The
Lethal Weapon series and the rest of the buddy-cop genre receives the parody treatment in this low-brow comedy.
Emilio Estevez stars as Jack Colt, the
Mel Gibson-like loose cannon, while Samuel L. Jackson assumes the
Danny Glover role as Wes Luger, his exasperated partner. Together, Colt and Luger investigate the murder of Luger's former partner (
Whoopi Goldberg) and discover a criminal conspiracy led by the nefarious General Mortars (
William Shatner). Hoping to mimic the success of the
Naked Gun films, director Gene Quintano (of
Police Academy 4 fame) loaded the film with broad visual gags, deadpan slapstick, and gratuitous parodies of
The Silence of the Lambs,
Basic Instinct, and other movies. The attempt to mimic successful parodies proved ineffective, however, as critics and viewers alike found the parody stale and the juvenile humor dreary. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide