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.
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.