We've Cooking Now!

About a year has passed (movie time)as we find Riggs and Roger still partners at the opening of the film. The two of them have become pretty good friends during the 2 plus years that they have worked together and are the lead detectives of a task force in the LAPD.

The movie jumps you right into the action at the start, opening in the middle of a car chase as the team attempts to catch a pair of crooks who have been dealing drugs in the city. However, what was intended to be a routine drug bust turned into a high speed gun fight, ending with one suspect getting away by helicopter and the other escaping by foot after crashing into a store. About the only thing gained was a half a billion dollars worth of South African gold coins, something that cannot be imported into America.

Cut to the villain and a warning is sent to the lead detective, Roger, to back off. This causes the Chief to stick the highly destructive pair in charge of protecting a state witness. This leads our heros into even bigger mayhem as they begin to try and take down the crooks that Leo Gets (Joe Pesci) plans to testify against.

Gibson and Glover once again show that uncommon chemistry as they work together smoothly to create a film that is in most aspects, better then the first. Richard Donner out does himself this time around, giving the viewers much more character development with both Riggs and Roger so that we understand the somewhat mismatched partners better.

Even better, many of the cast members from the first movie return, although several will not be along for the ride in future films due to the events that transpire. Joe Pesci makes a great performance, doing so well that he appears in the next two films as a continuing character. This gives the overall series a continuing story line, something that is sadly abscent in most movie series.

Overall, this is a really good film. It has a couple of small adult sections, some brief nudity and strong language, but other than that it is an almost perfect family film. The antics that the characters pull on each other are well done and the action scenes are not so over whelming that they detract from the plot of the feature.

Topping the whole thing off is the wonderful soundtrack, including songs from Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and George Harrison (who later in the same year went on to release two albums under the name The Traveling Willburys).