Another 48 Hours (DVD)

Following a shoot-out in which one criminal dies, Jack Cates, a San Francisco police officer, is in danger of being convicted of manslaughter. To clear his name, he must track down a major drug dealer, known only as The Ice Man, with 48 hours. Then Jack discovers that the Ice Man is after Reggie Hammond, a con man in prison following a previous case that they worked on together. Jack manages to get Reggie out of prison...but can he and Reggie stay ...
...Man is? And will Jack's name finally be cleared?

Although I have seen the first film, 48 Hours, I can honestly say that I don't remember a thing about it. As such, I watched this film, its sequel, with absolutely no idea of what had happened in the first film. And I am not sure that it really mattered. It may have made me warm slightly more to the characters, but as far as the story goes, this one is more or less a stand-alone film. ... more

Following a shoot-out in which one criminal dies, Jack Cates, a San Francisco police officer, is in danger of being convicted of manslaughter. To clear his name, he must track down a major drug dealer, known only as The Ice Man, with 48 hours. Then Jack discovers that the Ice Man is after Reggie Hammond, a con man in prison following a previous case that they worked on together. Jack manages to get Reggie out of prison...but can he and Reggie stay alive for long enough to find out who the Ice Man is? And will Jack's name finally be cleared?

Although I have seen the first film, 48 Hours, I can honestly say that I don't remember a thing about it. As such, I watched this film, its sequel, with absolutely no idea of what had happened in the first film. And I am not sure that it really mattered. It may have made me warm slightly more to the characters, but as far as the story goes, this one is more or less a stand-alone film. What did surprise me is that I was expecting the film to be more of a comedy than it is. There are some funny moments, but they are very few and far between, and are almost hidden in the relentless violence of the story.

Nick Nolte plays Jack Cates and gives a perfectly adequate performance. This is an action film, and as such, there is almost no character development, so if his acting isn't outstanding, it is not really much to do with his lack of skills in that department. What did surprise me is that there is very little chemistry between him and Eddie Murphy - considering they had already made one film together and must have spent weeks together making this one, I would have thought that there would have been something there.

Eddie Murphy is also adequate, but not brilliant, as Reggie Hammond. As can be expected, he does have the funniest role in the film and he did, very occasionally, make me laugh. On the whole though, I was left feeling quite flat. His character just doesn't really do anything interesting enough to make me sit up and take notice. Shame, because I'm sure it was his name that would have sold the film. Slightly more interesting is Andrew Divoff, who plays bad guy biker, Cherry Ganz. Again, there is no character development, but he does at least try to be noticeable.

The plot is the both complicated, at least initially, and boring. I found it quite hard to get my head around what was going on to begin with, and that isn't really because I couldn't remember the relationship between the two main characters, but is more because there are too many threads to the story. Had it been more interesting, I would probably have grasped it a lot more quickly; as it is, I found it hard to concentrate. It also seemed to take quite a long time before the story proper really began - a little editing was called for, but was sadly lacking. Having said that, the film is only an hour and a half long as it is, so that probably explains why.

There is a lot of violence in this film - the 18 rating is called for here. Whereas I don't mind violence in a film - I'm a fan of gory horror - I was quite surprised at how brutal it was, probably because it is classed as an action comedy. There really wasn't all that much to laugh at. The special effects were very good - I particularly liked one scene when the bus that Ronnie is travelling on crashes and rolls. This is just as well because there wasn't much in the way of dialogue to keep the audience occupied.

This is very far from being the worst film I have ever seen. Although not that exciting, there is always something going on to draw the viewer in. However, I really felt that it could have been an awful lot better, especially with Eddie Murphy in one of the main roles. If you're a fan of Murphy or Nick Nolte and/or you enjoyed the first film, then it is probably worth looking out for this one, but bear in mind the limitations. And I certainly think that it is worth waiting for it to be shown on television rather than purchasing a copy of the DVD. Three stars.

The DVD, if you really want it, is available from play.com for £4.99.

Classification: 18

Running time: 93 minutes 

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