The first one had a completely fresh and enjoyable concept - What happens when you pair an older cop who has a family that he loves and who just wants to live to see retirement (Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh) with a younger cop who has nothing to lose after the death of his wife and seems to have a death wish himself (Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs)?
So this film picks up where the first one left off, with Riggs still doing wild and crazy things, yet he now seems to want to live. He has also found a taste of family in his partner's wife and kids and spends lots of free time with them. To me those small scenes between Riggs and Martaugh's family are the best in the film.
The film's villain was a favorite punching bag of the day - and rightfully so - apartheid enforcing South Africa. So unless you know something of how that country was run historically, this plot might not make much sense to you. The actual villain is Arjen Rudd, a South African diplomat and the corrupt Minister of Affairs for the South African consulate in Los Angeles. He uses diplomatic immunity to manage to do all kinds of illegal racketeering and murder in defense of that racketeering . Now this is not really how diplomatic immunity works. The first time the diplomat is arrested, the country of origin has a choice. If it cares about its reputation and thinks the charges are valid, that country could allow you to be charged in America. If they don't care or don't think that the charges are valid, you would be protected by diplomatic immunity that first time. But then the country in which you are serving - in this case America - could just kick you out in which you can kiss your criminal career goodbye. But if this happened then we would have no plot.
I always thought the movie seemed disjointed, especially towards the end. Then I learned that it was originally intended that this would be the only sequel and so the script was changed multiple times, resulting in an ending that just didn't ring true to me. But it is still a pretty good action buddy flick.
So this film picks up where the first one left off, with Riggs still doing wild and crazy things, yet he now seems to want to live. He has also found a taste of family in his partner's wife and kids and spends lots of free time with them. To me those small scenes between Riggs and Martaugh's family are the best in the film.
The film's villain was a favorite punching bag of the day - and rightfully so - apartheid enforcing South Africa. So unless you know something of how that country was run historically, this plot might not make much sense to you. The actual villain is Arjen Rudd, a South African diplomat and the corrupt Minister of Affairs for the South African consulate in Los Angeles. He uses diplomatic immunity to manage to do all kinds of illegal racketeering and murder in defense of that racketeering . Now this is not really how diplomatic immunity works. The first time the diplomat is arrested, the country of origin has a choice. If it cares about its reputation and thinks the charges are valid, that country could allow you to be charged in America. If they don't care or don't think that the charges are valid, you would be protected by diplomatic immunity that first time. But then the country in which you are serving - in this case America - could just kick you out in which you can kiss your criminal career goodbye. But if this happened then we would have no plot.
I always thought the movie seemed disjointed, especially towards the end. Then I learned that it was originally intended that this would be the only sequel and so the script was changed multiple times, resulting in an ending that just didn't ring true to me. But it is still a pretty good action buddy flick.