LETHAL WRECKIN' 3

LETHAL WEAPON 3
dir: Richard Donner

LETHAN WRECKIN' 3
MAD #315, December 1992
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

This is the third installment of the Lethal Weapon franchise, the movies about LAPD partners Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson). This opens with them responding about a call about a time bomb. Murtaugh doesn't want to go any further than respond to the call and preserve order, especially being a week away from retirement, but Riggs wants to help dismantle it, even though a Bomb Squad is coming. Riggs is confident that he can diffuse the bomb, but fails to do so. For the damage they've done, they're demoted to patrol duty. While Riggs is harrassing a jaywalker doing his “crazy man” schtick and they laugh over it, they see an armored truck being stolen. Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), comedy relief of the previous Lethal Weapon, returns as a real estate agent selling the Murtaughs' old house and ends up being witness to the crime Riggs and Murtaugh investigate in this.

Riggs and Murtaugh are promoted back to their old jobs when they arrest the armored car thieves and they turn out to be part of an illegal arms trafficking ring. Riggs and Murtaugh are teamed up with detective Lorna Cole (Rene Russo) and they all look at suspects on a surveillance video. Leo Getz, coming in to discuss house stuff, sees main suspect Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson) and recognizes him from hockey connections. They go to a hockey game, Travis tries to run away from them, and this leads to a big chase scene at the rink. Leo gets shot in the process, ends up in the hospital, and Riggs asks them to find reasons to get him to stay there because he's annoying and gets in their way.

The words Leo Getz says in the third panel are all movies Pesci was in.

Murtaugh and Riggs celebrate their re-promotion at a hamburger shack. While waiting for Cole, they discover a drug ring, and Murtaugh ends up killing Darryl, a friend of his son who has become part of a gang. Riggs is shot, Cole takes him home to dress his wound, she sees his other scars, they one-up each other showing each other their scars, one thing leads to another, and using the motif common to action films of the man falling in love with the woman because she's stronger than him, they form a relationship, and adopt the vicious guard dog he helped tame.

ILL-LEGAL WEAPON 3 1/2
Cracked #275, October 1992
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan

The Rodney King trial in Los Angeles was that year, leading to the urban protests we now see every few months, plus a pun on the title Do the Right Thing.

One thing MAD and Cracked don't get into with any of the Lethal Weapon parodies is the storylines with the Murtaugh family, and the daughter Rianne trying to flirt with Riggs. I don't blame them since those scenes don't have much action.