Another 48 Hrs. (1990)

Preceeded by: 48 Hrs. (1982)

	Directed by: Walter Hill	COUNTRY USA GENRE Action/Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE Nye 48 timer RUNNING TIME 95 minutes
	Produced by: Lawrence Gordon Robert D. Wachs
	Written by: John Fasano Jeb Stuart Larry Gross

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Reggie Hammond	Eddie Murphy
Jack Cates	Nick Nolte	½
Ben Kehoe	Brion James
Blake Wilson	Kevin Tighe
Frank Cruise	Ed O'Ross
Kirkland Smith	Bernie Casey

Review

The breath of fresh air that accompanied 48 Hrs. in 1982 has completely abandoned this sequel. Although I like the idea of sequels appearing several years after their original, it makes little sense to find the main characters at exactly the same place in life eight years later. Like with Rocky II, we find that Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) and Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) are being "plotted into" a similar situation as we originally found them in eight years earlier. That's a fairly transparent and unnoble commercial motive.

Still, the biggest problem with Another 48 Hrs. is its inevitable rooting in that lame, stereotypical action-comedy formula of the 1980s. When these films worked, it was not because of their subtlety, but rather because of their carefree, inspiring, high-spirited nature. It was about freshness, clever in-your-face quips, and passionate up-and-coming performers. In the early '80s, Eddie Murphy was the epitome of all this, but in 1990, he and an almost caricatured Nick Nolte (why can't he at least speak like a normal human being?) are on repeat, dealing with painfully one-dimensional villains and clinging to a film style and a subgenre that was already well into its decline.