48 Hrs. is
about a cop and a convict, and it’s often tagged as the first action-comedy
buddy cop movie in the genre. The movie skips the regular buddy cop theme we’ve
come to know, where one is a rule-breaker and the other a rule-follower. Here,
the cop is a rule-breaker, and the convict is, well, just a bad guy.
This action-comedy starts off with enough gunfire in the first five minutes and
keeps the action going for the next twenty.
The movie’s
title is based on the time the two have to solve the crime before Jack Cates
(Nick Nolte) gets busted for the phony 48-hour leave he got for Reggie (Eddie
Murphy).
The case that pairs the two begins when a killer, Ganz, busts out of prison
during a duty shift with the help of a friend. They stage a fight, which leads
to the death of two cops.
Once free, the two decide to get even with some of the people they worked with,
which also leads to the death of two more cops. This last incident happens while
Cates is waiting downstairs in a hotel for his cop buddies to come down, only
for Ganz and his accomplice to take them out.
Cates, with the
help of Reggie—who knows a lot about Ganz and his crew—starts hunting down Ganz
to bring him to justice for his crimes.
What I liked
best about the movie is the even balance between comedy and action, similar to
what you see in Lethal Weapon. The action keeps moving nonstop, and the
comedy happens in between, either through odd on-screen happenings or the
actors’ lines.
One of the most
popular lines is: “I’m your worst fucking nightmare, man! A n****r with a
badge.”
The similarities
between Lethal Weapon and this movie are due to the producer, Joel
Silver, who also produced the Lethal Weapon series. This was Joel’s
first producer credit and Eddie Murphy’s first movie role.
The movie was a
critical success, mostly due to the chemistry between the two leads and the
characterization of Cates. It was also a box office hit, which led to a
sequel, Another 48 Hrs.
The sequel could be seen as a financial success at the box office, and Eddie
Murphy was paid 60 times more for it, plus a share of the profits. However, the
sequel was critically panned, and the studio called it a box office bomb since
it cost more to make and only earned three times its production cost.
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