48 Hrs.
A variation on the "buddy-cop" hybridized genre, 48 HRS. greatly bolstered the career of Nick Nolte and made comedian Eddie Murphy a bonafide box-office sensation. When a pair of reckless cop-killers break out of prison, grizzled detective Jack Cates (Nolte) is left no alternative but to spring fast-talking hustler Reggie Hammond (Murphy) from the penitentiary in order to find the criminals. The catch: the pair only have 48 hours to complete their assignment before Hammond must return to prison. Naturally, the two despise each other and even engage in fisticuffs, but eventually the danger facing them proves a strong enough common bond for them to play on the same team, and even achieve a little mutual admiration.
Director: Walter Hill
Starring: Nick Nolte,Eddie Murphy, Annette O'Toole, Frank McRae, James Remar
What makes the movie special is how it's made. Nolte and Murphy are good, and their dialogue is good, too - quirky and funny.
Together Cates and Hammond take a thrill-a-minute trip through the San Francisco underworld and along the way develop one of the 1980s' more interesting cinematic buddy pairings.
Walter Hill, the director of such beautiful but stilted tough guy movies as ''The Warriors'' and ''The Long Riders,'' has attempted something very different in 48 Hours a male-buddy action film that's positively witty and warm-hearted compared with his other work.
That the fact they come to appreciate one other, the grudging respect of a million clichés, feels so satisfyingly, shows just how successful the film is.
The film is still an entertaining and invigorating thriller, with a structure and some curious sexual overtones that suggest Howard Hawks's "A Girl in Every Port."
Walter Hill
Cognac Festival du Film Policier (1983)
Best Motion Picture
Edgar Allan Poe Awards (1983)
New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male
Golden Globes (1983)
Best Music
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (1982)
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