48 Hrs. ***** (Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O’Toole) – Classic Movie Review 1568

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy are on blistering form in director Walter Hill’s thrilling 1982 blockbuster, one of the all-time great buddy-buddy action movies. Nolte plays Jack Cates, a middle-aged hard-nosed cop, and Murphy is Reggie Hammond, his reluctant helper, a young wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him.

The apparently ill-matched duo have just two days, or 48 Hrs., to find the crook’s former partners in crime and track down the killer in a cop shooting where Cates emerged as sole survivor. What eventually motivates Hammond to help Cates is that the killer is searching for his stash of cash and so it turns out that the odd couple end up making surprisingly good partners.

48 Hrs. is a resoundingly foul-mouthed, violent action cop thriller. Those who don’t care for swearing and violence better look elsewhere, because that’s what’s on the menu. The boisterous comedy is expertly looked after by the dazzlingly on-form stars, who keep up a continuous bantering battle with each other. And the action is brilliantly taken care of in slap-up fashion by inspired director Hill.

It’s a remarkable, scene-stealing big-screen début by the sparky firecracker 21-year-old Murphy, turning him into a star overnight, but the quieter, gruff and growling Nolte matches him move for move, as each seems to raise their game to match the high level of the other’s play. Also starring Annette O’Toole, Frank McRae, James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Sonny Landham, Brion James, James Keane and Jonathan Banks.

It motors on its barrage of salty, non-PC language, so the cleaned-up TV version is a boring waste of time. It’s Rated R for pervasive strong language, violent content, sexual references and brief nudity. There are 48 F-words as well as racist, sexual and derogatory remarks.

It’s Joel Silver’s debut feature film as a full producer.

Sequel: Another 48 Hrs.

Murphy’s also in cop mode in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Metro (1997).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1568

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