Monday, April 23, 2012

122) 48 Hrs. (1982)

122) 48 Hrs. (1982) Dir: Walter Hill Date Released: December 8, 1982 Date Seen: April 14, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

What this movie gets right it gets really right but what it gets wrong is unfortunately equally wrong. All of the stupid canned racial tension between Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy  felt tacked-on, pointless. These guys are already uncomfortable together even without Nolte's lame, unbelievable racist jabs. Nolte's character glibly takes these potshots early on in the film and then miraculously gets to distance himself from them later on ("I didn't mean it, honest!" Psssh.). But just look at the big fist fight scene: there's such raw charisma here. Murphy and Nolte don't need stupid reasons to clash; just throw them together on a pretext and make 'em do it. They look good fighting, not struggling to think of reasons to fight.

But! The fight scenes are Peckinpah-esque, the wisecracks are almost screwball-level good and both buddies give very strong performances. Pretty magnetic, on the whole.

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