Episode 194: Buddy Movies

Uh, and I suppose we'll start with, I think, probably a archetypical film in the buddy genre, specifically the buddy cop genre, and that's Lethal Weapon.

And this was actually the last movie I chose, 'cause I realized, like, well, one of us probably should talk about it, just 'cause-

Yeah

... it's such a, a definitive version of this kind of subgenre.

I mean, any time you've...

The, the mismatched cop detectives.

Like, there's precedence for that before, but especially the, all the obvious ways they're mismatched in terms of race, in terms of age, in terms of, uh, their, like, personal lives and background.

Uh, Riggs and Murtaugh are, like, perfect counterpoints.

And the moment I wanna talk about is a brief scene where it's, it's fairly, like, probably good halfway leading into, you know, the, the second half of the film, where Riggs and Murtaugh have started to warm together.

I believe at this point Murtaugh's been over at the house for family dinner.

They're starting to become friends, and not, um, so openly...

Or Riggs, rather, has been over to Murtaugh for family dinner, and they're not openly hostile towards each other.

But we just get this scene where Murtaugh awakes in bed to a cup of coffee being passed to him, that you can clearly see based on the wrist and watch surrounding, like, oh, this isn't his wife giving it to him.

It's Riggs.

[laughs]

You know, morning, passing him a cup of coffee, immediately starting the day with, like, a, "You know, I got this, uh, hunch.

You were talking about, uh, you know, the, the last, uh...

Who's the last, uh, the hooker who saw Amanda Hunsaker before she passed away?" And Murtaugh's barely awake, wiping the crusties out of his eyes, still trying to figure out, like, "Why are you here? Who let you in?" "Oh, Trish let me in.

It's no problem." Uh, and trying to go back to bed.

And i- one of the, my favorite dialogue exchanges in this, I think is very funny, is Murtaugh asking, "What time is it?" And Riggs going, "Oh, it's daytime." [laughs] Which is great.

[laughs]

Um, and the scene finally ends with him, uh, Murtaugh finally snapping to it and, uh, kind of curmudgeonly saying, "Give me that cup, and get out." Which is, you know, fun, sitcom-style humor.

And I just think this is a really lovely, charming scene that is-One of the other secret sauces that makes Lethal Weapon work so effectively is the mix of, you know, kind of genuine hard-edged R-rated action movie where people die in pretty impactful fashion.

There's...

You're dealing in a world of crime that feels very high stakes with drugs and casualties on, um, either side.