Mike Massie started out his review by crediting, “Beverly
Hills Cop” is, arguably, comedian Eddie Murphy’s finest film, brilliantly
combining his improvisational wisecracking and infectious laugh with
murder-mystery mayhem, adventure, unlikely sidekicks, and a hip techno
soundtrack that would become the production’s trademark. Full of wild stunts,
fast-talking comedy, and a slew of hilarious supporting characters, this
surprise hit (especially considering it was originally a project for Sylvester
Stallone) would spawn two sequels and is easily one of the most enjoyable of
the abundant buddy-cop action films of the ‘80s.” This was also nominated for
Best Screenplay Oscar (maybe for the countless improvisational lines) and was
directed by Martin Brest before his career shattered due to “Gigli.”
Massie noted, “Detroit detective Axel Foley (Eddie
Murphy) uses his loud mouth and in-your-face persuasiveness to go undercover in
dangerous stings. The opening scene demonstrates his ability to stay quick on
his feet and concoct plans on the fly – skills that find him hanging from the
swinging back doors of a delivery truck as it careens down busy streets and
demolishes half of the city during a particularly impressive, stunt-filled
chase sequence.” Shortly after getting yelled at by his commanding officer (Gilbert
R. Hill) for the large amount of property destruction, Foley’s friend Mikey
Tandino (James Russo) visits him after a six-month jail sentence. The two were
childhood friends, both frequently getting into trouble before Axel realized
his love for fighting crime. However, Mikey hasn’t completely stopped the crimes
and his involvement in a German bearer bond conspiracy ends in a professional
hitman (Jonathan Banks and Michael Champion) shooting him down.
Livid, Axel takes a vacation to Beverly Hills to get
to the bottom of a murder he is told not to get involved in. the clues given by
his longtime friend and gallery employee Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) lead
him to a top United States art dealer named Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff),
who has Axel civilly thrown out of a window to be unfairly arrested for public
disturbance. Tough police lieutenant Andre Bogomil, played by Ronny Cox, isn’t
pleased to find out Foley is ruining his town. He orders detectives Billy
Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to take the Detroit
detective and eventually escort him out of the city limits – but Axel wins over
the two cops and convinces them to help him catch the evil Maitland.
Massie noted, “Although Murphy is a one-man-army
comedian, the chemistry between Foley, Rosewood, and Taggart truly makes the
movie hilarious. Foley continually marches into hazardous situations but uses
jokes for defense and impersonations to infiltrate enemy bases; a shotgun in
the face doesn’t faze him and, despite plenty of assassins and gunmen, he just
won’t die.” Hilariously, his sense of humor protects him. However, even when
several of his jokes fail (the sheer amount orders that some won’t work), the
supporting characters are always there to pick up the slack. Also, some of it
unexpectedly comes from non-important roles like Bronson Pinchot as the thickly
accented and yet ethnically unidentifiable Sarge.
This is one of the funniest movies ever made. I saw this as a rental from the library. If you
haven’t seen it yet, go see it on Netflix. For a movie that originally was
supposed to star Sylvester Stallone, who actually wanted to do “Cobra” and they
wanted to make this movie funny, Murphy quite possibly brought his most memorable
character. He even said that when he goes overseas, kids know him as Axel
Foley. You will love this movie a lot, especially when this came out around the
time Murphy released his stand-up “Delirious.”
Look out next week when I talk about the first sequel
in “Beverly Hills Cop Month.” Sorry for the late posting. I laid down and didn’t
realize I fell asleep.
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