The buddy movie is something of a broad subgenre. All it requires are two men with polar opposite personalities being placed together for the entirety of the film. The genre is typically associated with comedies, although by definition, any movie that just has two bickering men placed together, comedic or not, can technically be defined as a buddy movie. In theory, straightforward dramas and thrillers such as Seven, All the President’s Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are technically buddy movies.
However, when we think of buddy movies, none of those films come to mind, nor do typically the films of classic comedy duos like Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy come to mind, even though they also technically fit the description. The genre is typically associated with cop movies, where two stubborn personalities - with one or both parties being a member of law enforcement - get placed together in an unusual circumstance and are forced to deal with each other’s conflicting personalities while stopping a criminal.
The genre has since dwindled in popularity in recent years, though there still are a few films here and there that pop up and do modestly well at the box office. The latest film to take on this format is Stuber, starring Kumail Nanjiani as an Uber driver who is forced by a detective played by Dave Bautista to drive him around to catch a ruthless drug lord. To coincide with the release of Stuber, we’re going to look back specifically at five of the best buddy cop comedies (in alphabetical order):
1) 48 Hrs.
While there have been movies that are considered precursors to the genre, 48 Hrs. is distinctly the first buddy cop movie, and to this day, it’s still one of the best. Starring Nick Nolte as an inspector in the police department who seeks out a drug dealer, played by James Remar, that murdered two detectives in his unit, and gains the assistance of the criminal’s former partner, played by Eddie Murphy in his feature debut. Naturally, the two don’t get along, and as they go to track down their target, get into plenty of arguments. A lot of the racially-charged bickering between Nolte and Murphy has since become outdated, but the movie still has plenty about it that makes it a lot of fun. Murphy and Nolte’s great chemistry can’t be denied, with Murphy especially, in the midst of his prime days on Saturday Night Live, while James Remar, known to today’s audiences for his much more subdued turn as Harry Morgan on Dexter, is wildly over-the-top as the villain here, and has some incredible energy about him that makes him a worthwhile antagonist. It feels very much like an 80’s movie, but it’s still a great movie to watch to this day.
2) Lethal Weapon
48 Hrs. may have been the first buddy cop movie, but Lethal Weapon is always the first movie that comes to mind when anyone mentions the genre. And rightfully so, as this essentially nailed down the format to a tee. The film focuses on two police officers, with Mel Gibson as the aggressive, over-the-top Martin Riggs, and Danny Glover as the straight-faced Roger Murtaugh. The two get placed together when the daughter of one of Murtaugh’s old associates commits suicide, leading the two to uncover a much larger drug operation. Both officers are polar opposites, which of course leads to many Odd Couple-like scenarios that lead to the two bickering. Unlike many of the movies it would go on to inspire - as well as its own sequels - Lethal Weapon contained a solid balance of comedy and drama, and had just as many intense sequences as it did comedic. Much of the humor came from the dialogue as opposed to whacky visual gags. Both Gibson and Glover handle the material very well, and are incredibly funny together, and still go down as one of the best pairings on film.
3) Men in Black
Alright, so there’s some grey area with calling Men in Black a buddy cop movie, even though it has come up in other lists regarding the genre. While the lead characters aren’t your average police officers (though one starts the movie as one), they are law enforcement-type figures, just with a more unusual scenario. Based loosely on the comic book series of the same name, the film follows Will Smith as a young NYPD officer who soon becomes part of the secret titular organization that polices all forms of alien life, getting paired with a veteran agent played by Tommy Lee Jones, as they go to stop an alien who is looking to take over the Earth, roaming around disguised as a human, played by Vincent D’Onofrio. What makes Men in Black stand out from other buddy copy films is its much more sophisticated storyline, with themes such as finding meaning in one’s life and knowing one’s place in the vast universe. There’s a lot more visual humor thanks to many gags surrounding the aliens, and while there is the usual polar opposite bickering here, much of the fun comes from just how deadpan a lot of the humor is, especially from Tommy Lee Jones, who plays very well off the highly energetic Will Smith. It spawned three sequels and a TV series, though nothing has ever come as close to the quality of the first film in this franchise.
4) The Nice Guys
The most recent entry on this list, The Nice Guys was written and directed by Shane Black, who is known for his extensive work with the buddy cop genre, and is easily one of the names that handles the genre the best. He’s written the aforementioned Lethal Weapon, its first sequel, as well as other films such as The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Even his directorial debut was a buddy cop movie, the highly underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. And it was a toss-up between that film and this one, but The Nice Guys ultimately won out. The film focuses on Ryan Gosling as a down-on-his-luck private eye who winds up crossing paths with an enforcer played by Russell Crowe, teaming up together after the death of a porn star. While The Nice Guys is very much a comedy, it’s much darker than most movies in the genre, with the two mismatched men making their way through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. The film at times can be brutally violent and even has plenty of sequences where Gosling’s daughter, played by Angourie Rice, is exposed to a lot of the unsavory types they encounter. While the film embodies the feel of more classic entries in the genre, it still manages to feel fresh, original, and above-all, hilarious.
5) 21 Jump Street
Based on the 1987 TV series of the same name, 21 Jump Street sparked a pseudo-trend of comedic adaptations of more serious TV series, with Baywatch and CHiPS also getting their own comedic retellings in the years to come, due to this movie’s success. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who typically deal with animated fare, this film is a wildly over-the-top skewing of the buddy cop genre, with many of the characters self-aware of any stereotypes they may embody, while others take note of how times have changed since they were kids. The film pairs up Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as two former high school classmates who cross paths again when they both enter the same police academy, and become part of a revived scheme from the 1980’s in which young officers infiltrated high schools, passing off as students. Tatum starts the movie off as the popular jock while Hill starts as the socially awkward nerd, but much of the movie is based around them switching roles as the movie goes on. While it’s very direct, the energy of the cast can’t be denied, as it’s clear everyone had an absolute blast with this movie, which in turn makes it a fun time for audiences. The film was so successful that it even spawned a sequel that was also great, even if slightly inferior to the original. Not only is this one of the funniest entries to the buddy cop genre, this was also one of the best movies of 2012, and one that will certainly be remembered as one of the most timely films of its kind.
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