Alarme fatale

Back in the 80's and 90's spoofs were good. Airplane, the Naked Guns, the various Lampoons were all cool. Now the spoofs are all vulgar and tasteless.

Loaded Weapon 1's primary material is Lethal Weapon. The two stars: Colt (Estevez) and Luger (Jackson) are supposed to be Riggs and Murtaugh. But like most spoofs they interwove other cop classics from the time: Basic Instinct and Silence of the Lambs.

The jokes are silly, some of them are run ons but that's what you expect. If we could only return to the era of good satires.

Another offering from National Lampoon, this time a mock-up of the classic Lethal Weapon series. Amusingly, they're not the only victims of parody here. Wayne's World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Basic Instinct, Chips, Silence Of The Lambs and several others have been incorporated into this wildly hilarious (loosely used term) collage of moments. Obviously, not to be taken seriously and only recommended if you're not expecting a movie that offers a deep-dwelling plot. But it's totally for you if you're into a belly-laugh or two. Samuel L. Jackson's performance is laudable and so is co-star's Emilio Estevez. There are countless cameos by many Hollywood stars and all seem to make the movie a little more entertaining in their own typical way. Definitley worth a rent...

Now this is more like it for a NATIONAL LAMPOON film: LOADED WEAPON 1 is a great and affectionate spoof of the movies that takes the LETHAL WEAPON franchise as its main inspiration. It has plenty in common with Leslie Nielsen's NAKED GUN films, with a scattershot approach providing plenty of laughs, a lot of them obvious, a lot of them surreal, many of them relying on cameo appearances for effect.

Emilio Estevez plays a maverick cop, clearly modelled on Mel Gibson's Riggs, while Samuel L. Jackson gives a stand-out performance as a retiring cop modelled on Danny Glover's Murtaugh. They're involved in a storyline involving over-the-top cocaine smugglers Tim Curry and William Shatner, and there are hundreds of gags packed into a slender running time. If you're a fan of HOT SHOTS et al then this is the film for you.

And I'm still getting over those endless cameos. Bruce Willis is the best and most unexpected one, but watch out for the likes of Corey Feldman, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Sheen, Erik Estrada, Paul Gleason, and many, many others making unexpected and welcome appearances. This is probably the best film for cameos that I can think of.

This isn't Airplane!, The Man With Two Brains, , or any number of classic slapsticks, but it is up there, and it is funny. While it has its slow times, it still manages to make you laugh. Great one liners, and wonderful acting make it a solid and worthy buy. Everytime you watch it, you will find yet another smart-ass, sarcastic reply, an offbeat joke or an obscure parody. Loaded Weapon 1 hits and for 90% of the time doesn't miss. It honestly doesn't get enough credit.

As several others have pointed out - this is not a very good film. However, it's still pretty darn funny. It's a B-version spoof film, but I still laughed more than on average.

When you don't have terribly gifted writers and/or actors you have to rely on throwing in as many jokes as possible in order to try and get more laughs. And a surprising amount of them are actually very funny (albeit extremely silly, and stupid).

Favourite bit: when Estevez and Jackson are driving in their car and suddenly realize they're being followed - by two guys wearing ski masks, sitting in the backseat of the car.

If you know what you're getting yourself into, Loaded Weapon is an underrated little gem. If nothing else, it's fun to see Sam L. Jackson before he became a "serious" actor. [7/10]