National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

Powerful

Let's be realistic.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Loaded Weapon 1 is a mediocre movie with a poorly written storyline that manages to be enjoyable because of a talented comedic cast. It definitely has some very good moments, Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson have great chemistry and played off each other very well, they were the right choice to parody Mel Gobson and Danny Glover's role in the Lethal Weapon series. There are also fun cameos throughout and some worthwhile film references, such as a scene from Silence of the Lambs and Wayne's World. The biggest flaw is that it relies very heavily on having each scene as a set up for parodying the popular films of this decade, that it never really tries to be its own film, there is a story here but it tends to get lost far too often, and all the loose ends are quickly wrapped up in the last five minutes. All the references to other movies are, for the most part, quite lame, they don't necessarily serve as satire on them, but almost a shot for shot remake of certain scenes, and when the most memorable moments are the nod they make to Basic Instinct or Dirty Harry, it makes you wonder that maybe you should have just watched those movies instead. It has its moments and is worth the watch if you have nothing better to do and need to kill some time, but for the most part, Loaded Weapon 1 never tries to be its own movie and relies on others for laughs, I wouldn't highly recommend it. A cop duo must put a stop to a cocaine ring looking to spread across the nation. Best Performance: Samuel L. Jackson

What's not to love in a movie that pokes fun of action movies of the 80's and early 90's, and even does it pretty well? I've watched my share of Lethal Weapon, Dirty Harry, Die Hard etc. and loved them all, so making fun of them hits the jackpot for me.Great cast: Emilio Estevez is BRILLIANT as the cool and distant, but sad anti-hero, Samuel L. Jackson as his partner, who's "getting too old for this ---", William Shatner as the evil general and so on. Even Bruce Willis does a short visit on the screen!What I liked the most about this film is that it manages to keep it's focus the whole time; it would have been easy just to use all the sex jokes around like they do with the latest movies of spoof genre, but they don't over-do it here. There's plenty of solid spoofs in the film that stay well above the waist; there's action, bad dialog, overacting and more to share! One of the finest of it's genre! 3/4

Loaded Weapon 1 was really the original spoof movie before we got into movies like Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, etc. This is really a break out comedy performance for Emilio Estevez, who portrays a Mel Gibson sort of character in this spoof. Alongside him is Samuel L. Jackson, who is the equivalent to Danny Glover. All in all this film has a ton of celebrity cameos from Dennis Leary to Phil Hartman to even Corey Feldman. Also starring alongside as the main villains are Will Shatner and Tim Curry. The funniest character of the film is entirely Jon Lovitz. He was definitely a scene stealer in this one, even though the jokes seemed sort of unfunny. So check out this Lampoon flick. It may not be as good as Animal House and Vacation, but it's worth a try.

Jack Colt (Emilio Estevez) is on the edge police detective with nothing to lose. Although Colt is depressed, since the love of his life disappear. Wes Luger (Samuel L. Jackson) is by the book detective, who's also a family man. Colt and Luger are teamed together, since Luger's ex-partner (Oscar-Winner:Whoopi Goldberg) seemingly died of suicide but Luger knows that his ex-partner was up to something. They discover that Luger's ex-partner uncover a sinister plot about drug-laced Wilderness Girl Cookies. Two bad guys (William Shatner and Tim Curry), who are in charged of these cocaine laced cookies. They make sure that Colt and Luger doesn't stand in their way.Directed by Gene Quintano (Funky Monkey, Hollywood Academy, Why Me?) made an amusing comedic spoof of action cop genres. The cast are surprisingly engaging with some surprise cameos. But the script isn't great (Co-written by the director) and Estevez seems out of place with this genre. But at least, it has some laugh-out moments. It was only a modest success in theaters but went on to be a cult favorite on video.DVD has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer (also in Pan & Scan) and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD has the original theatrical trailer and cast & crew information. Probably the most amusing thing is watching this movie now is Seeing Samuel L. Jackson in a comedic role. Since this is a tradition of Airplane! and The Naked Gun Series. "Loaded Weapon 1" is a mildly diversion only, nothing more. Alternate Version exists with 10 minutes of additional footage but only for television. (*** 1/2 out of *****).