Whopping coincidences and absurdities

An additional element that bothers me is when you truly want to face it, Riggs & Murtaugh got their squad killed with their reckless behavior. They harass the South Africans despite being told not to & proceed to steal the note of the Alba Varden. Yes, what the South Africans are doing is illegal, but doesn't entitle them to go around acting so idiotic bending the law.

Indeed, with the further stupid things they do in the sequels that followed, this duo actually became the villains!

The straight jacket scene, in the police station. The baddies just happen to put him in a straight jacket and throw him in the ocean. We KNEW the first time he would escape. He looked like he escaped faster the second time the jacket was on him. They coulda shot him and then threw him in the ocean, probably how they killed Rika.

More absurdities:

The South Africans first try to scare the police into backing off, by threatening Murtaugh's family. "So you tell your people to back off." Back off from what? Surely the police are dealing with numerous cases, and not just the high speed car chase scene.

The helicopter coming to the bad guy's aid in the aforementioned high speed car chase - wouldn't it be very easy to track down this helicopter?

And why the hell would they conduct drug deals in krugerrands, anyway? If they were buying drugs, who would accept krugerrand as payment? If they were selling drugs, who would pay in krugerrand?

The assassination of police officers later in the film - no amount of diplomatic immunity would protect them from this one.

At the very end, where Rudd tauntingly says "diplomatic immunity" after emptying a magazine into Riggs, while Murtaugh aims his revolver at him. Riggs and Murtaugh had been acting illegally when they assaulted the ship and killed lots of South Africans, and they hadn't respected diplomatic immunity up to that point - so what made Rudd think Murtaugh would start now?

In the scene where Riggs shoots up the fish tank, he is fascinated by the weapon one of the bad guys carries. Some piece of hardware, he says. Hasn't even seen anything like it on the force, he says. What was this marvel of ballistic technology? A H&K MP5K.

And then, of course, the fact that every piece of evidence gathered from all the illicit activities by Riggs and Murtaugh would have been inadmissible in court, so there'd be no reason for the South Africans to go on a killing spree anyway. But once they did, how could they expect to win? Even if they manage to defeat an entire police department, that would only mean they had succeded in escalating the conflict such that the national guard would be called into play. And even if that failed, the US Army proper. And by the time we had gotten to that, the diplomatic status of the villains and tacit approval of the South African government would mean that these acts of aggression would be tantamount to a war declaration. Would South Africa be prepared, or even willing to go against the United States?

Yeah I know what you mean, think I watched the whole lethal weapon series 13 times at-least, mainly in my teen years, few times in my 20's. Few things I didn't pick up on until now.

But now 30, living with my partner and taking a lot more responsibility for my family unit etc, it just boggles my mind why Riggs didn't take themselves back to the police station,

I just watched it few mins ago, and I'm like. Why is he not considering that they are killers, and they might not trust this chick and high chance they will just get rid of her

And Riggs has been so sad since his wife died, and this blondie comes along and now shes dead. So sad! dam man

I think it can all be explained in the opening 'Looney toons' WBros logo ..

Its basically a live action cartoon

all 4 films contain a coincidence that puts them on the case or leads them to the killers. even part 1 has them going to dixie's just at the time the house blows up and then both riggs and mr joshua happen to have the same tattoo.

also coincidences do happen in real life.

Number 1:

That's how movies work.

No need to go on.

The way Riggs and Rika act after a pair of choppers swooped down and sprayed the trailer, and Riggs kills most of them, is the most absurd part.

They talk about it as if they just got thrown out after gatecrashing somebody's wedding party.

Also. When Riggs escapes the bag and climbs out of the water, he incapacitates one of the dudes just by kicking him in the stomach are. The guy rolls around like he's received multiple injuries. Long enough for Riggs to deal with the other heavy.

Notice how Riggs's dislocated arm is fully functional when he's getting himself out of the straight jacket, lifting himself out of the water and beating two guys to death. But the rest of the time his dislocated arm is this lifeless dead weight until he pops his shoulder back in again.

So in the montage of the cops being killed, two of the cops are blown up taking their morning swim and doing their morning work out respectively, then cut to all the other cops having their regular poker night hours later as if nothing has happened. BOOM!. And it's only then that the cops get mad about their buddies getting iced. Murtagh had his house bombed the day before!

And why are the bad guys hanging around Murtagh's destroyed and vacated house the following night? Just in the off chance that he came back to watch a video that might give him a clue?

And another thing. Riggs isn't mad. He's just obnoxious. All the Lethal Weapons are mostly trash if you think about them for more than two seconds.