A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.
“48 Hrs.” was Eddie Murphy’s big-screen debut and the film that started him on the road to movie stardom. Up until this point in his career, Murphy appeared on “Saturday Night Live” for a few seasons but left that in his rearview mirror once Hollywood came calling. It’s interesting to note that in “48 Hrs.,” Nick Nolte received top billing as he was very much in demand while Murphy got second billing but in its 1990 sequel, “Another 48 Hrs.,” the roles were reversed with Murphy taking the top spot as he was then Hollywood’s golden boy.
Nolte plays grizzled cop Jack Cates, a police veteran of many years who is chasing after escaped convict Albert Ganz (James Remar) and his associate Billy Bear (Sonny Landham). When Jack assists two fellow cops on a routine investigation into a possible sighting of Ganz at a nearby hotel, both cops are shot dead and Cates loses his revolver in the ensuing gunfight. Upon further investigating Ganz and possible accomplices, he comes across Reggie Hammond (Murphy), an old acquaintance who is currently serving time in prison for armed robbery. He visits him at the penitentiary and while their first meeting gets off to a rocky start, Hammond agrees to assist him, secretly harboring ulterior motives. Cates secures a 48-hour release into his custody and with the clock ticking, both men must be at the top of their game if they are to track down Ganz and stop him before he kills more innocent people.
Walter Hill, who directed tough, no-nonsense films such as “The Driver,” “The Warriors,” “The Long Riders,” and “Southern Comfort,” was the perfect choice to helm “48 Hrs.” and his two leads, Nolte and Murphy, were equally impressive in their respective roles. “48 Hrs.” is a movie that could not be made today, replete with brutal violence and brash, foul-mouthed language but given its then-current timeframe of 1982, it was more commonly accepted. Paramount was not pleased with the dailies that Hill was providing for them and demanded that more comedy and humor be added. Hill refused, stating it would take away from the overall seriousness they were trying to achieve but they did add more comic drama between Nolte and Murphy, instead of including unnecessarily laughable situations. If you’ve never seen “48 Hrs.,” it’s worth a look, even just to see Murphy in his first big-screen outing.
Now available on Blu-ray in the Paramount Presents line
