Movies-TV

A hard a**ed cop and an out in left field con.

Good music, good action and a movie which keeps your attention. Probably actually how it is accomplished in the real world. A bench mark for other cop thriller movies to measure up to.

A classic.

This is one of my favourite films, and writing about it now makes me want to go home and watch it again. I'll keep this short and sweet, but there are many reasons to like this film. The score is evocative and slinky, with the nice slidy bassline and carribean steel drums. The acting from Murphy and Nolte is fantastic, with both playing their parts effectively and believably. The sequence with Ganz in the hotel is nightmarish, a tour-de-force of movement vs. stillness and the power of editing. The scene in the redneck bar is just amazing. Watch it and see why Walter Hill was the natural successor to Sam Peckinpah.

Murphy and Nolte shine

While I don't agree that this movie still holds up after 20 something years, it is still a classic example of a pairing of unlikely allies, in this case an ex-con and a cop on the edge. Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte give dynamite performances. And while the movie has an unexpectedly high level of violence, the comedy shines through. Eddie Murphy's brilliant scene in a redneck bar is unforgetable.

One of the better buddy-buddy cop actioners

Well, they may not be Steiger and Poitier, but as a mismatched, mixed race, mutual loathing duo forced to work together, Nolte and Murphy put in good performances. In fact, out of all the buddy-buddy movies I have ever seen, both dated before (Freebie and the Bean) and after (Lethal Weapon) this one, 48 Hours has to be one of the best. Nolte is his usual grizzly, growling self and Murphy (in his feature film debut) is great, although not yet achieving his comic peak as he did in Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. The chemistry between these two leads is also excellent. Hill, as always, maintains a deft mix of action and comedy throughout the film (with slightly more emphasis on the action), and never sacrifices one in favour of the other. All in all, a great film, shame about the sequel.

Forced Partnership

Eddie Murphy followed others from SNL as me emerged from Mr Rogers sketches and began his movie career. It was 1982 and people wanted to laugh as the US economy was struggling back from its worst period since the great depression. Eddie Murphy teamed with Nick Nolte, who got his fame as the bad boy brother from "Rich Man Poor man" and EM and NN were tremendous together. This movie created a lot of "buzz" where I worked and of course we got a 48 Hours II. Nick was the big star payroll wise, but in his first movie, EM shows the promise, which I believe he has fulfilled in becoming one of our greatest movie actors. For sheer talent is there anyone better than Eddie Murphy?

I give this only 4 stars because of the language and violence which makes it not family friendly. So put the little ones to bed, sit back and enjoy.

Decent Buddy Cop Type film from the 80s

48 Hours was one of the reasons for Murphys fame. One of Murphys better films, its a story about a cop who wants to find a killer so bad that he temporarily releases a criminal (murphy) to help find him. NOlte is decent in this movie, although I thought he was trying a bit too hard to be like Clint Eastwood or Dirty Harry i should say. Eddie Murphy gave best performance as Reggie a fast-talking smooth criminal, Murphy steals most of his scenes, almost as good as he was in Beverly HIlls Cop (that was his absolute best). This movie had some decent action for 1982 times, but not great, and the suspense was a bit odd, but decent. I thought the direction could have been better but it was an interesting script, and Murphys improvisations helped the film a lot. 7/10

48 HRS.

Putting a thrilling new spin on the buddy film with this gritty and gripping crime drama, director Walter Hill hit paydirt, combining Nolte's bearish, no-BS mien with fiery comedic talent Murphy (still a "Saturday Night Live" cast member at the time). The result is a witty, well-acted, suspenseful thriller featuring a warring, hilariously mismatched duo. Great chemistry, intelligent writing, and wonderful set-ups (especially one tense howler in a racist redneck bar) boost "48 Hrs." to the top rank of '80s urban actioners. Exciting and full of attitude.

The ultimate cop action flick!

While I like cop flicks there are not many that get more than a 7 out of 10 for several reasons. The story may be too far fetched, the actors not really compatible, the plot to thin, inconsistencies, etc...None of that with this classic. It is the third time I watched it (I have only done a third view with about 20 flicks) and it keeps entertaining from start to finish. These guys were born to make this film together. The Hill Street Blues style cop with the Beverly Hills style cop combination really works when they play it. Nolte and Murphy are pure class.Even the location suits the film. You got to love San Francisco!! In fact the only other cop flick that entertained me this much is the excellent French film 36 Quai Des Orfevres with Auteuil and Depardieu.Great story, brilliant acting, old style no BS action scenes!! If you like this kind of film, 48Hrs should be on your top shelf!!

Hilarious!

Believe it or not, the first time that I saw this movie was a couple days ago. I had some pretty high expectations and well, it blew them away! Comparable to such classics as Beverly Hills Cop, I consider this movie to be better than it. Wow! That's something to say!
48 hrs is trully hilarious, a must see with plenty of action and nonstop laughs.

Jack (Nick Nolte) is the bad cop. He's not a bad cop in the sense that he's a vilain but he's big, rough and mean. So when he has to team up with a con, Reggie (Eddie Murphy) to nail two murderers, things go wild.

From then on, everything is hilarious! Eddie Murphy delivers the majority of them. Look for the hick scene that will deliver laugh after laugh.

James Remar and Sonny Landham are great vilains and add to the fun. So, if you want to have some great fun, watch the classic buddy cop movie!
And, I trully find it to be better than Beverly Hills Cop. On top of it, this wad made 6 or 7 years before it!

48 hrs is great fun and is something worth owning and watching over and over again. But as a DVD, it's not too fancy and not very well made. But, you can buy it cheap and eventually when they re-release it, you'll be able to get the new one.

Murphy at his best

Eddie Murphy stars as a recently released convict who is sprung by Nolte for 48 hours to find a drug lord..Murphy's first movie is arguably the best..he is smart, on his toes with an attitude..on a scale of one to ten...8

i like this movie

i admit it, this movie's good. Eddie Murphy is a convict who wants money and some girls and has good parts like when he hits a country bar and when he's dancing in another bar. Nick Nolte is a cop who has Murphy for 48 Hours. The two don't like either at first, but after the country bar, they're at their finest. 3 1/2 Stars!

Very Underrated

This movie is really very simple. It's about a hard-nosed go by the book cop named Jack Cates who teams up with a sarcastic and slick convict named Reggie Hammond. The formula is basically your typical buddy cop film, but what makes this movie so great is the chemistry between Nolte and Murphy. Both provide us with tons of laughs as they race to catch a vicious killer. This movie also has some great action sequences, and even a little bit of drama. And of-course one cannot forget the classic scene where Murphy takes over the Redneck bar posing as a cop. I don't think anyone has ever had such a successful debut on the big screen as Eddie Murphy did in 48 HRS. Anyway, I recommend this to anyone who's a fan of the Eddie Murphy from the 1980's. You know, the one who did movies such as 48 HRS., Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America instead of garbage like Daddy Day Care and Dr. Dolittle?

Excellent delivery.....

My step-father received this DVD in excellent condition and in time for his birthday! Great job!

Classic Cult Favorite

I would consider this timeless classic a masterpiece, since other films would be modeled. Eddie Murphy's debut performance set the pinnacle for young African American comedians, long before Def Comedy Jam, as well as other comedians like Martin Lawrence and Chris Tucker. Nick Nolte stars as a cop with a drinking problem, while driving a beat-up 1964 Cadillac ragtop. He might have used a few harsh racist overtones towards Eddie Murphy in some parts of the film, and typical scenes (e.g. the fight scene in the alley, and being handcuffed to a steering wheel) became memorable scenes that would follow in modern-day hits like Money Talks and Rush Hour. Even the Ice-T/Suzy Amis flick Judgment Day followed a similar chemistry, but the later films that featured small referential scenes (e.g. handcuffed to a steering wheel, a bar brawl, or a macho showdown scene) are attributed to this timeless classic. The Chris Tucker - Charlie Sheen flick Money Talks might be a slight remake of 48 HRS, but I would consider this film a cult favorite.

Lives up to its classic reputation and then some

Scruffy maverick police detective Jack Cates (a marvelously gritty portrayal by Nick Nolte) springs smartaleck convict Reggie Hammond (a bravura star-making performance by Eddie Murphy) from jail so he can catch dangerous criminal Ganz (a frightfully intense James Remar) and his equally lethal partner Billy Bear (the always imposing Sonny Landham) within a single frantic 48 hour time period. Walter Hill's masterfully lean, mean, tautly streamlined and economical direction keeps the pace roaring along at a nonstop breakneck clip and stages the frequent stirring shoot-outs with electrifying brio. The raw, nervy, rat-a-tat-tat volatile and explosive chemistry between the gruff Nolte and the smooth Murphy delivers plenty of incendiary fireworks which are often peppered with harsh full-bore profanity and culminate in one hell of a knock-down, drag-out back alley fist fight. The now legendary sequence with Murphy terrorizing the hick patrons of a rowdy redneck honkytonk bar with his fiercely cocky and aggressive in-your-face attitude rates as another undeniable highlight. The excellent supporting cast includes Annette O'Toole as Nolte's fed-up bar maid girlfriend, David Patrick Kelly as a sniveling weasel, Denise Crosby and Greta Blackburn as hookers, Jonathan Banks as a doomed cop, Frank McRae as Nolte's huffy disapproving superior, Brion James as a fellow flatfoot, Peter Jason as a racist bartender, and Luis Contreras as a gang member. Both Ric Waite's sharp, slick, glittery cinematography and James Horner's robust, rousing score hit the spot. The great, thrilling song "The Boys Are Back in Town" by the Busboys likewise scores a bull's eye. Essential viewing.

Instead of Sequal...They Should've Re-Made This One...

Falling into the same genre as 'Beverly Hills Cop', 1982's '48 HRS.' takes the good-cop, bad-crook scene and transforms it to fit Eddie Murphy's talents on a different scale. Instead of chasing high-profile criminals as 'Detective Axel Foley', Murphy portrays a loud-mouth convict teamed up with a hardass detective Jack Cates. Nick Nolte's roll as this chain smoking, trash-talking, loveable sleezbag sort of shadows performances by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood...only in a new age. The low-flash scene is set in California, where Cates (Nolte) loses a battle with two escape conns along with his gun...leaving two more plain-clothed officers dead. The thing I think you need to remember when watching these movies is that the lead cops never dressed in uniform, and you'll see more covertable classic 70s' cars than marked squad cars. Otherwise, Nolte is the perfect grunge policeman who teams up with Reggie Hammond (Murphy) to catch a ruthless killer who Murphy once sided with. From the moment Nolte takes Murphy out of jail for 48 hours, you can sense the racial heat and explosive attitudes of the two. This proved to make for a perfect comedy, as Nolte and Murphy race to kill the killers without killing eachother. Murphy has a classic scene in a highly exaggerated country western bar, where the confederate flag is on every wall and "yee-haw!" is a common thing to hear. Murphy raises the roof of the bar in a hilarious scene that could only work with this guy. 'Another 48 HRS' 10 years later was a predicted mistake, instead I think the director should've considered remaking the original scene and plot, but using the flash and movie effects not available in 1982. Maybe put a better suit on Nolte or give'em a hotter car...dont use women you would rather see with their clothes ON than off, and make the fight sequences and assaults more realistic. '48 HRS.' still never stops working though, you give a great idea to talented actors and you can make tons of mistakes while still having a great movie. '48 HRS' also features plugs from Annette O'Toole (Law and Order), Sonny Landham ('Lock-Up', 'Predator') and what-ever-happened-to Tara King ('The Avengers'). Dont wait for this movie to be on tv, if you dont hear all the language it doesnt work. Get this movie on DVD while its' still available...but just dont expect to find as great a movie in the sequal.

Wonderful

This is Eddie Murphy in is prime, when he was at the height of his acting career. He is so wonderful in this movie. He steals the show from Nick Nolte.

An Average Cop/Buddy Flick

There's nothing at all special about 48 HRS. Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte play their usual annoying selves. The comedy only works on a few rare occasions. The story itself is just another ridiculous crime yarn that goes nowhere interesting. 48 HRS. is nothing compared to the later Lethal Weapon series.

Hilarious roller-coaster thriller!

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy team up to form an unlikely duo chaisng two vicious cop-killers. This unlikely partnership pursue separate goals: Nolte wants the villians; Murphy wants his money and some much needed female companionship. This is a movie you'll be laughing the whole time and will want to watch again and again.

This is the REAL thing. Accept no imitations.

In order to appreciate this film fully, you hafta turn yourself back in time to 1982, an' try an' remember the political an' social mindset of the day. Then imagine watching '48 HRS.' an unabashed an' raucous cop thriller that breaks the very foundation of political correctness. Now how does that make you feel? If you say, sick to your stomach, then maybe you needa loosen your jock strap an' try it again. E'ybody knows the plot, the hard-drinkin', chain-smokin' San Francisco cop Jack Cates, played by Nick Nolte (who looks almost TOO comfortable in the role of a wasted, burn-out), is lookin' to put two recent prison escapees an' vicious cop killers away after he tried an' failed to apprehend them. In going over the case he comes across several members of their old gang an' decides to go talk to one'a the incarcerated ones. Here's where Eddie Murphy comes in. Reggie Hammond is the smooth an' dapper, fast-talking convict who convinces Cates to get him out of jail an' on the street to help him solve this case. Cates reluctantly does so, an' from there is' jus' the two of them together goin' from place to place, crook to crook, bar to bar, lead to lead, tryin' to keep from killing each other in the process. Cates is a rough-edged, semi-bigot with an apparent vendetta toward these crooks (though apparently jus' for stealing his gun), Reggie is the charming, jive-talking criminal, with a more obvious vendetta toward the crooks (they dropped the dime on him, got him locked up, an' are now tryin' to steal a half a million dollars of his hard-earned, er, um, hard-stolen cash). Both are on the same mission, but with two TOTALLY different personalities an' when they mix it up, oh, is' gunpowder. E'ybody talks about the scene with Murphy in the country-western bar playin' cop ("Alright listen up. I don't like white people. An' I HATE rednecks. You people're rednecks. That means I'm enjoyin' this s---.") an' although it is funny, my favorite scene comes right after they question the two ladies who were s'posedly in cahoots with the killers, when Nolte an' Murphy finally drop the trash-talkin' an' jus' have a drunken brawl in the street only to be broken up by two cops on the beat.

This is the original buddy cop flick. With two guys who're ironically ANYTHING but buddies. Depending on the way you've come up watching movies, this one will either be a wonderfully offensive cop thriller, or a horribly offensive cop thriller. Of course, no matter how you look at it, '48 HRS.' will forever be a hallmark, because it was one'a the first movies of its kind: a rough-edged, blatant politically-incorrect film centering on characters that are so sleazy at times you hafta force yourself to like them, an' revolving around racial stereotypes an' sexist banter thas' thrown around like it's nothing, not to mention some brutal violence. Now it'd be much harder to overlook all the coldness if it wasn't for the charm an' appeal of Eddie Murphy, in his film debut. He is the main reason to watch the flick, although Nolte's character also provides the perfect counterbalance. Directed by Walter Hill, '48 HRS.' set a new standard for the way action flicks were to be played for the rest of the 1980s. With laughs, wit, chemistry, an' a not-so-serious attitude set against a very serious backdrop.