Product Description

Eddie Murphy made his big-screen debut in this comedy/thriller as a wisecracking con who is sprung from prison to help detective Nick Nolte nab a pair of cop killers. Together, the unlikely pair must overcome their severe differences and somehow learn to work together in order to clear the case. With Annette O'Toole, James Remar; Walter Hill directs. 96 min. Widescreen; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, French Dolby Digital mono; theatrical trailer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15289 in DVD
• Brand: MURPHY,EDDIE
• Published on: 1999-01-01
• Released on: 1999-01-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Subtitled, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Before the action-oriented "buddy movie" formula settled into place in the 1980s and 1990s with the Lethal Weapon films, Walter Hill's 48 HRS. presented a much more irreverent and politically incorrect version of the genre. Eddie Murphy made an auspicious film debut alongside veteran Nick Nolte's consummate performance as a worn cop. Murphy plays a convict on a two-day furlough from prison to help capture his former partner (James Remar). The intense animosity between his character and Nolte's impatient detective is rude and violent--albeit in a comic way--and the film's racist and sexist banter is so ubiquitous that some viewers might be turned off. (This early, raw Murphy is not the Murphy of The Nutty Professor.) Then again, sometimes deliberate overkill is funny in itself, which is certainly closer to Hill's intention. There are a couple of scenes for the ages in this film, especially Murphy's single-handed shutdown of the action in a redneck bar. --Tom Keogh