seen a cop movie that had so many cute little kids in it. There's Glover's noisy kids, who steal every scene they're in, and the bunch of waifs in the street, who steal THEIR scene, especially the toothy urchin in the huge, 3-D glasses who describes the bad guy to the cops. Yow.