48 HRS. (1982)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Eddie Murphy was only 19 when he made "48 HRS.," the truly exciting buddy-buddy cop flick that ignited his career. It did not take long when he followed his debut with "Trading Places," "Beverly Hills Cop," and the rest is history. Eddie is only part of what makes "48 HRS." a success - it helps that he is cast along with Nick Nolte, the primal force to be reckoned with.
Nolte stars as booze-swilling San Francisco cop, Cates, who can't seem to hold on to his girlfriend (Annette O'Toole), a bartender. He frequently forgets to call her. Of course, starting his rough day as a cop with liquor in his coffee doesn't help matters. One of his partners is killed in a brilliantly intense shootout in an apartment building. Cates need to recruit someone from the inside to find the killers. So he finds Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy), a former thief who belonged to this group. The trick is that Cates only has 48 hours to locate this gang or else he is out of a job. So begins the buddy-buddy cop formula that was the inspiration for "Lethal Weapon" and many other clones.
Reggie and Cates don't get along. Cates hates Reggie for many reasons, and engages in a fistfight that is among the funniest I have seen in a long time. The idea is that Cates is racist but, nevertheless, he has to work with Reggie in gathering information. What happens between the two macho, smartass guys is that a certain respect develops, despite their differences. Cates even allows Reggie to have sex with a hot dancer by paying for his room. Eventually, the handcuffed Reggie is allowed by Cates to bring a gun into a bar and intimidate an entire redneck crowd with the attitude of a sheriff.
"48 HRS." has two formidable villains, one is a coarse thief named Ganz (James Remar) and the other is his partner, a Navajo named Billy Bear (Sonny Landham). They have a lot of terrific scenes where their macho-istic behavior results in numerous chases and shootouts, including one in a metro bus! And Ganz is barely interested in sex with a prostitute - sometimes a bad guy only thinks with his other guns. And I should not fail to mention David Patrick Kelly as a hapless thief who is mostly concerned with the Porsche he has kept parked in a garage for three years!
Tough, exciting as hell, nailbiting, chock full of macho bull and damn funny, "48 HRS." is a cop movie with balls and a hell of a lot of attitude - the movie gets off on it. Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte are memorable and their camaraderie adds to the overall excitement. I would not put this movie above "The French Connection" or "Serpico" or perhaps "Dirty Harry," but it comes close.
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