(48 Hrs, Another 48 Hrs, Last Man Standing, The Warriors, Wild Bill)
Producers:
Lawrence Gordon and Robert D. Wachs
Screenplay:
John Fasano, Jeb Stuart and Larry Gross
Music:
James Horner
Cast:
Jack Cates: Nick Nolte
Reggie Hammond: Eddie Murphy
Ben Kehoe: Brion James
Blake Wilson: Kevin Tighe
Frank Cruise: Ed O'Ross
Willie Hickok: David Anthony Marshall
Cherry Ganz: Andrew Divoff
Kirkland Smith: Bernie Casey
Tyrone Burroughs: Brent Jennings
Malcolm Price: Ted Markland
Angel Lee: Page Leong
Eight years after the first two-day stretch for our heroes,
director Walter Hill brought Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy
back together again, although this time their fortunes were reversed and
Murphy was the biggest star so had his name first above the title.
Three bikers are doing the rounds, namely Willie Hickok (David Anthony Marshall),
Cherry Ganz (Andrew Divoff) and Malcolm Price (Ted Markland,
on behalf of the Iceman, a mysterious crime lord figure for whom Jack Cates
(Nolte) has been trying to put behind bars for the last four years.
Once again, Cates has to extract Reggie Hammond (Murphy) from jail in order
to solve the case, but this time it's because the Iceman wants Hammond's head
on a silver platter. He's after Cates too, but the reason isn't so clear
to him at first and it's only when he realises one of the bikers is related
to cop-killer Ganz (James Remar), who Cates blew away in the first
film, so this time it's personal.
I was a bit wary seeing the "better than the first" quote from
Pat Collins, WWOR-TV, since aren't all sequels if they want to keep the cash
rolling in(?) It is actually just a touch better, since Hill steps up the
production values just a tad when the gunfights ensue and the comedic moments
occur just as often as in the first film, while the 18-certificate applies
because of the extreme violence often used.
I did spot one glaring error - about an hour into the film, Reggie shoots
through a door where just the top half is glass and the bottom is solid wood.
He shoots the glass, then we see an upper-body shot of him just strolling
through the frame. When we get to see a longshot of the door, the whole
thing has become a smashed glass door!?!
Presentation-wise, things are still the same, albeit slightly worse.
Again, the film is presented in a non-anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio, with plenty
of dropouts and flecks at times. This time, thanks to very poor mastering,
the picture pauses a handful of times through the film while the sound
continues. It only happens for half-a-second each time, but shouldn't
happen at all! I rewound these moments to double check as well.
The average bitrate is a high and fairly steady 8.65Mb/s.
Still, at least the person who did the subtitles ensured that they sit
within the film's picture, so if you want to read the subtitles AND zoom
the picture in to fill a widescreen TV, you now can, unlike the
original film.
Again, we are blessed with a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack in
English. There's quite a lot of surround sound action to get into when it
really matters, although it doesn't happen as often as the first film, so
loses a point there.
The Czech, French, Italian and Spanish languages are in Dolby Surround,
while the Hungarians just get plain mono.
Extras :
Like last time, there's just a trailer in the way of extras and it
only lasts 90 seconds in fullscreen 4:3.
There's plenty of subtitles: English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian,
Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Polish and Swedish.
However, the chapters are few at just 13 and the menu is static and silent
with a shot of the front cover and the usual options.
So, a very enjoyable film, but as with the first DVD, £19.99 is
too much for a back-catalogue release with barely any extras and a
non-anamorphic picture, even if we do get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
