48 Hours

Year: 1982

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Hill

Review

joel silver and lawrence gordon had a good run in the late 80s – 48 hours, lethal weapon, predator, die hard (and the sequels to almost all of them). in all these you have: good action, good comic relief, and a team of a black guy and a white guy who go up against the bad guys. 48 hours was the weakest of the four and produced only one sequel. it’s also the first of them and the most crass. nolte is really abrasive, to the point where it’s actually difficult to like him. he drinks all the time and calls murphy a spear chucker and the like. in other words, he’s a racist alcoholic who isn’t good to his girlfriend, but he’s a good cop (other than the fact that he abuses his power left and right). it has some nice moments, but it’s really only the beginning of what became a good producing tandem.