Lethal Weapon (1987, Warner Bros., 4K Ultra HD, R or NR, 110 or 117 min.). After helming the family film “The Goonies,” director Richard Donner (“Ladyhawke,” “Superman”) turned to “Lethal Weapon” as his next project and thereby set the standard for the reluctant buddy cop and other action films for the next decade-plus. The film cemented stardom for its leads, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, who both first appear in the film naked, although Glover is taking a bath when receiving birthday greetings from his family. We do get to see Gibson’s naked bottom.

Glover (“Dreamgirls,” the 3 “Lethal Weapon” sequels) is veteran homicide cop Roger Murtaugh, happily married to Trish (Darlene Love of the music group The Blossoms), with three wonderful children. The occasion is his 50th birthday, but he believes he has plenty of fight left in him. Gibson (“Braveheart,” the 3 LW sequels) is detective Martin Riggs, kind of a reckless loose cannon, still mourning the car accident death of his wife Victoria Lynn after 11 years of marriage. The police psychologist feels he is suicidal and should be restricted to a desk job.

Instead of that, Riggs becomes Murtaugh’s new partner, investigating the murder of call girl who was the daughter of a man Murtaugh served in the military with. However, first with see Riggs take care of a sniper shooting children by confronting him in the open and daring to be shot; perform an undercover drug bust that turns into a shootout and he grabs a bad guy’s gun while it is against his own head; and save a would-be jumper by handcuffing himself to the man and then jumping down into the fire department’s inflated air cushion. Not to mention his almost suicide scene in his trailer. At least he has a dog friend, name of Sam.

To Murtaugh’s mind, Riggs cannot solve a case without killing someone, whereas he has never even fired his gun in the line of duty.

There is good balance between the two characters, as well as a believable growing friendship. Their case turns out to involved mega-heroin shipments and often puts their lives in danger, as well as that of Rianne (Traci Wolfe of the 3 LW sequels), Murtaugh’s oldest daughter, who humorously develops an instant attraction to Riggs.

The action scenes are topnotch and include an exploding house. Stunts include a helicopter touching a car and a car-bus accident. Our two heroes, especially Riggs, also get tortured. The main action bad guy is Joshua, played by Gary Busey (“The Buddy Holly Story,” “Point Break”). The action ending is quite good, except for the silliness of Riggs choosing to fist fight during the final arrest.

And yes, this is more of a Christmas movie than “Die Hard.” It opens with “Jingle Bell Rock” and closes with an Elvis Presley Christmas song, and in between there is a Christmas dinner with not-so-well-cooked turkey.

Interestingly, the plot makes mention of “Air America,” the clandestine CIA operation out of Laos. Gibson would go on to star in the film “Air America” in 1990. Also note that the music score is by Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton, who then won the 1988 BMI Film Music Award.

The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound. The unrated director’s cut is seven minutes longer. The other new extras are “Remembering Dick Donner” (7 min.) and a look at the iconic chemistry between Glover and Gibson (6:05).  Glover is interviewed in both, recalling he was only 38 when making the movie. Grade: film 3.75 stars; extras 1.5 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Experiment in Terror(1962, Columbia Pictures/Sony, Blu-ray, NR, 123 min.). Other than the police and the FBI being too obvious in their surveillance to my eyes, this is a decent film about a bank teller being forced into stealing $100,000 by threats to the lives of herself and her high school-aged sister. Even though the man’s first contact with her is physical, she never sees his voice and only identifies him as having an asthmatic voice.

The voice belongs to Garland Humphrey “Red” Lynch (Ross Martin of “The Great Race,” TV’s “The Wild Wild West”), whom the FBI eventually identify due to the asthmatic description. Lynch has told the teller he has already killed two people.

That teller is Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick of “Anatomy of a Murder,” “The Omen,” “Days of Wine and Roses”), while her sister is Toby (Stefanie Powers of TV’s “Hart to Hart,” “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”). The FBI agent Kelly Sherwood contacts is John Ripley (Glenn Ford of “Pocketful of Miracles,” “Superman”), who is played very straight.

The Sherwoods live in Twin Peaks, a suburb of San Francisco. The film includes a would-be nightclub meeting with Lynch that goes wrong, Lynch dressing as a woman when they finally meet, and an extended ending during a baseball game at Candlestick Park, when it only cost $2.50 to see a baseball game.

Also, while the film depicts Lynch as a killer, it also shows how he has paid thousands of dollars in medical bills to help the son of his occasional lover.

Blake Edwards (“Victor/Victoria,” several “Pink Panther” films and the writer for TV’s “Peter Gunn”) directed. The music score is by Henry Mancini, easily identifiable before I saw the credits. Grade: film 3.25 stars

A Life at Stake (1955, Film Masters Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 75 min.). The film opens with a shirtless Keith Andes (“Tora! Tora! Tora!”), playing unemployed architect Edward Shaw, who lost more than $30,000 in his last development deal, much of it from friends and partners. An attorney shows up at his lodging with news of a potential deal, but he must meet the wife of the man funding the $300,000 deal the next day.

Doris Hillman (Anegla Lansbury of TV’s “Murder, She Wrote,” films “Gaslight,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray”) is relaxing poolside at her home during the meeting. Her plan is to use her husband’s money to buy land for which Shaw will design cheap houses and then she will sell the houses, as she used to be in real estate. The husband is Gus Hillman (Douglass Dumbrille of “The Ten Commandments,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”).

The fatal flaw of the film for me is I do not buy there is any real chemistry between Lansbury and Andes as the leads. Part of that could be the film’s short running time, making most of their clandestine meetings offscreen. However, when Shaw believes there have been attempts on his life, the viewer agrees and just cannot be sure whether it is Mr. or Mrs. Hillman behind them – if not both. His suspicions are certainly triggered when Doris says her husband insists Shaw raise his insurance coverage from $35,000 to $300,000.

Shaw actually has more sparks with Doris Hillman’s kid sister, Madge Neilan (Claudia Barrett of “Robot Monster,” “Rustlers on Horseback”). She fills him in on some suspicious background details of the Hillmans and seems to have an eye on snagging Shaw herself. Grade: film 2 stars

St. Elmo’s Fire 40th Anniversary Edition (1985, Sony, 4K Ultra HD, R, 108 min.). Rewatching the film for the first time in decades, I was far less enamored of it. In fact, I came away with its main message being the depressing “love sucks.” Some of the performances are still worth watching, most notably Rob Lowe as the out-of-control Billy Hicks, who misses being in school, gets drunk a lot, gets fired often and plays the saxophone in a band. The time is four months after college graduation for seven friends.

Hicks is self-destructive. He thrived on the chaos of college and frat life. Now saddled with responsibilities he cannot handle, including a child, he is becoming desperate and damaging. In one scene, Hicks returns to campus and is treated as "Billy the Kid" by his frat brothers as he mentions wanting an on-campus job.

The portrayers of those friends quickly became known as the “Brat Pack,” young stars who were taking over Hollywood. They include roommates Kevin Dolanz (Andrew McCarthy of “Pretty in Pink,” “Weekend at Bernie’s”) and Kirby Keger (Emilio Estevez of “The Outsiders,” “Repo Man,” “The Breakfast Club”), who is hot after Dr. Dale Biberman (Andie MacDowell of “Groundhog Day,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral”) and basically stalking her. Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham of “Miracle Mile”), who has been in a car accident with Hicks as the film opens.

Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson of “The Breakfast Club”) and Leslie Hunter (Ally Sheedy of “The Breakfast Club,” “WarGames”) are together and thought to be headed towards marriage, but it is Dolanz who secretly wants Hunter. His desire is so secret that Jules (Demi Moore of “G.I. Jane,” “Ghost”) thinks he is gay and is trying to hook him up with her apartment neighbor, Ron Dellasandro (Matthew Laurance of “Eddie and the Cruisers”).

St. Elmo’s is a bar at which they hang out, as well as a type of lightning.

The release comes with audio commentary by director/co-writer Joel Schumacher (“Batman & Robin,” “Phone Booth”); Schumacher remembering the film (14:21); an archival making-of (8:42); 12 deleted scenes (16:18); and John Parr’s “Man in Motion” music video (4:14). Grade: film 2.5 stars; extras 3.25 stars

The Fabulous Dorseys (1947, Film Masters Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 88 min.). This is the rare film biography in which the subjects, swing bandleaders and brothers Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey, play themselves. Also playing themselves are bandleader Paul Whiteman, pianist Art Tatum and sax player Charlie Barnet.

The solid film starts with their childhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, where their father was a coal miner as well as a music teacher. It later details their hard life on the road before fame, which mostly came after their frequent arguing, and even fights, led to a 12-year split, only healed after the death of their father (Arthur Shields of “The Quiet Man,” “How Green Was My Valley”). Sara Allgood (“How Green Was My Valley”) plays their mother.

The film features a lot of great music, especially towards the end, but it is not note perfect to historical fact. And where is Frank Sinatra, who rose to fame as party of Tommy Dorsey’s band?

The boys' mother performs as the occasional narrator and is seem throughout the film, as is their father. It is the brothers’ relationship with their parents that colors much of the film's account of what supposedly happened. One example of a shift is the brothers’ actual fight took place on the roof of the Hotel Astor in New York. After the brothers split, there is the old standby of a montage of newspaper headlines that show how well each was doing apart.

A subplot revolves around the growing relationship of composer/pianist Bob Burton (William Lundigan of “Mystery in Mexico”) and the Dorseys’ childhood friend/band singer Jane Howard (Janet Blair of “The Black Arrow,” “My Sister Eileen”). Grade: film 3 stars