Truly Dreadful Film

Touches You

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Totally forgotten that "48 Hrs" was Eddie Murphy's debut. The man's acting is so mature and natural, that I would have guessed he had been starring in blockbusters for years, before he made "48 Hrs". Eddie Murphy is really a force of nature: energetic, rude and incredible funny. Unfortunately many movies in his carreer were mediocre, he made 2 movies that really excelled: "Beverly Hills Cop" and "48 Hrs". If you like this movie you WILL love "Beverly Hills Cop" too. These 2 movies have a lot in common, because they are both funny buddy cop movies.What's the story? Thief Eddie Murphy gets temporarily released from jail in order to track down a cop killer. The suspenseful and action packed pursuit of this cop killer is what "48 Hrs" is all about. The cop who accompanies Eddie Murphy on his search is played by Nick Nolte, a smoking, cussing, alcholic cop. Nick Nolte is the other force of nature in this picture. The chemistry between Nolte and Murphy is what makes this movie to die for. A lot of scenes were improvised and that is what makes this movie really special. It is street smart and credible. Serious and suspenseful, but still funny.I can't help but keep comparing "Beverly Hills Cop" to this movie because there is another similarity: the long scenes. It could have been a Tarantino movie where the characters also get plenty of time to talk. Just to talk. It is refreshing to see an action movie that gives its characters the opportunity to interact with eachother. It makes the characters credible. And because both Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte were both at the peak of their carreers while making 48 Hours, it is a contineous joy to see those 2 talents perform excellently."48 Hrs" is really one of the best buddy cop movies I know. I love the photography with the long telelenses shots. I love the hilarious, but still credible chemistry between the actors. It is a classic that I havent seen being made for a while. Truly a movie I cherish...

While watching Walter Hill's "48 Hrs." I was reminded of watching Richard Donner's "Lethal Weapon" (1987) even though the two stories are pretty similar but mostly different. Nick Nolte stars as Jack Cates a hard nosed, tough guy cop that just survived a hotel shooting that killed two cops and has no help in assisting him to go after the criminals that were responsible, but the help that Cates gets is from an unlikely source. After the shooting Cates goes to the local jail to get help from a convict named Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy, in his debut role) to arrest the three men in only 2 days. The movie is one of the best police movies that I've seen in a long time, with an intelligent screenplay, with frequently hilarious dialogue and excellent performances from both Nolte and Murphy. Nolte's performance is comparable with Danny Glover in "Lethal Weapon", Steve McQueen in "Bullitt", Gene Hackman in "The French Connection", and Clint Eastwood in the "Dirty Harry" series. While Murphy's performance reminded me of Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon" despite the fact that in the movie that Gibson played a drug addicted and suicidal cop. Hill's direction and his screenplay that he wrote with Roger Spottiswoode, Larry Gross, and Steven De Souza is really effective in letting us to get to know the characters and also tells the story in an efficient way. While especially the scenes between Cates and his wife (Annette O'Toole) are very emotionally effective and authentic. In conclusion because of all those reasons this is one of 1982's very best 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.