48hrs

 

                  In the next of many films, I'm trying to find and watch for the first time, is a cop movie that has the unlikely of people you'd never expect to be cop buddies. 48hrs is a cop movie in the early eighties that consisted of Nick Nolte before he was a star, and surprising fact was a model? And an up-and-coming comedic talent in Eddie Murphy who’s fresh off his time in SNL. Also staring on the side is a young Annette O'Toole who I personally remember from watching Smallville in my teenage years as Superman's mom. And if you don't remember a small movie called Predator and a buff man who tried to challenge the Predator but failed miserably at it, well then, you'll be in a big surprise when you sit down and watch the whole movie through like I did. 

                  Renegade cop Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) pulls bank robber Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) from federal prison on 48-hour leave to help him capture Hammond's old partner, Albert Ganz (James Ramar). Having escaped from prison work crew, Ganz is on a killing spree around San Francisco, on the trail of half a million dollars that went missing after one of his robberies. The cocky Reggie knows where the money is, but spars with the hotheaded Jack as he enjoys his temporary freedom. 

                  The original concept of the film had a different premise with a Governor's daughter being kidnapped attached to a bomb and will be blown up if no ransom in 48hrs, hence the title. The script itself got moved around from Columbia to Paramount and the original actors to portray these unlikely duo was Clint Eastwood par from his success with the Dirty Harry and his partner would be played by the late great Richard Pryor, for which really after hearing that via researching the development of the film yeah hands down I would pay to watch as well as watch the movie twenty times because that's great casting. Unfortunately, Eastwood was signed to Escape from Alcatraz during the process of developing 48hrs, but I'd still watch that alternate reality version of 48hrs if it consists of Eastwood and Pryor for a gillion reasons it's great casting as well as the unlikeliest of people you'd ever expect to solve a crime. Nick Nolte of course was great I mean he does fit the portion of a renegade cop always going outside the law or being the crazy loose cannon whose causing more property damage then the criminals. Though witnessing Eddie Murphy's first debut performance is really what makes the film watchable, for which is weird because he was almost close of being fired for not being funny, and yet once you watch this guy do is thing it brings you back to when you'd though the Nutty Professor films or Norbit and you think to yourself, how the hell did this guy fall off the deep end of his career. Though then you realized he had Shrek films in his back pocket to get his house payments done and out of the way but still him going from movies like 48hrs and Beverly Hills Cop and then he makes these films like Nutty Professor which really when you watch this film now you'd slowly realize that film isn't as good as you remember. And now when you watch 48hrs you begin to see that even with the Saturday Night Live stardom you slowly begin to see the rise of a comedic talent furthermore witnessing something special about his earlier films though let’s be honest you can watch 48hrs, Beverly Hills Cop and just stick with that unless you love the musical Dreamgirls then sure you can watch that if you want. A fascinating little fact about this film, is actor James Remar who plays the main antagonist in the film, went without sleep before shooting scenes to give his character a more washed-out, psychotic look. For which, truly the man does give it his all I will admit that, though to all up and coming actors who want to play a bad guy in a buddy cop movie, and want to go full Daniel Day-Lewis for your character I would say maybe take baby steps don't do anything extreme in going full two days without sleep because that's not a great idea to go four hours of sleep every other day, believe me because when I was in morning news TV there were days I turned psycho and wanted to kill every toxic person out there. As a buddy cop movie, I will give this film a ton of great points, it has a simple premise, great chemistry between Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy as well as a good antagonist. So, if you're in the market to watch a buddy cop movie that you see or haven't seen I would highly recommend watching 48hrs, and really it always makes me feel good whenever I see a west or east coast city upon which gives me a good reminder of never wanting to live in that specific city. Moreover, the film is still on Hulu or Paramount +, so, if you have any of those subscriptions it’s never too late to have a movie night for yourself instead of wasting your money on other crappy movies coming out in theaters.