Lethal Weapon 1-4 [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

Lethal Weapon Collection Blu-ray Review

Distributor: Warner Home Video, UK

The 1980's was a great time to be a movie fan and Lethal Weapon is for sure, a classic example of a great 1980's movie. Back when people had hair styles and a sense of dress that today would seem almost criminal, along comes one of the best cop/buddy movies of all time, which ultimately helped to re-ignite the genre and produced three sequels, all of which continued the series while still managing to bring something new to their audience.

This new Blu-ray release from Warner Home Video which is not region locked, presents all four Lethal Weapon movies with parts 2 and 4 appearing uncut for the first time in the UK. The first three films in the franchise have previously seen DVD releases with deleted scenes cut back into the movie and labelled as directors cuts. For this Blu-ray collection, Warner Home Video have chosen to present the films in their original theatrical cuts only, however marketing issues aside, this accurately represents the directors preferred intention and all of the previously added extended footage which was cobbled together from cut scenes, can be found elsewhere in this set.

Lethal Weapon 1 & 2 have been previously available as single Blu-ray releases, however the transfers had issues of edge enhancement and varying quality. The first two films in this set have thankfully been given an upgrade over their original releases with their new 1080p transfers being much improved. In particular, colours and black levels here are stronger than in the original releases with a minimal amount of grain present during certain scenes in the second film. Previous issues of edge enhancement and crushing thankfully appear resolved in the new transfers.

Lethal Weapon 3 & 4 mark their first release on Blu-ray and both films have impressive 1080p prints, although the recommendation for stand alone quality of transfer belongs to part 4 which looks altogether excellent. Again, black levels continue to impress in these later films, with detail appearing sharp and colourful especially in the final movie.

Audio throughout these films is also impressive. Dialogue is strong and clean, with action scenes being both vibrant and atmospheric. Explosions and gun play sound crisp and powerful especially during the later films and the overall audio soundtrack marks a notable improvement over previous releases.

Extra features are numerous in this set. Firstly you will discover a wealth of deleted scenes some of which are previously unseen, as well as the earlier mentioned extended footage from all of the alternate cuts of the films. This footage can be found on the individual movie discs, along with full directors commentaries for each film and theatrical trailers. Lethal Weapon 1 also contains a typically 1980's rock music video of the title song and this feature is repeated for the third film in the series which presents the original music video from its soundtrack as an extra feature. Extras on the Lethal Weapon 4 disc include the previous Pure Lethal documentary which was present on the DVD release. Also to be found in this set, is a fifth disc which contains four documentaries with brand new interviews as well as an extensive making of overview for all 4 films. All of the major players from actors, directors and behind the scenes technicians are interviewed and everyone appears to have some interesting anecdotes to share with the audience. This is the type of documentary which should set the standard for extra features, as the detail on offer here is outstanding and exclusive to this release.

It would be fair to state that most Blu-ray releases generally have something to complain about, especially if you look hard enough and in this case the complaint would be in the cover design. The discs are housed neatly in an Amaray hard case which makes a pleasant change from those awful digi-pack releases, however the front cover which has the words Lethal and Weapon separated by a stick of dynamite looks plain and tacky. The back cover actually looks pretty good, but with the many available poster designs that exist for these movies, there should have been a far better option other than what we have here. This new cover design actually deserves to be left sitting on top of the exploding toilet from the second film.

All things considered, this set is an absolute must have for classic action fans. The films should essentially be enjoyed for being classics of their time and although certain aspects including hair styles and mobile phones being the size of handbags, have slightly dated the pictures, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover fit perfectly together to create characters that you really care for over the course of the four films and it is also a rare case of movie sequels continuing to be enjoyable throughout the entire franchise. This Blu-ray set provides an altogether excellent package which fans of the films will no doubt appreciate.

The Lethal Weapon Collection - The magic is back again and this time in High Definition.

BLU REVIEW OBSCURA, reviewing those less mainstream releases, for all of our reviews, find us on Facebook

There seems to be some anger and confusion that only the theatrical versions of films I - III are contained in this boxset. I hope the following will help.

To begin with, you must understand that the so called Director's Cuts released on DVD are nothing of the sort. They are studio cuts in which deleted scenes were inserted back into the movies for some extra £££. Richard Donner's preferred versions are the theatrical ones. Even writer Shane Black stated as much in a recent magazine interview (Esquire if you're interested). He talked about the introduction of Riggs in Lethal Weapon. You don't need to show how crazy he is in the Christmas Tree Drug Deal scene and also show how crazy he is in the Schoolyard Sniper scene. Is the extra scene cool? Hell yeah! But is it necessesary?

These are the versions everyone involved in production seems to be happy with. The versions that they released in cinemas. And when the time has come to overhaul the entire collection and add interviews and commentaries. Which versions have they chosen?

I am pleased to say that all the 'Directors Cut' scenes are included, but they're back where they belong. In the deleted scenes section.

I finally got my box to after i contacted anohter reviewer for sub specs on the discs and they had what i wanted so i hurry'd up and order it and now after almost 1 week it finally got here :)

For those that want here is the full video / audio /subs specs:

Video: 1080p High Defination 16x9 2:4:1

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Castilian Spanish 5.1, French 5.1, German 5.1, Italian 5.1, Polish 5.1, Russian 5.1, Thai 5.1.

Subs: English, Brazilian, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Castilian Spanish, Complex Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Latin Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Lethal Weapon 1: 26,6 GiB for 1t 49min. 37sek. 738ms.
Lethal Weapon 2: 27,7 GiB for 1t 54min. 27sek. 808ms.
Lethal Weapon 3: 28,7 GiB for 1t 57min. 53sek. 728ms.
Lethal Weapon 4: 31,6 GiB for 2t 7min. 24sek. 328ms.

Disc 1 "Special Features": Commentary by Director Richard Donner, Theatrical Trailer, Honeymoon Suite, Lethal Weapon Music Video, Additional Scenes.

Disc 2 "Special Features": Commentary by Director Richard Donner, Theatrical Trailer, Vintage Featurette, Stunts and Action, Additional Scenes.

Disc 3 "Special Features": Commentary by Director Richard Donner, Theatrical Trailer, Sting and Eric Clapton It's Probable Me Music Video, Additional Scenes.

Disc 4 "Specual Features": Commentary by Director Richard Donner and Key Creative Team Members, Theatrical Trailer, Documentary Pure Lethal! New Angles, New Scenes and Explosive Outtakes.

Disc 5 "Special Features": Psycho Pension: The Genesis of Lethal Weaoin, A Family Affair: Bringing Lethal Weapon to Life, Pulling the Trigger: Expanding the World of Lethal Weapon of Lethal Weapon, Maximum Impact: The Legacy of Lethal Weapon.