"Jack...tell me story?" - "Fuck You" - "Oh, that's one of my favorites."
"48 Hrs." came out in 1982 which happens to be the year I was born so I was too young to see it when it was first released. Not only that but I'm not the worlds biggest Eddie Murphy fan so I had multiple reasons to not have seen this movie. Well thank goodness for 80s Action week because I have just witnessed one of the most enjoyable cop movies I have ever seen. Nick Nolte plays Jack Cates. A tough cop trying hard to make things work with his girlfriend Elaine when he accidentally gets sucked into plot involving escaped convict Ganz (James Remar) and the Native American man who helped him escape, Billy Bear (Sonny Landham). Jack must enlist the help of the one man from Ganz' gang who is still imprisoned, Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy), to stop the cop-killing Ganz and recover the money he is trying to steal from Reggie. Reggie is in jail with 6 months left on a 3 year sentence but Jack forges an official document that grants Reggie release for 48 hours. Ganz or no Ganz, Reggie must return to jail in that time.
"48 Hrs." works because it is 3 things rolled into one nice little package: An exciting sort-of Buddy Cop movie, a tense 80s Action Thriller and an often hilarious Comedy. The play between Nolte and Murphy is fantastic and although the two couldn't be more opposite they work extremely well together. In the end you'll see that they both put up tough fronts but don't really hate each other nearly as much as they let on. Nolte's tough cop routine is still fresh here and I believe in his character far more than Stallone's Cobra or any of Ah-nuld's half-baked portrayals. Again we have a film that has none of the 80s Action cliche's we keep talking about. Perhaps that is because it came out earlier in the decade before Action movies had the chance to become so ridiculous. It produced on sequel in 1990's "Another 48 Hrs." Word on that one to come later. If you like cop movies that have a even mix of Action and Comedy regardless of the decade the film came from, you will love this movie. 4/5 -andy
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