Title: Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Director: Martin Brest
Duration: 1h 45m
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Martin Brest
Beverly Hills Cop is one of those movies with a solitary black character who finds himself in an uncompromising situation and has to stand on business to save the day or save himself. It follows in the tradition of Sidney Poitier’s In The Heat of the Night where a black detective with unorthodox means solves a crime that previously seemed unsolvable. In this case, the movie is led by none other than Eddie Murphy, the man himself who starred in Coming 2 America and is regarded as a comedy icon in the black community and the American film industry at large.
Official Trailer
Eddie Murphy leads the film in the role of Axel Foley, a detective from Detroit who visits Beverly Hills in the hopes of solving the murder of his old friend, Mikey, who he was sure had been murdered by some people he worked for. Although a good detective on his best day, Axel Foley has a thing for disobeying authorities, and that includes his bosses and everyone he is supposed to be taking orders from. That’s why when he was ordered to stay away from the case of Mikey’s murder, he took a vacation and went to Beverly Hills to solve the case himself, not as a Detroit PD police officer obviously but as Axel Foley, the street-smart detective that can get around anything.
However as he starts to investigate the murder, he begins to uncover an operation so big it was a shame the police in California had missed it before. Now the kingpin that runs the operation has it in for him and would do anything to silence him. Meanwhile, the cops in Beverly Hills continue to follow Axel trying to sabotage his insubordinate interference in the police matters of Beverly Hills. Of course, everything leads to a big showdown and Axel comes out victorious, yada yada yada.
Beverly Hills isn’t just one of the best action comedy movies ever, it is in fact one of the movies that shaped the genre and gave it some significance. I mean it’s like Shaft meets James Bond. The film is witty, funny, pacy, and entertaining, and one can see why it got an Academy nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Eddie Murphy’s performance was simply to die for and he got a big payday from it too, snagging about $4m out of the $13m budgeted for the film. On a budget of $13m, the film ended up grossing $316m becoming the highest-grossing American film released in 1984.
Directed by Martin Brest, Beverly Hills Cop has become quite the franchise with three movies that have grossed close to $1bn worldwide. A fourth movie set to be distributed by Netflix is said to be in the works and that may very well be the end of the series.
This is definitely one of the best action movies led by a black actor ever and one of the best action comedies in all of Hollywood. There can be no doubt about Beverly Hills Cop’s place amongst the classics.
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
IMDb: 7.3/10
Where to Beverly Hills Cop (1984)?
You can be able to stream Beverly Hills Cop (1984) by renting or purchasing on
- Apple TV
- Google Play Movies
- Vudu
- Netflix
