Every great hero, at some point, has had a sidekick. Gilgamesh had Enkidu, Sherlock Holmes had Watson, and, of course, Batman had Robin. But what happens when a story has only one strong-willed, fleshed-out lead but two? Well, you get the “buddy movie,” where two lead characters must team up and face an obstacle so significant they must team up and share the spotlight. And while there are many great “buddy movies,” notably my favorite film of 2022, RRR, one section of this category of films that is near and dear to my heart: “The Buddy Cop” films.
These are your classic tales of two cops from different precincts, fields of expertise, and/or backgrounds coming together to solve a case they couldn’t solve alone. This used to be a staple sub-genre in cinema but has somewhat disappeared over recent years. So what happened? First, let’s talk about some history of the sub-genre to understand why and how “buddy cop” films disappeared.
“Buddy cop” films can be defined into three phases: 1. The “Lethal Weapon” era 2. The “Rush Hour” course adjustment, and 3. The “Nice Guys” postmortem. While not the first film to execute the “buddy cop” formula successfully, Richard Donner’s 1987 film Lethal Weapon feels like a near-perfect culmination of what 48 Hrs and Running Scared had accomplished in defining the sub-genre. Aside from following the now-standard narrative of two unlikely cops becoming partners, Lethal Weapon goes the extra mile in making the action a bit more exciting, and the humor is more evenly split between the two leads due in part to the script being written by soon-to-be revered writer and director Shane Black.
Danny Glover and Mel Gibson more or less completely split the bill 50/50, and the film probably wouldn’t have been as successful if either star had been replaced. Glover’s older, veteran cop paired with Gibson’s wild and nearly insane action hero become the archetype in the future for these types of movies.
Although never quite a one-to-one, most “buddy cop” movies would replicate and innovate from this duo dynamic. There is a solid acting presence in these two leads and an immensely compelling chemistry that is just so fun to watch. Seeing Glover and Gibson bicker and banter back and forth with each other as they grow from reluctant partners to best friends while navigating and surviving the L.A. crime world is a great recipe for creating a classic action movie, a four-film franchise, and a handsome $120 million box office. The films that would follow the rest of the 80s and most of the 90s would follow the trends and archetypes to varying degrees of success. These are your Bad Boys, Tango & Cash, and, arguably, one of the weirder attempts, Samurai Cop.
Lethal Weapon set the standard for the next ten years, but with the dawn of the 21st century, there was a need for a change-up. That’s where the second phase of the “buddy cop” begins with Brett Ratner’s 1998 film Rush Hour. While Rush Hour follows many of the same trends set by Lethal Weapon, it innovates the genre by focusing more on comedy. Instead of having two action stars who happen to banter with each other, Rush Hour tips the balance beam into a primarily comedic tone, with the action becoming secondary and leaving most of the extreme dramatic elements at the door.
Now Jackie Chan does attempt to bring his Hong Kong action flair, but it’s grossly overshadowed by his and Chris Tucker’s goofy hijinks and culture clash humor. This shift to comedy proved to be very successful, with Rush Hour making $244 million worldwide, and would spawn a three-movie franchise for this mismatched pair. Following Rush Hour, “buddy cop,” movies would veer away from serious crime-drama action and lean into more lighthearted, whimsical crime adventures that would last the next 15-so years in the mid-2010s. These would be your 21 Jump Street, Hot Fuzz, and the weirdest attempt at the sub-genre, Osmosis Jones. Like all good things, the reverence for the “buddy cop” flick would fade, and the need for another change would arise. However, this would not be the same as before and would be a death knell.
So now it was time for a revival, and who else would be more qualified to lead the resurrection of a sub-genre? Well, none other than one of the guys responsible for popularizing it, Shane Black. In 2016 Black directed and co-wrote the film The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe, which followed in the spirit of “buddy cop” films of the past, with a more modern sense of humor and having a 70’s period piece aesthetic.
However, unlike the previous two examples, The Nice Guys did not make a huge splash at the box office, grossing only $62 million and, sadly, not creating any sequels. So why did The Nice Guys fail? Some would say releasing the same weekend, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, resulted in losing the audience. However, the end of the “buddy cop” sub-genre is not entirely linked to the failure of The Nice Guys, but just a change in the film landscape going into the last 2010s.
One big factor in the death of the “buddy cop” movies is studios making less of, if not completely giving up on, making big comedies. Since the sub-genre had evolved to be more comedic, it only makes sense it would be among the casualties with the death of comedy movies at the theater. While other comedy sub-genres, like the romantic-comedy, would adapt and find new life on streaming services, “buddy-cop” films never entirely made the jump. Another possible factor is the diminishing strength of movie-star power.
Most “buddy cop” films were quickly sold as movie stars X and Y team up to solve a mystery, like Tango and Cash being sold as the union Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russel. However, with the rise of franchise films, where the selling point of movies is less about movie stars and more about following connected universes, the concept of selling a film solely off the backs of two stars wasn’t going to cut it anymore. This is most relevant with The Nice Guys, which featured Gosling near the peak of his fame, and proven box-office star Crowe but could not draw a big audience on these names alone.
The last factor to bring up here is that narratives about police have evolved, especially over the previous few years. Not to get into the exact details, but the public perception of law enforcement in the United States has shifted away from making stories that glorify cops. Instead, it seeks to either portray the police in a more natural light or not at all.
Even though the sub-genre is more or less dead, the attributes and characteristics of “buddy cop” have found their way into other sub-genres. Most MCU films have adopted the back-and-forth bantering and the reluctant allies to best friends narrative. Every spy flick features these dynamics, like Netflix Red Notice or the Fast and Furious spin-off (which also stars Dwayne Johnson) Hobbs and Shaw.
Now all is not lost. With the success of Bad Boys For Life, which made $426 million worldwide and was also the fourth highest-grossing film of 2020, there may still be hope for a possible resurrection. It’s uncertain if the sub-genre will ever rise back to its former glory, but our fingers are crossed that one day we can enjoy watching two unlikely cops solve a mystery and become best friends along the way.
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