48 Hrs. (1982)

Undescribable Perfection

Simply A Masterpiece

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Watching it just recently again, 48 HRS, is a well formulated movie, and first rate film making done solid, with a great script and two great bolstered performances to boot, especially Murphy, in still what I believe is one of his best performances. The movie is well plotted, even though we know we are walking that predictable path, to where the next scene will take us, like a lot of eighties movies did. On a quest for revenge, for two cops dying, in front of his eyes, is hot dog cop, Jack Cates (Nolte giving us another great character performance). They were killed by escaped and very dangerous prisoner, Ganz, (a splendid James Remar) and buddy, Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) who sprung his mate out. Cates enlists help from prisoner/expert thief, Reggie Hammond (Murphy) who he takes into his custody for 48 hours. He has ties with our dangerously violent cop killers, who are after this money, Reggie has stashed away somewhere. Reggie wants to protect his money, Nolte just wants to blow our murderous duo away. Featuring quite a bit of Commando music, a lot of hostility and hate, not just from Nolte, that doesn't take s..t, a bit of violence, a little t and a from some hot broads, this is a hard edged cop film, featuring other good performances too, like David E Kelly, as the luckless loser, Luther, who in one scene, Murphy, causes a considerable amount of pain too. Overall what I love is, that 48 HRS is a cop film with a great recipe of comedy and drama, entwined, Murphy, who we have to thank a lot of this. Murphy is given a lot of great lines to work with: a lot of snappy cutting remarks. Both two leads are at the top of their game in one of the best partnerships in film I've seen. The bare knuckle fight between the two is hilarious. I really loved the character Nolte created, though, his attitudes towards some women here, was kind of off putting. A tight shot I loved was a CU of Nolte's car approaching a steep San Francisco street decline, among some other captured ones in the film. Nolte's moment of vengeance was fantastic few words, while also I liked him, defending Murphy, in front of his colleagues. This was one of the strongest moments in the film, while also being another great acting moment of Nolte's. This is a well shaped, compacted actioner, and another reminder of those unforgotten and well made '83 flicks. I mean films.

Walter Hill's bawdy buddy cop classic 48 Hrs is for me the original and best entry in the sub genre. Countless films since have attempted to re create the aesthetic which was so purely and profanely distilled here. I think one of the reasons it worked so well is because one of the duo isn't even a cop at all, but a fast talking ex con played by Eddie Murphy with exquisite comic timing and bullet-time verbosity in what was one of his first roles. He's paired with a gruff, grunting Nick Nolte as Jack Cates, a spectacularly bad tempered Detective who is forced to bring along Murphy's gabber mouthed Reggie Hammond on a mad goose chase of a hunt for two staggeringly homicidal criminals. The entirety of the film is peppered with nostalgically anti-PC banter between the two, delightfully distasteful stuff that would never make it into a studio movie in this, the day and age of the offended millennial whiner. These two guys genuinely dislike each other for the majority of the film, and get so caught up in their petty feuds and arguing that they actually get distracted from their case, taking interludes to literally beat each other up in an alley. Nolte is perfect as the irresponsible hotshot with anger issues up the wazoo and a penchant for reckless behaviour. Murphy doesn't let up with the mile-a-minute yakking for one second of screen time, making damn sure his performance makes an impression. And it did, putting him on the map in a big way, and forging a career playing these types of dudes. James Remar has never been scarier, crafting a villain so psychopathic and dangerous he'd rather shoot cops and terrorize civilians that enjoy a hooker he picks up. The look of pure malice on his face as he coldly puts a bullet in a poor officer is chilling. He's Albert Ganz, heinous prison escapee on the run with equally nasty compadre Billy Bear (The legendary Sonny Landham). The two prove to be a raging juggernaut of violence for Jack and Reggie to contend with, providing some crackling action set pieces including a chase scene set on a speeding San Francisco cable car that will give your TV a good workout. There's supporting work from solid players including some Hill favourites. David Patrick Kelly plays an unsavoury associate of Ganz's, Annette O Toole is Jack's poor neglected love interest, and there's work from Chris Mulkey, Jonathan Banks, Frank McCrae and the late Brion James as well. When it comes to buddy cop flicks, this is the original and accept no substitutes. The two leads have never been funnier or more committed to such a heightened pair of performances. Hill drives the direction with snappy, ruthless precision where the laughs hit with the same stinging impact as the full throttle violence and wanton obscenities hurled across the screen. It holds up just as well today as it did back in the 80's, and is always ripe for a revisit.

Good music score, if a bit odd, steel drums and alto sax create a very unusual mood in this gritty look at early 1980s San Francisco. Plot is threadbare: cop forced to temporarily spring a convict from prison, to help catch his escaped ex-partner in crime. Both characters are tolerable at best, racist and homophobic at worst, so it was difficult for me to care what happened to them. Also, the plot (with a screenplay begun by Roger Spottiswood, then fleshed out by Steven DeSouza, then adapted further during filming by Walter Hill & Larry Gross) almost completely falls apart if one thinks about it afterward. Some abrupt tone changes several times in the final scenes may be a result of the rewrites, and they don't help.I could now only recommend this for Eddie Murphy fans and/ or Nick Nolte fans (who have probably already seen it), or someone with an interest in San Francisco.

The incredible box office success of "48 Hours" was attributable to its brilliant combination of action, pace and comedy and the pairing of a couple of guys whose relationship was a continuous source of entertainment. This formula proved to be so successful that it blazed the trail for the whole genre of "buddy cop movies" that followed. "48 Hours" was also significant, however, for being Eddie Murphy's first film and the one that made him into an instant star.Detective Sergeant Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) is a tough San Francisco cop who's out for revenge after two of his colleagues are killed by escaped convicts Albert Ganz (James Remar) and Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) in a shootout at a local apartment building. Jack's investigations soon reveal that another member of their gang is still in prison serving a three-year sentence for robbery and so he arranges for Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) to be released on a 48 hour pass so that he can help to track down the two killers.Reggie proves to be useful in assisting Jack's pursuit of Ganz and Bear who'd killed a couple of guards when they broke out of prison and are now intent on finding the $500,000 that they stole before being sent to jail. Reggie discloses that the money was stashed away in the trunk of his car which had been parked in a garage for the 30 months that he'd been in prison. Predictably though, Jack and Reggie's mission to recover the money and bring Ganz and Bear to justice within the 48 hours available, proves to be both challenging and extremely dangerous.The relationship between Jack and Reggie is so highly-charged as it develops from open hostility to mutual respect (and eventually friendship) that it becomes absolutely fascinating to watch. It's also incredibly funny because they're so different and their interactions are so abrasive. The dialogue is sharp, witty and often coarse and when they trade insults (in pre-politically correct language) their brilliantly-written quick-fire exchanges are delivered with tremendous panache.Nick Nolte is excellent as the gruff, hard-drinking detective who chain-smokes, always looks dishevelled and has a totally dysfunctional relationship with his badly-treated girlfriend Elaine (Annette O'Toole). Eddie Murphy is sensational as Reggie, who's a fast-talking, wisecracking, smartly-dressed ladies man with a lot of attitude and reasons of his own for being prepared to help Jack. Murphy's first appearance in the movie is very memorable because of the excruciating way in which he sings "Roxanne" and the now-legendary scene in which he takes control of a redneck bar while posing as a police officer is still terrific and laugh-out-loud funny.In retrospect, it's clear that, as well as being a fantastically successful movie that's hugely entertaining, "48 Hours" also proved to be far more influential than anyone could possibly have imagined at the time of its original release.