48 Hours

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy make one of the most unusual and entertaining teams ever in Walter Hill's roller-coaster thriller, 48 HRS. Nolte is a rough-edged cop after two vicious cop-killers. He can't do it without the help of smooth and dapper Murphy, who is serving time for a half-million dollar robbery. This unlikely partnersip trades laughs as often as punches as both pursue their separate goals: Nolte wants the villains; Murphy wants his money and some much-needed female companionship. Watch for Murphy's hilarious scene in a redneck country-western bar-you'll want to see it again and again.

From AMG:
A variation on the "buddy-cop" hybridized genre, 48 HRS. greatly bolstered the career of Nick Nolte and made comedian Eddie Murphy a bonafide box-office sensation. When a pair of reckless cop-killers break out of prison, grizzled detective Jack Cates (Nolte) is left no alternative but to spring fast-talking hustler Reggie Hammond (Murphy) from the penitentiary in order to find the criminals. The catch: the pair only have 48 hours to complete their assignment before Hammond must return to prison. Naturally, the two despise each other and even engage in fisticuffs, but eventually the danger facing them proves a strong enough common bond for them to play on the same team, and even achieve a little mutual admiration. — Jeremy Beday

AMG Review:
We've all seen plenty of buddy movies in which our two heroes first hate each other before somehow finding mutual respect — not to mention the time to blow up stuff. But clichés have to start somewhere, and 48 Hrs. set the trend for more than a decade's worth of copycat buddy movies. Murphy, who was still a cast member on Saturday Night Live when he made his screen debut, is on fire from the first moment we see him, belting out an off-key "Roxanne." Murphy displays the kinetic combination of action and humor that would become his trademark. And no one can play the hard-boiled cop like the splendidly raspy Nolte. Their chemistry and Murphy's spontaneity carry the film. In fact, 48 Hrs. is worth watching just for a scene in which Murphy is let loose in a redneck watering hole armed with nothing but a badge, a smile, and a whole lot of attitude. Director Walter Hill's exciting action sequences deserve a lot of credit for lifting this film above the usual fare, as do screenwriters Roger Spottiswoode and Walter Hill's one-liners. It's not perfect, and some clichés get tiring, even here — why can't the bad guys ever shoot as well as the good guys? But if you've got a few hrs. to spare, 48 Hrs. is a great way to use them. — Matthew Doberman