I’m often aware that when reporting my thoughts on the numerous films I watch for the first time, some of you may be thinking, “Wait! You run a movie page and you’ve never even seen The Lion King?!” (No I haven’t but that’s not the point).
The point is, I get it, there are some really big films I’ve never seen. Some I’ve avoided for various reasons and some have just inexplicably eluded my gaze all these years. Nevertheless, I’m always striving to tick as many of those films off my list as possible and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. 👍
With all of that out of the way I hope you’ll go easy on me when I tell you that I only watched this movie for the first time last night...
48 Hrs. (1982)
At the risk of insulting you all by doing my usual thing of telling you who’s in it and what it’s about, here goes...
It’s an 80s buddy-cop, action/crime/comedy/thriller starring Nick Nolte (Cape Fear) and Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop) among others.
This is what it’s about according to IMDb:
A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.
Now, as you’d expect I’ve heard a lot about this film over the years, and the amount of time that’s passed since it was released has put a certain amount of pressure on me to say, “I loved it! It’s the best film ever!” Alas, as much as I enjoyed it (and I did), I have to admit I’ve seen better films from the same genre. 🤷♂️
Having said that, all of these 80s cop movies are good. They have a quality that makes them extremely enjoyable and rewatch-able.
This was Eddie Murphy’s film debut and something I really picked up on was the early promise of him as an actor.
Obviously he was already known as a comedian at this time but he’s so relaxed in the role of Reggie that you’d never believe this was his first movie. He totally steals the show which is impressive when you consider that not only was he only 20 at the time, but that Nick Nolte was the more experienced actor of the two. I did enjoy the chemistry between them though and it was fun seeing their relationship evolve throughout the film.
I also enjoyed the fight scene where they duke it out in the alley (even though at times you can blatantly see it’s not Eddie Murphy throwing the punches). 😆
Regardless of his lack of fighting skills it’s really not hard to see how Eddie Murphy took the 80s by storm when he was this good out of the gate.
I sometimes forget just how much things have changed over the years in terms of political correctness etc. Watching this movie last night I was really aware of stuff that you just don’t see in films these days. From racist slurs and police brutality to homophobia and blatant sexism, it’s just mad to think how different movies were back then compared to now. I wasn’t offended by any of it, it’s a film at the end of the day but you kind of forget what a different world it was until you watch a film like this.
If this movie was showing on Sky it would 100% have one of those disclaimers in the description warning about the “offensive content”. Even the Goonies has one! 🙄
As always I’ve gone off on a tangent, but to wrap things up I enjoyed this film even though it wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting it to be.
Maybe it was that my expectations were too high, or maybe I’m just more of a Beverly Hills Cop guy. Whichever it is I’m still gonna have to watch the sequel, Another 48 Hours (1990).
Seen it? (of course you have). Let me know what you think.👇