The “buddy cop” subgenre of action cinema is one of the movie genres that relies entirely on the casting of the lead roles. If the actors cast to star as the mismatched detectives in a buddy cop movie don’t share palpable chemistry, then the movie won’t hold up.
The Rush Hour franchise rests on Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s chemistry. If these classic buddy cop movies were made today, the lead duos would be played by very different actors.
Michael B. Jordan And Tiffany Haddish As Lowrey And Burnett In Bad Boys
Michael Bay’s Bad Boys stars Will Smith as Lowrey and Martin Lawrence as Burnett. Today, these roles could be played by Michael B. Jordan and Tiffany Haddish. Jordan has the leading-man charms that made Smith so popular in the original.
Smith was a sharp comedic performer in his own right, so the role of Marcus Burnett needed a standup comic with just as much charm and energy who could also land deadpan “straight man” quips. Lawrence fit the bill in the ‘90s. Today, in movies like Girls Trip and that role has been filled by Haddish.
Simu Liu And Timothée Chalamet As Johnny Utah And Bodhi In Point Break
Kathryn Bigelow’s Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, an undercover FBI agent, and Patrick Swayze as Bodhi, the spiritual surfer/bank robber who’s so charismatic that Utah doesn’t want to turn him in.
Shang-Chi proved that Simu Liu can do action-hero ass-kicking and buddy comedy simultaneously, while Timothée Chalamet has exactly the kind of hypnotic charisma that Swayze brought to Bodhi in the original.
Liam Neeson And Donald Glover As Jack Cates And Reggie Hammond In 48 Hrs.
Walter Hill’s 48 Hrs. was one of the first ever buddy cop movies. Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy helped to define the genre with their mismatched pairing as no-nonsense cop Jack Cates and his wisecracking street-smart convict companion Reggie Hammond. The juicy premise sees Reggie released from jail for the titular two-day period to help Cates track down his old partner-in-crime.
Liam Neeson’s hard-boiled, tough-as-nails screen persona would be perfect for the role of stone-cold Cates, and Donald Glover’s work in Atlanta (not to mention his long history of standup) has shown that he has the warmth, energy, and comedic chops to play Reggie as well as Murphy did.
Dwayne Johnson And Ryan Reynolds As Ray Tango And Gabriel Cash In Tango & Cash
If Tango & Cash was made today, it would be a Deadpool-esque tongue-in-cheek satire aware of its own absurdity. So, it would make sense to cast the Merc with a Mouth himself in Kurt Russell’s role as Cash and his own musclebound counterpart, The Rock, in Sylvester Stallone’s role as Tango.
Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson have only starred in one movie together – the big-budget Netflix caper Red Notice – but that movie proved that the two actors have great chemistry in an action-comedy context.
Iko Uwais And Lil Rel Howery As Lee And Carter In Rush Hour
Lee and Carter are a particularly difficult duo to recast, because so much of the success of the Rush Hour franchise rests on Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s unique chemistry.
The role of Lee needs an actor with Chan’s blend of leading-man charisma, endearing wit, and martial arts prowess, so Get Out.
Idris Elba And Jonah Hill As Jack Walsh And “The Duke” In Midnight Run
Martin Brest’s Midnight Run stars Robert De Niro as bounty hunter Jack Walsh and Charles Grodin as his latest bounty, wanted mafia ant Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas. The original movie worked so well because De Niro was a dramatic actor who surprised audiences with his comedic chops and Grodin was a comedic actor who surprised audiences with his dramatic chops.
Today, the parts could be played by Idris Elba and Jonah Hill. Elba has played the deadpan “straight man” beautifully in The Suicide Squad, while Hill is a two-time Academy Award nominee with equal parts hilarity and pathos.
Kevin Hart And Harrison Ford As Agents J And K In Men In Black
Nobody could replace Will Smith as fish-out-of-water Agent J in Star Wars, Hart can still attract huge crowds on the basis of his involvement alone. He’s won over audiences on a global scale with the same likability, energy, and unwavering work ethic that made Smith such a huge star in the ‘90s.
Similarly, Tommy Lee Jones is irreplaceable in the role of Agent K. But Harrison Ford could be an interesting choice. In the ‘90s, when Men in Black was made, Ford was still a bankable everyman movie star like Will Smith. But today, Ford is known as a Tommy Lee Jones-style curmudgeon.
Bradley Cooper And Samuel L. Jackson As Riggs And Murtaugh In Lethal Weapon
Arguably the most iconic buddy cop duo of them all, Lethal Weapon’s Riggs and Murtaugh would need a pair of high-caliber movie stars to replace Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Roger Murtaugh needs a veteran actor who can handle the dry one-liners of a detective on the brink of retirement – Samuel L. Jackson would be a perfect choice.
Martin Riggs, on the other hand, needs a straightforward leading man who can command the screen and beat the bad guy, but also a brilliant dramatic performer who isn’t afraid to plumb the darkest depths of the human soul. Riggs is a deconstruction of the “renegade cop” archetype who breaks all the rules and regularly contemplates suicide. Based on his combined work in A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper could handle it brilliantly.
