ANOTHER 48 HRS.: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1990) Paramount Presents...

It is difficult, if not entirely impossible, not to see the failed opportunities in director, Walter Hill’s Another 48 Hrs. (1990) as absolute confirmation the once lucrative alliance between Paramount Pictures and star, Eddie Murphy had already run its course. Both had done right by the other throughout the 1980’s, a decade that saw Murphy rise like cream from SNL TV fav to megawatt comedy box office titan, indicative of his salary hiking from $200,000 to appear in the original movie, to $12 million to debut in this ill-fated reprise. Murphy blamed the ‘failure’ of Another 48 Hrs. on Paramount while they suggested he had not done enough to market the movie in public interviews, the bad blood spilling over and souring the star on working for the studio again. Despite the reunion of Murphy with co-star, Nick Nolte, Another 48 Hrs. is very much built around Murphy’s star presence, and the rather top-heavy efforts to lend him more screen time in what ought to have been a buddy/buddy flick, creates a queer disconnect in hindsight. At 95-mins., the picture racks up a mind-numbing body count. Alas, the victims here are little more than anonymous stick figures, placed in harm’s way to ratchet up the interminable violence. We care not a hoot for them or their fates. So, the video game quality of their murders is very much stultifying. Worse for the picture, the screenplay by John Fasano, Jeb Stuart and Larry Gross, cribbing from a story by Fred Braughton and a ‘high’ concept from Eddie Murphy, fast devolved into a retrograde Cole’s Notes version of the better bits pilfered from the original movie, thrust together with a few ‘new’ ideas mangled into the mix.  For his part, director, Hill, who was once told by Paramount CEO Michael Eisner he would never direct for them ever again, now seems only marginally interested in plot, bookending virtually every vignette in this claptrap with an explosion, gunfire or otherwise wild-hearted and out-of-control disaster looming in the wings, with bodies dropping like the pitter-patter of bloody little raindrops, even from the peripheries of the screen.

Hill was circumspect about the movie’s perceived ‘failure’. It actually made money for Paramount, though not quite as much as they had hoped. “I was, to tell you the truth, a little skeptical,” Hill explained in an interview, “They usually come out twice as expensive and half as good. Not always. I think the Leone movies always got better, and there are a few others. And I felt the studio might encourage me to make a softer film, and if you made a softer version of 48 Hrs., you're going to have Beverly Hills Cop! …A lot of folks will say I'm just doing it for the money. What I want to know is, why do they think I made the first one?”  Unlike its predecessor, the rough cut of Another 48 Hrs. ran a whopping 145-mins., pruned to a 2-hr. movie for its sneak peek, and then, barely 98-mins. for its summer theatrical release. Hill was hardly pleased with the studio’s tinkering, as the excised material now left the story with glaring continuity mistakes and elements of the plot unexplained. It also completely emasculated the performance of returning alumnus, Brion James as Inspector Kehoe, given a substantial part in the movie, but barely glimpsed in its final cut. Kehoe did not remain silent in his displeasure, airing his comments to the press and claiming that the runaway success of Total Recall – opening the week ahead of Another 48 Hrs. had left Paramount gun shy about releasing a movie with as much girth as the original cut. “My stuff was in there until one week before the film opened,” Kehoe explained, “…(then) it went from around 140 to down around 95 minutes…I lost every major scene I had. That's the last time I ever cared about a movie because I went to the press screening and it was like getting kicked in the stomach...I was the third lead and now I looked like a dressed extra. All the stuff that they had in the set-up, stuff in the trailer, all those scenes were gone.”

Best not to compare Another 48 Hrs. with its predecessor, as what’s here somehow appears as a grotesque bastardization of the original. The plot, as it survives in the picture today, again revolves around veteran Frisco police inspector, Jack Cates (Nolte) after drug dealer, known as ‘Iceman’ (Brion James). At the Hunter's Point Raceway, Jack intercepts a payoff between Tyrone Burroughs (Brent Jennings) and Arthur Brock (Russ McCubbin), the latter whom he kills in self-defense, leaving Burroughs to escape.  Under investigation for homicide, as Brock's gun cannot be found at the scene, Jack falls prey to Internal Affairs zealot, Blake Wilson (Kevin Tighe). Still working his angle, Jack finds a photograph to prove Iceman has taken out a bounty on Reggie Hammond (Murphy) - scheduled for release from prison the next day. Reggie has been incarcerated yet again for robbing a payroll, a crime to which he claims complete innocence. In the first movie, Jack resented becoming inveigled with Reggie to solve his crime. But in this sequel, he implores Reggie to help him clear his name. In reply, Reggie first demands the $500,000 Jack has been holding on to for him. But Jack refuses to pay out unless Reggie joins him to solve the crime. Now, the bus transporting Reggie is attacked by Iceman’s hit squad. Jack is shot and takes the opportunity to have Reggie remanded to his custody after being released from hospital. Reggie fingers one of the men responsible for the assault as Richard ‘Cherry’ Ganz (Andrew Divoff), the brother of Albert Ganz, whom Jack killed in the first movie. So, presumably, this one is a grudge match.

Cherry and his partner Willie Hickok (David Anthony Marshall) are after Reggie. But Burroughs, who also works for Iceman, was attempting to engage Brock in the job. The plot gets further muddled when Iceman murders Hickok's point man, Malcolm Price (Ted Markland) and Hickok eliminates Burroughs, though not before he too is revealed as Iceman’s associate. Cherry and Hickok take Reggie hostage in a local nightclub where it is revealed that Jack’s cohort and fellow officer, Ben Kehoe is actually Iceman, working in cahoots with another Det. Frank Cruise (Ed O’Ross). Naturally, gunfire ensues. Jack wounds Hickok and takes out Cruise. Reggie kills Hickok and Cherry but is, again, taken hostage – this time, by Kehoe who is using him as a human shield. As in the original movie, Reggie insists Jack shoot him to save the day, and, rather predictably, Jack again obliges, wounding Reggie in the shoulder to throw him off Kehoe whom he now effortlessly guns down. As Reggie is carted off to hospital, the two adversarial ‘friends’ share some parting words. While Jack again realizes Reggie has lifted his lighter (a running gag borrowed from the original movie), he nevertheless decides to allow Reggie to keep it out of respect.

Another 48 Hrs. grossed $153.5 million, though the general consensus among fans and critics was that the movie had somehow ‘failed’ to satisfy their artistic expectations. Worse for Paramount, due to the high costs of making the movie, their profits were minimized. Viewed today, the picture’s merits remain minimized by the heavy-handed delivery of the action, with Nolte’s character almost entirely reduced to a storm-trooping pit bull whose vigilantism does not place him on much higher moral ground than the villains he is pursuing. Lethargically affected by Hill – whose status in Hollywood is questionable at best – Another 48 Hrs. is more of a thinly veiled copycat than one might at first anticipate. What the picture was before Paramount cleaved nearly 42-mins. from its run time, we’ll never know. But what is here is meant to mimic the hit from 1982, rather than advancing the franchise into a new decade with promises of better things yet to follow. The excitement we should feel is turned under by the uber-crude displays of rank carnage, and the antagonistic camaraderie, once deeply ingrained and palpable between Murphy and Nolte’s alter egos in the original, simply isn’t there anymore.

Another 48 Hrs. arrives on Blu-ray as part of the ‘Paramount Presents…’ franchise, which is supposed to be a collector’s series reflecting the very best movies from the studio’s illustrious past. Actually, I have long since given up on trying to deduce Paramount’s modus operandi for this franchise as the movies that have come down its pike are a bungle of stuff – some irrefutable masterpieces and icons from the studio’s history (To Catch a Thief, The Greatest Show on Earth, Fatal Attraction, Love Story) – and some, truly awful, and unrelated flicks given more consideration than they deserve (The Golden Child, Elizabethtown, The Haunting). The good news here, for fans of Another 48 Hrs., is Paramount is doing its due diligence, offering wonderful remastering work. Colors are bold, rich and vibrant. Thanks to Matthew F. Leonetti’s polished cinematography, Another 48 Hrs. is a far more slickly shot affair than its predecessor – the grit then, replaced by gloss now, perfectly captured in 1080p Blu-ray from a 4K scan from an original camera negative. Contrast is excellent and density is never compromised. No black crush, no age-related artifacts. So, perfection in its presentation, even if the movie falls far short of that expectation. The 5.1 DTS is explosive, literally, and provides a far more immersive sound design than the original movie. Walter Hill returns for more reflections in another ‘Film Maker’s Focus’ featurette. The only other extra is an original theatrical trailer which hints at all the stuff actually cut out of the movie before it hit theaters.  Bottom line: Another 48 Hrs. is a wan ghost flower of its predecessor. For Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte fans only. Others can pass and be very glad that they did.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

5

EXTRAS

1