Despite the presence of some high-profile cameo players and a few good ideas scattered about, "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1" is merely a low-rent cousin of the "Airplane!"-"Naked Gun"-"Hot Shots!" school of off-the-wall movie spoofery.
Here's a film that's more than a little pleased with itself. But the audience is not likely to feel the same amount of pleasure.
"Loaded Weapon" is more in the arena of "Night Patrol" and "Repossessed." And if you aren't aware of those movie spoofs, there's a good reason.
Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson star, play the Mel Gibson and Danny Glover characters, respectively, in a spoof of the "Lethal Weapon" trilogy — with specific gags lampooning moments from all three films in that series.
Even Joe Pesci's character gets ribbed, in the person of Jon Lovitz (whose energy, surprisingly, seems to have been sapped before he went on camera).
The story, such as it is, has Estevez as Colt and Jackson as Luger, two mismatched homicide detectives looking into a drug ring headed by evil (and prissy) William Shatner and his chief henchman Tim Curry. It seems they are selling drugs to kids by a special recipe that uses cocaine in "Wild-er-ness Girls" cookies.
Kathy Ireland is the femme fatale who works for Shatner but is romanced . . . sort of . . . by Estevez. And Frank McRae is the police chief, who is always shouting and has pictures of donuts covering his walls.
In a movie like this, plot, of course, doesn't matter as much as throwing jokes at the audience in a rapid-fire manner. Here, "rapid-fire" would be a gross exaggeration. Emphasis on the word "gross."
As you might expect, the "Lethal Weapon" pictures aren't the only targets here. Potshots are also aimed at "Basic Instinct," "The Silence of the Lambs," the "Die Hard" pictures, "Rambo," etc. And just to prove to us that the filmmakers are self-aware, Estevez's brother Charlie Sheen pops up at one point and, later, Lovitz asks Estevez why he's doing this picture when his brother is in the "Hot Shots!" franchise. The audience may be wondering the same thing. But not for the same reason.
Believe it or not, there are even gags borrowed from "The Naked Gun," with an extra punch that should automatically get a laugh because, naturally, bigger is better.
In the cameo corner, we have Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg, F. Murray Abraham and a host of others — including Richard Moll with hair.
Estevez and Jackson are game and they give it their all. But the gags are only partially realized, with sketchy writing, weak direction and the inability to let go, even when a joke has already been milked to death.
It's redundant to spoof a comedy, and the "Lethal Weapon" movies are comedies. But in the end, all that matters is that this film simply isn't as funny as it thinks it is. "Loaded Weapon" is more drag than gag.
It's rated PG-13, though it's pretty racy and violent, albeit in comically intended ways. There is also profanity, vulgarity and nudity . . . sort of.