National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) New Line/Action-Comedy RT: 83 minutes Rated PG-13 (ribald humor, brief rear nudity, language, comic violence, drug material) Director: Gene Quintano Screenplay: Don Holley and Gene Quintano Music: Robert Folk Cinematography: Peter Deming Release date: February 5, 1993 (US) Cast: Emilio Estevez, Samuel L. Jackson, Kathy Ireland, Tim Curry, William Shatner, Jon Lovitz, Denis Leary, Frank MacRae, Lance Kinsey, Danielle Nicolet, Beverly Johnson, Ken Ober, Vito Scotti, Lin Shaye. Cameos: Whoopi Goldberg, James Doohan, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Bill Nunn, Corey Feldman, Phil Hartman, J.T. Walsh, Erik Estrada, Larry Wilcox, Paul Gleason, Charlie Sheen, Richard Moll, F. Murray Abraham, Allyce Beasley, Charles Napier, Rick Ducommun, Bruce Willis. Box Office: $27.9M (US)
Rating: ** ½
Taking a page from little brother Charlie Sheen’s (Hot Shots 1 & 2) book, Emilio Estevez (Young Guns) tried his hand at the spoof genre with National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, a take-off of the Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover (who do NOT cameo in this movie). It also takes pot shots at Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs, Die Hard and Wayne’s World. Directed by Gene Quintano, who wrote the screenplays for the third and fourth Police Academy movies, it’s fitfully amusing, but never reaches the comedic heights of classic spoofs like Airplane, Top Secret and The Naked Gun. It is, however, far funnier than any of the s***ty spoofs made by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Disaster Movie, the absolute nadir of the genre).
The plot of National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 is hardly important, but some folks like to know what movies are about before deciding to see them. Okay, you asked for it. Estevez plays Sgt. Jack Colt, a gun-happy, burnt-out cop who teams up with straight-laced family man Sgt. Wes Luger (Jackson, Pulp Fiction) to find out who killed Luger’s old partner (cameo by Goldberg) and why. It seems she’s in possession of a microfilm containing the formula that turns cocaine into Wilderness Girl cookies. The killer, disguised as a Wilderness Girl, is Mr. Jigsaw (Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show), the right-hand man of main villain General Mortars (Shatner, Star Trek) under whom Colt served in Vietnam. He and Luger intend to bring him down along with his entire operation.
Colt, still grieving for his lost partner, finds new romance with Destiny Demeanor (swimsuit model Ireland), a Wilderness Girl rep who might secretly be working for Mortars. Playing the role of annoying witness who won’t go away, the one popularized by Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 & 3, is Jon Lovitz of SNL. Frank MacRae reprises his bellowing police captain role from 48 Hrs.
Basically, National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 is a pastiche of familiar scenes from the three Lethal Weapon movies with pieces of other popular movies thrown in. For instance, Colt and Luger pay a visit to a Dr. Harold Leacher (Abraham, Last Action Hero) in the locked ward at a maximum security mental institution to find out the identity of the bad person they’re after. Truthfully, Abraham isn’t too bad a stand-in for Anthony Hopkins. It’s fun picking out the different movies being goofed on. It’s also fun playing Spot the Star with all the cameos. There are a handful of scenes that will have you chuckling, but I can’t say anything in National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 will leave your sides hurting from laughing too hard. It’s one of those comedies where most of the laughter is hollow. You laugh because you recognize something as being funny and afford it the courtesy of acknowledging it with the appropriate emotional response. Hey, it’s better than a comedy that isn’t funny at all, right?
Estevez does okay, but he doesn’t have the comedy chops of his brother. Charlie, like Leslie Nielsen, has the ability to play comedy straight even when he’s doing something goofy. With Estevez, it feels a little forced. His best bit is the movie’s opening scene. It’s a familiar scenario, one we’ve seen a thousand times. He walks into a convenience store to grab a bite to eat. Moments later, creeps barge in to stick up the joint. A gun fight ensues only in National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, it’s more like a small war with automatic weapons blasting away, hundreds of bullets fired, the store totally destroyed and Colt taking the Indian clerks’ angry yelling and fist-shaking as a show of gratitude. I chuckled at this. Jackson does a pretty decent Danny Glover/Roger Murtaugh impression. Shatner turns in one of his trademark campy, over the top performances. Curry is underused. Ireland, whose big scene is a take-off of a certain interrogation in Basic Instinct (don’t get too excited, this is a PG-13 movie), looks good and tries to be funny. What can I say? She’s neither an actress nor a comedienne.
I’m sitting here looking over the words I wrote and asking myself why I’m even bothering. Movies like National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 don’t require analysis. People aren’t going to see them for deep insights into the human experience. They don’t expect fine acting or an intelligent storyline. They just want to laugh, period. I guess if you keep your expectations very low, you’ll find plenty to laugh at here. Like I said, it’s really not too bad. It’s not particularly good either. It has a choppy, thrown-together feel to it. It’s dumb and mindless. However, the actors look like they’re having some fun. Maybe some of it will rub off on the audience.
