Channel 4 have
48 Hrs. and the sequel,
Another 48 Hrs., up for streaming at the moment. Been meaning to see the first for a while and didn't even know there was a second. Anyway, watched the first one last night and it was great. Another seedy, neon-drenched 80s thing with a very young Eddie Murphy doing his thing and Nick Nolte in gravelly cop mode.
The tone really stands out now, in the same way it did in
Beverly Hills Cop. They're funny and they're billed as comedies, but there's a harshness to them you don't tend to find in similar stuff nowadays. There's a genuine sense of danger when the characters get into a gunfight and the comedy doesn't swamp the other elements like it does in something more recent like
The Other Guys (which I did like, to be fair)
. It's partly down to it being directed by Walter Hill (
The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort) but he wasn't behind the camera for
Beverly Hills Cop so it's clearly down to the sensibilities of the time too.
Apparently the Safdies were going to do a remake, but that seems to have been put on ice now they've fallen out and gone their separate ways.