A Tribute to 48 Hrs: The Father of Buddy\Action Comedies.

Kendall Rivers
4 min readJan 11, 2024
Image Source: Paramount Pictures\Lawrence Gordon Productions.

“We ain’t partners, we ain’t brothers and we ain’t friends. I’m gonna keep putting you down and keeping you down until Ganz is locked up or dead. And if you get in my way you’re gonna be sorry you ever met me.”

“I’m already sorry.”

That was the iconic exchange between hard nosed and bigoted(or at least pretending to be) Detective Jack Cates played by Nick Nolte and the slick and smooth bank robber\convict Reggie Hammond played by Eddie Murphy. This piece of dialogue perfectly illustrates not only the dynamic and volatile relationship between the two men but also the overall unique tone of this film compared to every other buddy film before and after it.

48 Hrs. is the ultimate anti-buddy cop movie. You know how most of these films have the two leads hate each other in the first half and then become the best of pals by the second? Welp, Jack and Reggie pretty much bickered, pestered and insulted each other the entire film. They even got into a legendary brutal fist fight close to the end of the film. It’s as far from the “best friends…

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Kendall Rivers

Kendall is a screenwriter who’s a huge fan of classic tv and movies. He enjoys creating good stories and characters. https://www.facebook.com/kendall.rivers.3