48 Hrs. | Another 48 Hrs. (1982 | 1990, Walter Hill)

Before Riggs & Murtaugh, there was Jack & Reggie.

48 Hrs.

Walter Hill (The Warriors) reunites with James Remar, who plays a convincing psychopath as Ganz in this gritty cop drama, as well as David Patrick Kelly (The Crow).

The banter between Reggie & Jack is simply wonderful, and there simply cannot be enough of it. They don't particularly like each other but they can't resist being together to take down some relentless no-good-cop-killing-lunatics.

The film is short and it shows, being far from the duration of its title, and this film is violent. There is a slew of cynical characters, nudity (which I like), profanity and racial slurs. It is an unapologetic 80s flick, nearly on par with Lethal Weapon, which would come 5 years later. The plot is simple in this cat-and-mouse thrill ride but there is a lot to like about it.

Another 48 Hrs.

This sequel came 8 years later, and it is rough around the edges. But I do have more to say about it than the original, most but not all of it good. With more story, comes more problems. Things begin a bit less than smoothly; the beginning is rather awkward and bogs down the fun, causing unpleasant tension in early scenes between Reggie & Jack.

The Internal Affairs subplot should have been improved but also shortened, allowing for more fun between Reggie & Cates in its place. Naturally, there is nice action and lots of stuff getting blown up, especially glass during shootouts in a member's only nightclubs.

This sequel strangely lacks the unrelenting violence of the original, and there are shots (literally) that are flat out silly, like they were taken from Jason Voorhees' vault of quick kills, e.g. we see a prisoner bust through the glass in the visiting room for no apparent reason, and some motorcycle stunts that belong in other films. This raises the awkward stigma of the film because for the most part these characters (baddies and all) are interesting, i.e. it would be more enjoyable to watch their innards splatter, unlike in the original that had the gore but not the character depth. The nudity also returns, as well as a touch of crazy in the villains, though I wondered why the elusive Iceman became just as nuts late in the film, suddenly making crazy eyes at Cates and having fun with an Uzi.

I was also bothered by Cates shooting Hammond during a hostage situation, given that he doesn't need to do this in the original and instead makes a good shot on a baddie. Has Cates' aim gotten worse? (He is nursing an arm injury, but it's not the arm he shoots with). As a result, the scene catches the "awkward bug" that has plagued the rest of the film. Did Cates not care if Reggie was seriously hurt? A bullet is a bullet is a bullet. On the bright side, the plot ties into the original and as expected Eddie Murphy still brings laughs.

Overall, this is a decent sequel that uses the same formula that fueled the original and takes on a slightly larger scope in story. It is not as sound and coherent as the original, but I do applaud the ambitious story in comparison to the original. A third installment would have been interesting and perhaps these shortcomings would have been grist for the mill.