43 years ago, the runaway box office success of "48 Hrs.," in which Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy bickered and brawled as they attempted to track down a couple of vicious escaped convicts, turned the buddy-cop subgenre into a formula goldmine. Before the 1980s drew to a close, films like "Running Scared," "Beverly Hills Cop," "Lethal Weapon," and "Red Heat" were able to work profitable variations on this very simple dynamic. Even though cops have never been more difficult to root for, the subgenre, as evidenced by the 2024 success of "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley," is still commercially appealing today.

While movies like "48 Hrs." and "Lethal Weapon" were powered by tightly constructed screenplays, the vast majority of buddy cop films got by on comedic anarchy. They actually had more in

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