Mid-tier spoof movie at best

Parody films had taken such a hold of the public by 1993 that even putting Emilio Estevez in a movie spoofing action films would be enough to make people think of “Hot Shots” movies spoofing “Top Gun”, starring brother Charlie Sheen. The movie spoofs everything from the “Lethal Weapon” films, “Dirty Harry”, “Silence of the Lambs”, and “Basic Instinct” among many others. It has a few funny things going for it but it’s nowhere near as consistent or clever as what Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers were doing with “Airplane”, “Naked Guns” and “Hot Shots.” Maybe the problem here is that the scenes they’re trying to spoof were already cheesy as is, or maybe it’s just that it’s too intent on being referential to really score a solid gag on its own. Or maybe it’s just that the director, Gene Quintano, is most well-known for “Police Academy” sequels and that level of humor. When Samuel L. Jackson’s Det. Luger continually gets mis-named Det. Loogie, you kinda just throw up your hands and say, “yeah, that’s a “Police Academy” sequel joke.

The plot, rightfully inconsequential, has to do with Jackson’s character being teamed up with Estevez’s mullet-haired, nutty, loose-canon Mel Gibson clone Colt, on the trail of a drug smuggling ring. The positives are few. I liked a “Dirty Harry” gag in the beginning (“Did I fire 173 shots, or 174?”). Estevez rolling on the ground as he fires his weapon. It’s super childish but the “Basic Instinct” gag has a kinda funny “beaver” shot. It’s all pretty soft though, like the “LW 2” toilet scene; a whimpering reference to what came before.


There’s nothing terribly bad about “Loaded Weapon 1” but it’s also easy to see the overreliance on obvious references, wall to wall cameos (here we get Whoopi Goldberg, F. Murray Abraham, Bruce Willis, and Charlie Sheen among many others), and taking already silly situations and trying to make them even broader cartoons. This all did eventually lead to unwatchable films like “Epic Movie”, “Disaster Movie”, and so on. Worse is that the film doesn’t really even know how to satirize its characters. Estevez has a few funny scenes involving his dead dog and he and Kathy Ireland are enjoyable in a “Lethal Weapon 3” inspired scene where they both show scars but much of it is uninspired and the film is even worse at finding the humor in Jackson’s Murtaugh character. Tim Curry and William Shatner start out kinda funny as the film’s lead villains but then disappear and Jon Lovitz should essentially be a perfect Joe Pesci but there’s no personality past the set-up of an annoying character imitating Pesci.

The Zuckers and Abrahams really were artists of the genre and many of the imitators really took all the wrong lessons in putting these things together. “Loaded Weapon 1” was a cool idea, but it wasn’t even the best action spoof of its year. “Last Action Hero”, for all its flaws, did it right. Coincidentally, Frank McRae was also in this and that and watching both performances, there’s no question which movie had more zest in sending up the genre.


For more reviews, check out Craig James Review on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtQoj2LBSsES1QTa8a6bpRA