Friday, August 18, 2023

Movie review - "48 Hours" (1982) ***

 Ah, look, fine. An action movie with some comedy rather than a comedy, which is why I didn't like it as a kid. Full of tropes that became very very familiar - mismatched partners, huffy police captain, psycho villains. I don't think this film invented them but did help popularise them.

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy are electric, particularly Murphy. They seem like a cop and a crook, have gravtias. Murphy's debut is amazing. Nolte matches him well.

Annette O'Toole is lovely, warm, can act and is completely wasted. Why have her in the film? Would've been more fun to have a Murphy romance. Why doesn't she get kidnapped? Why doesn't Murphy meet her? Why doesn't she perform at the bar where they go to?

I didn't find a lot of it funny - Murphy in the redneck bar. Jokes about watermelon and use of the n word from Nolte, I know the arguments behind this. Still didn't feel fun.

Movie felt made up as it went along. That's not a compliment.

Two fantastic villains - Sonny Landham and James Remar - who both feel genuinely dangerous.

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