What’s Aged the Worst?
Mel Gibson; the father-daughter dynamic and Rianne's casting; Murtaugh's portable phone
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:08Read transcript
- Gibson's later troubles (alcohol, reckless statements) aged worst, including a homophobic streak that surfaces in Riggs.
- Gibson's off-screen self-destruction colors the franchise; unlike O.J. in The Naked Gun, Riggs was so beloved that separating the actor is hard, though the rewatch was still enjoyed.
- The father-daughter dynamic is strange: the family surprising Murtaugh in the bathtub, the daughter's kiss and the 'heartbreaker' remark.
- The daughter's actress was 27 while Glover was 40 playing 50 and Gibson 30, making the dinner-table flirtation with Riggs weird.
- It seems written by people without teenage daughters, who in real life sit sullenly in their rooms.
- Glover's early portable phone, possibly the first filmed cell phone, is compared with the beach phone in Wall Street; the Radio Shack-style model is dated to about 1986.
- The Gibson material and Rianne are the big ones; one host thought the actress playing Rianne was good, the other that she was too old.