Not very good


I first saw it in the 80s and thought it was ok, but watched it again recently and it isn't. The actors are good, but the dialogue is dire and the story is really lacking, and there is a lot of weird filler that is unrealistic and makes no sense. I watched Rush Hour recently too and even that I would say is better, which is sad.

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Duly noted, dingus.

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Well I saw it when it was released back in 1982 and re-watched it last night. Just as great a movie today as it was 34 years ago.

That's right, I'm love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

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I finally saw it, and I do not understand why this is hailed to be a classic cult movie. I mean for a cop buddy movie, it's actually pretty dull I think.

The movie is filled with dumb characters who do dumb things, such as a prison guard actually allowing some mysterious truck driver to come up to the prisoners, start a fight and create a diversion.

A prison guard opens fire on a prisoner at point blank range with a shot gun, and somehow misses? Was the shotgun loaded with slugs and not buckshot for some reason?

And a cop who is actually told to drop his gun or a hostage will be killed, and the cop does it. If a cop does this then the hostage taker will just kill the hostage. Any cop knows this and he still did it, instead of waiting for back up.

And that's another thing. Nick Nolte never calls for back up and always does everything alone. He illegally removes a convict from prison, just by sweettalking a guard. Why would he do this? It will just get him into trouble and complicate the case.

Once he finds leads, he breaks into their property, without announcing he is a police officer, and he beats confessions out of them.

He also beats up the convict out anger and lets the convict take a country bar hostage, threaten the patrons lives, and allows him to do damage to the bar.

The cop is an angry, unstable drunk who is tainting the entire case. How are we suppose to believe this character is still on the force?

Now if the movie did something to entertain us, in order to create suspension of disbelief, that would be better, but it doesn't really.

The characters just aren't believable and neither is the story, so there has to be something in that is really cool, or makes the viewer tick, in order to overcome the lack of plausibility. But there isn't.

The movie's climax also ends with one of the pair suggesting that maybe the villains are hiding out at the ex-gfs. It's unlikely, but it's a long shot. So they go there and that is coincidentally exactly what is happening, but it feels like a forced coincidence, cause the writers didn't know how to end it.

Unless I missed the point of the movie?

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"Unless I missed the point of the movie?'

No, you did not, there was no point. 100% yes to everything you said.

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"The dialogue is dire and the story is really lacking, and there is a lot of weird filler that is unrealistic and makes no sense."

Spot on.

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In its time, it was famous for one big thing:

Eddie Murphy kind of exploding "out of nowhere" with star power -- the scene where he rousted the country bar(in San Francisco) was a "star is born" sort of thing, said the critics. (Murphy was just starting to impress people at SNL, but suddenly he advanced PAST that show, even though he stuck with it a few more years.)

Murphy was paired with Nolte in this one, then with Dan Ackroyd in Trading Places...but he had Beverly Hills Cop all to himself and that did it: superstar. African-American superstar, too, which comes with its own special power.

I also think that Nick Nolte was important to this picture.

Nolte's big break had been with "Rich Man Poor Man" on TV and he proved to be a growling macho hunk of a man with a need to "express himself" in art films. After feeling kind of wasted(career, not drugs) in The Deep in 1977, Nolte went in search of art films to be in, but also turned in a GREAT performance in an art/mainstream hybrid called "North Dallas Forty" (about NFL scandals with Nolte perfectly cast as a physically damaged anti-hero wide receiver.)

Nolte fought being in 48 HRS. He claimed the first script had a different plot and that HE came up with the "springing the convict for 48 hours" premise after interviewing some cops. But once Nolte was in -- with Murphy exploding alongside of him -- he had the big hit he needed since BEFORE The Deep(which really wasn't his hit.)

So:

Eddie Murphy arrives and explodes.

Art Film Nick Nolte gets an action hit.

And...maybe...the "buddy cop" movie is born? (Before Lethal Weapon, but AFTER Freebie and the Bean.)

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This looks like a well researched comment.

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i can see why. i like this film because it has good cast - nick nolte, brion james,etc. and it has good director - walter hill. his film are always well made. it has good, simple story. no bullshits

but i have never been fan of eddie murphy. he is sarcastic. and not in a good way, but in a arrogant mean spirit way. i belive his career in 90s decline because of this. i never understand why he so popular! but murphy aside this is good film.

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