Another 48 Hours (1990)

Ah. The estranged sequel. Produced as much as eight years later it actually made more money than its predecessor. Unfortunately, that only proves that the world wants to be fooled. Not a bad film, but it falls short of the original. As is usually the case.


Nolte and Murphy show some early promise on their banter, Nolte's calm, dry comments a hilarious response to the world screwing Murphy over and over. Generally Murphy isn't as funny as the first instalment, but his "bad day" speech with finale is outstanding. All whilst Nolte stands tall with no reaction at all. Unfortunately, the chemistry is more hit-and-miss than the original.

On the bright side, the bad guys are given more time on-screen, thus giving them more impetus. On a darker note, they are very much stereotype evil sadistic bikers on hogs.They also scream incessantly whenever they are shot at. Most annoying. The Iceman-obsession is not very believable and the final twist is more daft than it is surprising. Better is the Internal Affairs-angle, but that is mostly due to the extremely despicable Kevin Tighe finding some meat on a very old bone. Besides, he brings out the best of Nolte's self-righteous anger. Many angles you say? Yes, there are. And when they also follow a hit-and-miss-pattern, the film loses focus.

In the American tradition of a sequel having to be "bigger, faster and louder" the action-scenes are more massive. Some outright cool. You can't go wrong with a bus flipping over multiple times. The scenery is much the same as it was. There are bars and plenty of boobs. It would appear that all shoot-outs and bar-fights need a least one pair of tits in these flicks. Fair enough.

And in case you wandered: Nolte still has "the look".

5/10