Metascore
36 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 18
  2. Negative: 7 out of 18
  1. 75
    There are elements in the movie that make it worth seeing, and that set it aside from the routine movies in this genre.
  2. A nonstop action picture with a fair amount of laughs, car chases and exploding buildings. [15 May 1992]
  3. Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    70
    Lethal Weapon 3 is all about chases and comedy schtick, and in this case the sum of the parts really adds up to more than the whole.
  4. Reviewed by: Jo Berry
    60
    If you like fast food movies that you digest and then 10 minutes later forget what you had - or if a simple evening's entertainment is what you're after, this will certainly do the trick.
  5. Lethal Weapon 3 isn't that much worse than the two earlier films.
  6. The movie zips around without any true forward momentum. The stars carry you along, though.
  7. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    50
    More of the same, but it's now so far removed from any sense of reality, and done with such ham-fisted insistence, it's become a clumsy parody of itself.
  8. 50
    In its third go-round, the Lethal Weapon arsenal is running out of ammunition. [15 May 1992]
  9. It's better than 2, but not nearly as good as 1. On the slippery slope of sequel-land, that's an okay average. [15 May 1992]
  10. Reviewed by: M.L. Lyke
    50
    Sure-handed actionmeister Donner keeps the pacing breathless, and gives his actors plenty of room to do their thing. [15 May 1992]
  11. Reviewed by: Desson Howe
    50
    A wham-bam encounter, it gives you everything you (presumably) want, sets itself up for another sequel, and it makes sure you don't recall a thing about it in the morning.
  12. Reviewed by: Clifford Terry
    38
    They once again trot out the same cynical, numbing formula: bullets, bonding and bravado tempered with self-congratulatory humor.
  13. The latest, and, one fears, not the last episode in the kiss-kiss-bang-bang saga of L.A. police Detectives Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is even more of a comic strip than its immediate predecessor. [15 May 1992]
  14. More of the same, though a lot coarser than its immediate predecessor, and the characters and situations have now calcified to the point where they're simply sitcom staples.
  15. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    25
    Lethal Weapon 3 is a big, dumb, noisy, comic strip of a movie that begins and ends in flames.
  16. 20
    Lethal Weapon 3 is pretty much the same as "Lethal Weapon 2," which was pretty much the same as "Lethal Weapon."
  17. 0
    Lethal Weapon 3 offers mediocrity wielded by experts. It's not a movie, it's a machine.
  18. It's all played for giggles, this grim anti-humanism. [21 May 1992]