He is one of the best action screenwriters yet the only successful films (box office wise) he's credited to is Lethal Weapon 1 and 2. The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight are excellent movies and Last Action Hero is the most underrated satire ever. He deserves more success.
I've always thought his movies were juvenile and gimmicky and his jokes unfunny. Last Boy Scout and Long Kiss Goodnight are not good movies (neither are the Lethal Weapon films, they just had good chemistry between the two leads, which is why they are his only hits).
Take into account that some of his films were rewritten extensively beyond what he had envisioned. Lethal Weapon 2 was not supposed to happen but he wrote the original storyline where the South Africans were more vicious, Leo Getz was a minimal presence & Martin Riggs was supposed to die. It got changed and he left the series. Both The Last Boy Scout & The Long Kiss Goodnight were both rewritten to not even closely resemble what he had before. So, just because it has a writer's name on it doesn't always mean that everything you saw was what the script had. I'm actually surprised that if both these films were rewritten like that, why didn't he use those made-up names like Alan Smithee or something if their work was compromised ?
Have to disagree with what you said about LBS being rewritten to almost different movies. That's not true for LBS, but is true for Long Kiss Goodnight. I've read Boy Scout's script and there are only a few changes. Kiss is a different story, for sure. Otherwise, agreed with everything you said.
...one must assume he approved of the final script...
I'm sure he did. He also received sole writing credit and was paid big money for his original script. Having seen Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang etc., makes me feel sure a lot of that priceless dialogue in the film is still his.
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I heard about Iron Man 3, which I hope will bring him more recognition. I believe Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the only film Black has directed so far but you're right, I should have mentioned it because it's awesome and criminally underrated.
Yeah, I dunno why he never made it bigger. He fizzled a bit in the late 90s. I don't remember Boyscout all that much, but agree on every other comment.