Buddies "Running Scared"
One of the best of the so-called Buddy Movies has to be Running Scared (1986), starring Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal. The story is good -- two dedicated cops getting tired of the danger and thinking of retiring but finding they can't quite stomach the idea -- but the chemistry between Hines and Crystal is superlative. The subtle interactions, body language, and nuances of expression made me truly believe that they had been partners on the force for 16 years as stated in the film and the closest of friends. Honestly, I haven't seen married couples with this sort of intimate familiarity.
Another example can be found in the one-season wonder The Cosby Mysteries (1994). In this instance, Bill Cosby and James Naughton were the perfect pair. The word comfortable comes to mind watching their characters interact. All buddy combinations should be as such, but sadly they are not -- usually.
Alan Sorkin's TV series Sports Night (1998) breaks this mold because everybody in the cast demonstrates a comfortable buddy relationship, 
even in combinations of woman and man or established character with new character. This is typical of Sorkin's writing, but I think it worked especially well here. However, the scripted (and, perhaps, unscripted) sexual tension kept the best examples in the true spirit of the buddy relationship. To whit, even if an episode was about a male-female relationship, it would only yield true insight or humor when the male in question buddied up to another male character. You'd have to know more about the show and characters to see what I mean so I encourage you to watch for it in reruns or pick up the complete DVD boxed set sometime.
Speaking of DVDs, a recent example of a great buddy movie is in my player right now: Sahara (2005). Like Hines and Crystal in Running Scared, you can't miss the realism of long-term relationship between the characters played by Steve Zahn and Matthew McConaughey. I've written about this before so I won't go into great detail, suffice to say it is rare when a friendship like this comes along.
In each of these examples one sees that being a true buddy goes beyond friendship or even the brotherhood that men feel through frequency of contact and common associations. The Greeks have many words for love, the most familiar being agape and eros, but individually or even collectively they cannot fully express the buddy relationship. Thank goodness for movies like Running Scared.
