48 Hrs. (1982) Reviews

• An action classic, best and the only original buddy cop flick from the 80's!

  ivo-cobra82016-04-01

  48 Hrs. (1982) is an action classic the only original best buddy cop flick from the 80's. Is an action cop flick that I love to death and it was honestly the first action film I saw as a kid. I grew up watching this film and in my opinion is still my favorite action buddy flick. This is first time we see Eddie Murphy in action before he went in making Beverly Hills Cop (1984), beside Beverly Hills Cop this is one if his best movies of the 80's. It is actually my favorite Walter Hill film. Like I said I grew up watching this film, I loved 48 Hrs. so much that I hardly convinced my mom to watch this movie with me and the sequel of this film. I read on Charles Bronson's Murphy's Law (1986) flick that the storyline of that film the pairing a cop with a convict was popular in Hollywood during the 1980s after the success of this film 48 Hrs. (1982). Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy are sensational in this film, the action is great and the plot about this film is well paced it goes fast and it is entertaining. I really enjoy watching this movie and honestly I love it more, than I would love the sequel, the sequel can't even hold a candle to this film. "Yeah. Well, I'm real impressed with you too, man. It takes a real-skilled cop to kick in the bedroom door of a couple of dykes!" Plot: A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer. The film is actually about a $500,000 stashed cash and two cop killers who are running around and killing cop,s while they want to get the hands of this cash. A tough cop who is a survivor in a shoot out in the hotel from those two killers, pairs with a convict from prison to help him to get and catch those two killers. They only have 48 Hrs. before the cop has to bring the convict back. They don't make films like this anymore, I really love action films from the 80's and this one was the first one I have saw as a kid. My favorite part in the film is the stake out scene: Jack (Nick Nolte) and Reggie (Eddie Murphy) head out to the parking garage, and they park across the street from the parking garage, waiting till the parking garage opens which it does around 7.00 am in the mornings and they spend the night there. Next morning Jack (Nick Nolte) brings a café drink to Reggie (Eddie Murphy) and wakes him up. The similar thing happened to me when I was 12 years old. My mom drove me and my dad with the car in the city 4.00 am in the mornings it was night than and my dad went with his bike delivering news paper, me with my mom waited on him in the car till his shift ends. During the waiting I fall a sleep, when I woke it was past 7.00 am and my mom brought me food from the store in the car. That moment I remember this scene in this film. It is a beautiful child memories of mine on my mom and 48 Hrs. (1982) is my childhood movie and it is memories on my childhood. 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2 are my favorite Eddie Murphy films from my childhood that I love to death. This is Nick Nolte's best action flick that I love to death and only one that is worth to watch. I love Music theme by James Horner that I love so much including the opening scene that was awesome. Honestly James Horner made the same music theme for Commando (1985) Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie. I love the shout outs, the action scenes, the dialogues and I also love the main lead roles from Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond are my favorite characters. This is the only original action film, but I think it was unnecessary making a sequel (Another 48 Hrs.) that I honestly think Nick Nolte made a lousy awful job reprising his role and Eddie Murphy was even worst by shouting and punching Nick Nolte. Before I finish my review you have a few cast that are memorable here: You have: James Remar from Dexter playing the main villain, David Patrick Kelly from Commando and The Warriors, Sonny Landham from Predator, Annette O'Toole from Smallville, Jonathan Banks from Beverly Hills Cop and Olivia Brown from Miami Vice. I have this film on Blu-ray I used to own the DVD but I switch it for Blu-ray. 48 Hrs. is a 1982 American action comedy film directed by Walter Hill, starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy (in his film debut and Golden Globe Award-nominated role) as a cop and convict, respectively, who team up to catch a cop-killer. The title refers to the amount of time they have to solve the crime. Overall: Is my favorite action flick from my childhood and I love it to death. This flick get's a solid 10 by me and it deserves it.

• The real thing. Accept no imitations.

  mattymatt4ever2003-01-15

  This is the one of the movies that kicked off the buddy cop formula. Technically, Nick Nolte's the only cop, but other films have tried to imitate the style by having a tough, cranky, by-the-book cop (Nolte's character) paired off with a loose, easygoing, unorthodox cop (like Murphy's character). Some of these "imitators" have failed miserably and even those that succeeded don't match up to "48 Hours." I haven't seen the unedited version of this movie in over ten years (it plays on TV like 4 times every month), and even when I did catch it on TV, I caught it in bits and pieces. Now that I've seen it straight-through, in its uncut form, I can regard this as an overlooked classic. Watching Nolte as the gruff, chain-smoking Jack, I thought to myself, "He owns that part." Many actors have tried to take on that same role, but nobody plays it better than Nolte. And the same goes for Eddie Murphy. His talent has been taken for granted over the recent years, since his career has hit a major slump. And rightfully so. He should choose his roles much more wisely. How do you from doing such fun, memorable films as "48 Hours," "Coming to America" and "Trading Places" to doing "Showtime" and "I-Spy." This movie proves that Murphy can go leaps and bounds with his comic talent, if the script is well-written. The scene in the all-white, country-western bar, where Murphy shows off his skills as an interrogator, is a classic. The film is directed by Walter Hill, who's great at directing action sequences. So the movie packs a punch in both the action and comedy department. Nolte and Murphy's chemistry is priceless, and the banter between them is sharp and hilarious. One of my favorite examples is when Murphy asks Nolte, "Can you tell me a bedtime story?" Nolte responds, "F**k you." "That's my favorite one." Of course, Murphy gets most of the credit for being the comic relief, and he is terrific in one of his best comic performances, but Nolte belts out just as many funny lines as him, though he's the official straight man. He never seems to say anything intentionally funny, but that's what's funny. He says things that are hilarious, but sounds dead serious about them. And of course, it's also hilarious to watch him react furiously to Murphy's taunts. Those who haven't seen "48 Hours" should really check it out, because it's an action classic! Sure, the "Rush Hour" films are good, but Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan don't have close to the same magic as Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy! THIS is how an action/comedy is made!! My score: 9 (out of 10)

• Pretty entertaining thanks to great performances from the two leads...

  Howlin Wolf2001-04-12

  It's the chemistry between Nolte and Murphy that makes this work, plus the fact that both men really attempt to 'get into the skin' of their character, something mostly ignored in other examples of this genre. Director Hill knows he's got a great team in front of the camera, and all that remains is for him to incorporate some spectacular action sequences around them. This he does competently. That one-two punch is what gives the movie its fireworks. The banter and situations concerning the characters are also gleefully un-PC. It'd be interesting to see what a studio and director would make of the same premise in these 'enlightened' times. Murphy's comic stage persona is less restrained here than it would be in later films, and the results are often shamefully funny. Don't expect Shakespeare, there's far too much cursing and other unsavoury shenanigans going on for that; do expect a pacy and entertaining early example of the 'buddy thriller'.

• The start of the 80's buddy cop movie?

  Peach-21999-09-07

  It seems that after 48 HRS, buddy cop movies had a simple plot. Catch the bad guys while being as funny and silly as possible. There is alot of bad buddy cop movies, this is one of the best. Considering one is a cop and the other is a convict it shouldn't really be considered a buddy cop movie. I watched this film a couple of days ago because it had been awhile since I watched it a thousand times on cable television as a kid. I was surprised at the amount of racial comments made in this film, I guess as a child I didn't really pay attention to those comments. The movie is still solid, definitely one of Walter Hill's best films. Eddie Murphy is perfecting his onscreen personality in his first film. Beverley Hills Cop wasn't far behind. Nick Nolte feels like a tired detective in this film. Nolte has always seemed like the perfect tired private eye or detective to me. The rough voice, the lined and aged face, he just seems right. The movie is exciting and tight, one of the best action films of the eighties.

• Slam-Bang Shoot;em Up Saga Set in San Francisco

  zardoz-132011-03-08

  This gritty city buddy picture about an incorruptible, hard-as-nails, San Francisco plainclothes detective and a convict on a weekend pass who team up to track down a couple of ruthless, cold-blooded killers with a half-million dollars at stake qualifies as an above-average opus. Nick Nolte was well on his way to super-stardom when he shared the screen with "Saturday Night Live" sensation Eddie Murphy in his feature film debut. "Hard Times" writer & director Walter Hill and scenarist Roger Spottiswoode deserve credit for conjuring up--with co-scribes Larry Gross of "Streets of Fire" and Steven E. de Souza of "Die Hard"--a tough-guy action thriller that was short of originality but long on the charisma that its two stars generated. Reportedly, producer Lawrence Gordon had an idea that barely resembled the outcome. In the Gordon premise, a criminal abducts the Louisiana governor's daughter, attaches an explosive device to her head, and demands ransom in 48 hours. The brutal cop assigned to the case recruits the kidnapper's prison cell mate to assist him on the investigation. Actually, they could have made the Gordon plot as a straight-to-video spin-off. After a hardened criminal, Albert Ganz (James Remar of "The Warriors"), escapes from a California chain-gang, Ganz with his crazy-as-a-loon Indian partner Billy Bear (Sonny Landham of "Predator"), they head for San Francisco to get the cash that their cohorts, Luther (Daniel Patrick Kelly of "The Warriors") and Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) have secretly stashed in a convertible WV sports car in a garage. Rough-hewn Jack Cates (Nick Nolte of "North Dallas Forty") decides to take a chance on a loud-mouthed convict who knows Ganz. Reggie has served almost three years on his sentence in San Quentin with six months left when Cates comes a-calling. Reggie convinces Cates to spring him and Cates forges a signature to get Reggie out of stir. The two have a hard time getting along initially but by the dust has settled, they are literally as thick-as-thieves. The shoot-outs are as thuggish as the characters squeezing the trigger as our heroes hunt down the hair-trigger villains. Neither Ganz nor Billy Bear show any qualms about blasting cops and taking hostages. Literally, there is never a dull moment. "48 HRS" may not have been the first cops and robbers shoot'em up in the 80s to feature a foul-mouthed, screaming police superior--Frank McRae fits the bill to a tee--but it was probably near the top. Some say "48 HRS" spawned the police buddy picture genre, but they are presumptious. The earliest buddy picture about cops was "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. "48 HRS" might have inspired the pairings of other stars in an urban actioneer, and the Jack Cates character served as a prototype for Mel Gibson's suicidal "Lethal Weapon" hero Martin Riggs. You cannot help but wonder if Spottiswoode and Hill weren't inspired by Akira Kurosawa's 1949 crime thriller "Stray Dog" because Cates loses his .44 Smith & Wesson revolver early on during the action. Cates is trying to help Detective Algren (Jonathan Banks of "Beverly Hills Cop") and Detective Vanzant (James Keane of "Apocalypse Now") make an arrest at the Walden Hotel. Ganz surprises the cops when he slips out of his room by another door and comes up behind them in the hallway. A gunfight erupts. Vanzant takes a couple of slugs in the chest, and Ganz threatens to finish off Algren. Ganz grabs Cates' handgun just as Toshirô Mifune lost his pistol in "Stray Dog." Nolte and Murphy make a perfectly matched but mismatched heroic pair who spend most of their time in each other's faces. They develop a grudging respect for each other after a savage slugfest on the sidewalk. Miraculously, Reggie's Giorgio Armani suit isn't torn to shreds during their knock-down, drag-out brawl. These guys run into more trouble from the law as they close in on Ganz and Billy. At least twice they find themselves interfered with by men in blue. Eventually, they corner the villains in Chinatown and blast it out with them. The ending with Ganz holding Reggie at gunpoint as a human shield against the sullen Cates is straight out of "Dirty Harry." The relentless action, the wisecracking--mostly improvised--dialogue, and memorable performances by Nolte and Murphy boost this routine thriller. Murphy's scene in a redneck bar as he masquerades as a cop makes this police movie worth watching. Indeed, Murphy garnered an Golden Globe nomination for his debut performance. Hill anted up a sequel "Another 48 HRS" about eight years later with Nolte and Murphy reprising their roles.