Stickup

By R.S.

Stickup 48 HRS. Directed by Walter Hill Screenplay by Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross and Steven E. de Souza

This movie is like one of those new glues that are propped up near the cash register at the hardware store: it promises to bond two entirely incompatible substances forever. And as with the exotic epoxies, you know what will happen even as you shell out your cash; the job is going to fall apart the minute you look at it too hard.

The disparate elements that the film makers are trying to stick together for 48 Hrs. are a tough white cop with the soul of a beer barrel (Nick Nolte) and a jivey black con with the spirit of a peacock (Eddie Murphy of Saturday Night Live.) The former springs the latter from prison believing he can help trace a psychopathic former associate who has become a cop killer. There ensues a long, often well-staged but improbable chase through San Francisco. The sequence is enlivened by some reasonably well-written dialogue, as if Director Hill had revived The Odd Couple and told Felix and Oscar to go ahead and talk dirty if they want to.

The stars are cool and funny in these passages. But in the reach for psychic novelty, the script exceeds its grasp on persuasive reality. Neither jokes nor fast, flashy action can completely distract audiences from the failure to establish an authentic, rather than a purely conventional connection between Nolte and Murphy.

And when they fall to fisticuffs, as inevitably they must (in movies like this it is only by fighting that men can become friends), the whole picture begins to come apart. The brawny Nolte looks as if he could blow the willowy Murphy away with one punch. But the brawl ends in an obviously fixed draw, and a suspicion that everything else is equally rigged begins to nag. The uncaring mind begins to wander questioningly toward many a dubious plot point. Where did the bad guys get hold of a city bus for a getaway? And what good do they think the clumsy thing is going to do them anyway? There can be no doubts on one matter, however: as the psychopath who causes all the trouble, James Remar gives the year's scariest performance.

-- R.S.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.