48 Hrs.

48 Hrs. (1982)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Walter Hill

Starring: Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, James Remar, Sonny Landham, Annette O'Toole

From: Paramount

To be short and sweet, below I explain how I watched this and its sequel last night for the first time in many years.

As typical for this month, me watching this film again was due to discussion elsewhere. I hadn't seen this or Another 48 Hrs. in a long time and I've had both films on a single DVD for years and yet didn't feel like watching them. Well, last night was the night for me to see them back to back.

I presume many people already know the plot to this film-said to be the first “buddy cop” comedy-but I'll try to be brief anyway: Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) is a loose cannon cop in San Francisco. He gets ensnared in a case of an escaped convict named Ganz and his pals when the convict steals his gun and uses it to kill people. As he's a loose cannon, Cates thought it would be a good idea to spring a former associate of Ganz, Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy in his movie debut) out of prison for 2 days in order to track him down.

The premise may be a little goofy but I still enjoy this violent (would you expect anything else from director Walter Hill?) movie where there are also plenty of laughs. Amongst the gun battles and tense situations and big setpieces there's the relationship between Nolte and Murphy; at first they don't get along but of course as the clock winds down, things eventually improves. A cast of famous 80's faces (James Remar, Sonny Landham, Annette O'Toole, David Patrick Kelly, Brion James, Ed O'Ross) helps and it's a film I enjoy, especially the famous scene where Hammond impersonates an officer in a redneck bar, which oddly enough is in the middle of San Francisco, where this movie is set and filmed. It's not hard to understand why Murphy was soon after this a huge star; of course that has long since been squandered but let's not think of the poor choices he made in his career and instead let's think back to roles like this, where he was dynamite.

I do have to bring up the elephant in the room when it comes to this movie: it's an 80's action film so there's plenty of homophobic and sexist moments, but the biggest thing is the racism: Jack Cates is a gruff alcohol-swilling cop so a number of times he utters racist words and phrases to Reggie Hammond, none of which I'll repeat here. A white cop being bigoted towards minorities is especially awkward in this day and age in the United States after all those controversial incidents (Ferguson, the Baltimore riots and all the rest) that have happened the past few years. I can understand some being turned off by it. Jack tries to explain it away but I am able to rationalize that by saying that's how the times were back then and you could have a main character you follow in a big movie act in such an inflammatory manner.

As long as you are alright with such a character, I say this should be seen if you haven't watched it yet and you are a fan of the 80's action.