Lethal Weapon is a 1987 action film, the first in a series of American movies that were release in 1987, 1989, 1992, and 1998, all directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a mismatched pair of LAPD detectives. These movies fall into the action-comedy, thriller genre (though the first is less of a comedy), and are generally considered to typify the "buddy cop" plot device.