Every Die Hard & Lethal Weapon Movie (Ranked By Metacritic)
Of the big Hollywood action movies to emerge from the late 1980s and define much of the cinematic culture of the 1990s, there were few as big as the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon franchises. Each produced a healthy number of sequels with demand for more always stirring up some kind of development at one time or another even today.
Each series of movies would create its own tropes and conventions that would go on to be either parodied or just straight up copied for decades by imitators and emulators and, even when taking their lowest points into account, there's no denying the massive impact that each one has had on fans over the years. But how have critics responded to the movies? To try and create a clearer picture of which franchise is considered to be superior in the public eye, this list will break down every movie and its score on review aggregate site Metacritic.
9 A Good Day to Die Hard (28)
The latest Die Hard movie was, despite keeping its core star Bruce Willis front and center, the biggest dud of the franchise so far with both fans and critics.
Set mostly in Russia, A Good Day to Die Hard felt like considerably low-energy from the star and the production as a whole, losing essentially all of the franchise's signature personality and coming off as a generic thriller.
8 Lethal Weapon 4 (37)
The critical success of the Lethal Weapon franchise was unfortunately very frontloaded and it's perhaps one of the biggest contributing factors to why the proposed fifth installment has undergone so many setbacks.
Much older, but still full of their schtick, LAPD sergeants Riggs and Murtaugh are joined by Chris Rock in a strong supporting role as they take on Jet Li's formidable Triad enforcer.
7 Lethal Weapon 3 (40)
Six years earlier, the third Lethal Weapon fared similarly to the fourth installment and signaled a definite sense of franchise fatigue amongst critics while still being a big hit at the box office.
The franchise was always built around the dynamic between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover but the lack of a standout villain or plotline made the threequel far less memorable than the previous two entries in the series.
6 Die Hard with a Vengeance (58)
Original Die Hard director John McTiernan returned for the third movie in the franchise and, similarly to the third Lethal Weapon, it was ultimately received much better by fans of the series than it was by critics.
The always-brilliant Samuel L. Jackson joined Bruce Willis' famously embattled cop this time around as they took on Jeremy Irons' villain in a story set all across Manhattan.
5 Die Hard 2 (67)
More in touch with the franchise's relatively-claustrophobic roots, the first Die Hard sequel is set primarily in Dulles airport and sees John McClane handling an elaborate hostage situation.
Die Hard 2 may not be quite as revered as the original but it still ranks as one of the biggest achievements of Willis' career so far in the eyes of critics.
4 Lethal Weapon (68)
The original Lethal Weapon redefined the action movie and essentially invented the 'buddy cop' format as most people know it today.
Screenwriter Shane Black demonstrated a talent for creating characters with real problems and it elevated the movie from being just another thriller to an iconic milestone in movie genres.
3 Live Free or Die Hard (69)
The Fourth Die Hard movie kept hopes for the franchise moving comfortably and consistently into the 21st century alive and sits in stark contrast to the fifth movie with plenty of dynamic energy and personality to its action.
Len Wiseman's sequel sees the very low-tech John McClane pitted against Timothy Olyphant's cyberterrorist and Justin Long adds a satisfyingly comedic partner to the franchise's impressive roster.
2 Lethal Weapon 2 (70)
Securing Lethal Weapon as a brand that would go on to have two more sequels and a successful TV show, the first sequel delivered on more of what audiences responded so well to in the first movie and added long-running co-star Joe Pesci to the mix.
Though Shane Black only took a story credit on Lethal Weapon 2, the characters and story still kept critics entertained and produced what may very well be the action genre's most famous payoff line.
1 Die Hard (72)
One of the most seminal action movies ever made, John McTiernan's original Die Hard was a tour-de-force of thrilling set-pieces and unforgettable villainy.
The simple story, of a cop trapped in a highrise building full of well-armed criminals, so perfectly mastered the art of self-contained storytelling that future movies–smart enough to realize that they could never remake Die Hard exactly–would essentially turn the format into its own subgenre.