48 Hrs. (C-Jay Edition)
Rating: R
Time: 96 Minutes
Release Date: December 8, 1982
Starring: Eddie Murphy; Nick Nolte; and James Remar
My Synopsis: This has been called the first “Buddy Cop” film… I guess since Nick Nolte plays a cop it has labeled as such. Jack Cates(Nolte) is a hotdogging police officer who finds himself in a shootout with a really bad dude. Said bad dude kills one cop before meeting Jack in the lobby and another one shortly thereafter…but I’m getting ahead of myself. The bad dude, whose name is Albert Ganz, was played by none other than James Remar. If that name doesn’t automatically ring a bell then I dare say you aren’t a fan of The Warriors or any of the 9,000 movies he’s been in. Ganz is in the slammer when the movie begins but while working the field with the rest of the felons his Native American “Indian” friend busts him out, killing two cops in the proccess. That means in the first half hour of the movie this fella has killed a total of 4 cops. Cates decides to take him down since he watched his friend and fellow officer shot right in front of him and narrowly escaped a bullet himself. So Cates finds out about Ganz’s “gang”, turns out one of them is still in prison. This is where we meet Eddie Murphy as Reggie Hammond. Cates signs him out of prison for a 48 hour leave which leads to a whole lot of searching for Ganz and the Indian, and a whole lot of racial slurs (something I’ve noticed is a trend in Murphy’s films). During one scene they go into a “honkey” bar and the bartender asks Reggie if he wants a black Russian, Reggie’s reaction to this joke is hilarious and leads to my favorite scene in the film. Mr. Hammond conducts a shakedown of suspicious characters while pretending to be a cop, and in the end gets the information he requires. Ganz is after half a million dollars which just so happens to be in Hammond’s car which is parked in a big pay by the day garage. Only problem is Mr. Hammond doesn’t have the ticket to take it out, his friend Luther has it. Luther is in the process of trying to get it to Ganz because Ganz has kidnapped Luther’s girlfriend. After the shakedown some drama goes down with the Indian’s girlfriend, who doesn’t give the boys any useful information, Cates and Hammond have a fistfight because Cates is sick of Hammond’s bullsh–. Then they decide to go after the bad guys again and find Luther taking the car out of garage it’s been in for 3 years. They follow Luther which leads to a shootout in the subway and Ganz gets away again…will they catch Ganz? Will Hammond get his money back? Will Cates and Hammond become fast friends? Well it does have a sequel…so I think so.
My Grade: 8
The movie that created the mold so to speak. Like the first of anything it isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn close. It’s a great movie, Eddie Murphy is hillarious and Nick Nolte does a great job playing the gruff and domineering cop but at the same time the caring and professional guy. This is a dynamic Nolte completely nails in this film. The movie has something else working to it’s benefit though, James Remar, who plays a great bad guy in this film. He’s not a criminal mastermind, or a rich foreign drug dealer, he’s a common crook who is extremely sadistic and will kill anyone or anything that gets in his way. Though there are a lot of things in the film that bend the rules of reality nothing overtly slaps you in the face like some action films we’ve already reviewed, and some we will soon review. With all of that said this is a solid film which would be worth a rent or two, or maybe worth owning.
