Asked whether Roger Ebert liked it, the answer given is four out of four stars.
The review is described as rapturous and quoted as saying the movie thrilled from beginning to end; the host agrees completely.
A joke that the thrill began with the opening balcony jump after lines of cocaine; the other host says it thrilled them too.

Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson swapping roles; Gibson as James Bond; Ridley Scott or Leonard Nimoy directing; Brian Dennehy as Murtaugh; Michael Biehn as Riggs; Steve Railsback or John Saxon as Joshua; William Hurt as Riggs

In the discussion (10)

Approx. transcript time · 00:56:27Read transcript

Willis could have had Lethal Weapon and Gibson Die Hard; a hot take follows that Willis in 1986 was not believable as a super soldier, while his Die Hard hero is streetwise.
Willis looks like an everyman while Gibson looks cut from limestone; one host would have loved to see them switch, likened to a Brady-Brees swap.
Gibson turned down The Fly and The Untouchables for this film.
Gibson pursued Bond in The Living Daylights, but Broccoli turned him down for not being British and Timothy Dalton was cast; Dalton's Bond films are debated and called terrible.
Brosnan was held to Remington Steele and had to wait about ten years for Bond.
After the $250,000 script purchase, Ridley Scott was considered but had Blade Runner tensions with Warner Brothers; Leonard Nimoy was busy with Three Men and a Baby; Donner got it.
Brian Dennehy was lined up for Murtaugh but did not want to play a cop again; F/X is praised as influential.
Michael Bean was considered for Riggs but was filming Aliens.
The Joshua role was offered to Steve Railsback and John Saxon; Busey, ice cold after his Buddy Holly Story nomination, auditioned and lost weight.
Shane Black wanted William Hurt as Riggs; Hurt would play a damaged vet, not a super soldier, and a Hurt-Dennehy version would be a movie few watch.

Recasting Couch

Lisa Bonet as Rianne; Mimi Rogers as the doctor; Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton or Robert Duvall as the General

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:09:01Read transcript

The actress playing Rianne has eight IMDb credits, four of them Lethal Weapon; she married and had kids; she is seen as a good actress but too old for the part.
Prime Lisa Bonet could have done this instead of Angel Heart.
The doctor could be Mimi Rogers with some sexual tension with Riggs; one host likes Mary Ellen Trainor but sees the point.
The General is 'the winner for this': Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton, or DeVal paid for three days to do his Apocalypse Now scene.
Even a Road House-style over-the-top town-owner villain would have been more enjoyable.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Urban-western origin; Gibson's horseshoe kidney; Jackie Swanson's own high fall; a blank in the suicide scene; the Beretta 92F; director's cut and alternate opening and ending; the original Shane Black script

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:11:17Read transcript

Shane Black wrote the screenplay in mid-1985, first intending an urban western.
Gibson has a horseshoe kidney (two kidneys fused), joked as the source of his sprint speed.
Jackie Swanson, who played Hunsaker's daughter, did the high fall herself.
In the suicide-contemplation scene there was a blank in the chamber of the gun Gibson pointed at his head.
The gun was a Beretta 92F, also used by Bruce Willis in Die Hard and since retired.
A director's cut runs about seven minutes longer; an alternate opening had Riggs drinking alone in a bar and beating up thugs.
The original 1985 Shane Black script is online and much darker, with a possible school-shooting opening, a rocket launcher and more Vietnam material.
The alternate ending, on YouTube, has Riggs telling a retiring Murtaugh not to retire; the fight was four minutes longer.

Picking Nits

The family walking in on the bath; the not-dead-yet villain; torturing instead of killing; Murtaugh's fading gunshot wound; the unheard helicopter; the Phoenix program in Riggs's file

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 01:16:30Read transcript

A family coming into their dad's bath will never stop being weird.
The 80s trope of the villain thought dead who gets up to be shot is flagged.
Why torture instead of killing them immediately? Just move the shipment day and murder Riggs and Murtaugh.
Murtaugh's desert gunshot wound comes and goes, like other 80s flesh wounds; a point-blank shot from Mr. Joshua would be felt for 36 hours.
Murtaugh turning his front yard into a UFC event is noted again.
Nobody hears the helicopter coming to Hunsaker's house though it is 15 feet away.
Murtaugh reading Riggs's Phoenix program assassinations in his file is implausible for a classified CIA program; movies never get files right.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Cosbys or Murtaughs on Family Feud; was Running Scared better; is this a Christmas movie; the police report after the 101 shootout

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:20:43Read transcript

Cosbys or Murtaughs on Family Feud: the Murtaughs in the long run, but the Cosbys at their 1987 peak.
Running Scared is not better; its Key West hour and roller skates make it a Rewatchables candidate, and the Crystal-Hines pairing deserved a sequel.
Is this a Christmas movie? One host who does not count Home Alone is called the Grinch; the holidays explain why the Murtaughs keep inviting Riggs over.
A giant Mitsubishi TV giveaway display in Hunsaker's scene is a funny tech moment.
What the police report and L.A. news coverage looked like after the 101 shootout; KCOP is confirmed as a real L.A. station.