48 HRS.
Rating: 3.5 out of 4 /Buy the DVD Here
Tagline: They couldn’t have liked each other less. They couldn’t have needed each other more. And the last place they ever expected to be is on the same side. Even for… 48 HRS
Directed by Walter Hill
Starring: Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O’Toole, James Remar, Sonny Landham
THE PLAN: As if you need to be told… Boozy detective Jack Cates (Nolte) is on a revenge-mission, chasing after two psychopathic cop-killers (Remar, Landham), who in turn are chasing after a target of their own: $500,000, which is safely locked in the trunk of incarcerated wise-cracker Reggie Hammond’s (Murphy)
car. Jack has no choice but to team up with the fast-talking convict and go after the bad guys – their way! The Boys are back in town!
THE KILL: It’s hard to believe Eddie Murphy was only 20 when he was cast in Walter Hill’s 48 HRS. Of course he had already spent time perfecting his persona on Saturday Night Live, but he already possessed such a commanding screen presence in the film that he immediately looked like the superstar he would become immediately after the flick’s release in December of ’82. Though he wasn’t nearly the first choice to play the smooth-operating con man Reggie Hammond, Murphy made the role his own practically from the get-go, as we heard his stirring rendition of “Roxanne” in a prison holding cell. Although for most, his true “moment” didn’t come until later in the film, when Reggie brazenly poses as a cop while in a redneck bar and hustles the entire room for information. It might be the best scene in a movie full of them, but hell, we can take a look at some of the others!
The original trailer!
The opening is pure action movie stuff – a chain-gang escape, as dirtbag Ganz (Remar, who plays sleazy like no other) and his Native American buddy Billy Bear (Sonny Landham, later to perfect his stoic badass routine in PREDATOR) bust out, killing a few policemen along the way. This will turn out to be a habit for them, as in another intense scene, they stand off with gruff cop Jack and two other officers, who unfortunately bite the big one thanks to the two lowlifes… (For a movie that’s frequently referred to as a comedy, this is one mean mother in the violent-action department).
Jack doesn’t take this well, and you probably know the rest, right? Standard operating procedure in a flick like this dictates that he team up with someone who’s a) preferably a different race than he, and b) someone he can’t stand. At first…
Best of friends…
Though it wasn’t the first of its kind, 48 HRS. is largely credited with being the prototypical buddy-cop movie. You could argue that without it, there’d be no LETHAL WEAPON. That might not be the case if it weren’t done so well, with such force and confidence. This movie makes no apologies for what it is – misogynistic, racist, homophobic, misanthropic – and you can’t help but smile at every dirty joke, every cruel aside, every nasty little beating. It probably wasn’t made for everyone, but I’ve had a hard time tracking down someone who doesn’t admire its crazy little heart.
Men’s fashion – 1982.
Nick Nolte will forever be associated with Jack Cates, as far as I’m concerned. The voice, the world-weariness, the inability to give a f*ck about anyone else’s opinion, the smell of booze just coming off the screen: that’s Nolte! There’s a long, long, line of disturbed, alcoholic cops in film history, and Jack’s near the top. Oh yeah, I forgot, he’s also a racist, and uses that dreaded N-word at least once in the pic. The movie has mucho balls, give it that.
Perhaps it’s just best to show you what 48 HRS. is all about. This scene sums it all up. Not for conservatives, liberals, wusses, the faint of heart, the easily offended, or the generally sensitive. But if you were any of those things, you wouldn’t be here, would ya?!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
TOP DEATH: Most of the deaths in the flick come via bullet to the chest, so it’s hard to pick one that’s really “special”. I guess I could go with (spoiler!!) the last one, as Jack blows away Ganz. The guy’s just such a piece of filth that you’re actually relieved when he’s deceased.
TOP ACTION: An intense hijacked bus ride through the streets of San Francisco is easily the movie’s action highpoint. No CGI bullshit or vehicular acrobatics here – just plain ol’ road rage!
FEMALE EXPLOITATION: Let’s just say that in this movie’s eyes, all women are shrews, hussies, bossy nags, hookers or all of the above. But they’re all showing lots of cleavage, so game on!
HOMOEROTIC MOMENT: Like all great buddy/cop movies, these two bark at each other a lot, but in the end, no one but each other will have them… Awww…. (That brutal fight scene? Just another way of saying “I love you.”)
TOP DIALOGUE: (Frankly, there are too many great lines in this movie, but I’ll give you my personal fav.) Reggie: “I’ve been in prison for three years. My dick gets hard if the wind blows.”
DRINKING GAME: I’m going to get you f*cked up: Drink every time Nick Nolte genuinely looks drunk and/or hungover… You’ll look like, well, Nick Nolte by the end of the night!
TRIVIA: Mickey Rourke was offered, but turned down, the role of Jack… Gregory Hines was originally supposed to play Reggie, but had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts… Can you imagine that duo on screen?!
“Where you hiding that cottage cheese?!”