Eddie Murphy Movie:

Editorial Review:
While its sequels were formulaic and safe, the first Beverly Hills Cop set out to explore some uncharted territory, and succeeded. A blend of violent action picture and sharp comedy, the film has an excellent director, Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman), who finds some original perspectives on stock scenes (highway chases, police rousts) and hits a gleeful note with Murphy while skewering L.A. culture. Good support from Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as local cops not used to doing things the Detroit way (Murphy's character hails from the Motor City). Paul Reiser has a funny, brief moment at the beginning, and Bronson Pinchot makes a hilarious impression in a great, never-to-be-duplicated scene with the star. --Tom Keogh

Beverly Hills Cop [Region 2] Reviews:
Cannot believe how lame this is
2009-07-07 - Missed this huge 80s hit until now. It's .... terrible. Except for Eddie Murphy's laugh, why was this movie a phenomenon? I don't get it. Features the usual Keystone Kops take, but this time, it's the BH police force made to look like they wouldn't know crime if it hit them over the head. Completely unrealistic right to the end when the police chief doesn't believe the ultra violent shootout that just happened was called for. I laughed twice: when one of the villains gets thrown into a salad bar, and when Eddie Murphy stuffs three bananas into a squad car's tail pipe. The rest? Sterile at best.

BEVERLY HILLS COP ROCKS!
2009-05-06 - Paramounts BEVERLY HILLS COP is a hilarious movie and was probably one of Eddie Murphy's greatest filsm of all times, especially since he knew how to be funny with his wisecracks, jokes, and body language, especially when the conniving Detroit police Detective Axel Foley(Eddie Murphy) travels to good ole Southern California to track a killer who was involved in a homicide that took place in Detroit, Michigan where Foley works and lives at, even though Axel was working out of his juristiction, which contributed to Axel bumping heads with Beverly Hills P.D., especially with Capt. Andy Bogomil(Ron Cox), Sgt. John Taggart(John Ashton), and Detective Billy Rosewood(Judge Reinhold) when he meets them for the very first time.

Watching this movie also makes me want to go to Beverly Hills too, especially since I grew up in a small hot & boring desert community with very little to do for fun or entertainment, which in my case was the Imperial Valley, since I grew up.

As a matter of fact, I was 12 years old in the 6th grade at Desert Gardens Elementary School in my hometown(El Centro, CA) when this movie was released in the movie theatres back in January of 1985.

An Awesome Classic of the 80's!!!
2009-04-04 - This is a very funny movie with a lot of action and suspense. Eddie Murphy does an awesome job as Axel Foley. Axel doesn't play by the rules and is very reckless. When his friend is killed, Axel takes vacation time and goes to Beverly Hills to investigate. Axel uses his antics to get his way and ticks off the bad guys and the Beverly Hills Police Department. He becomes friends with Detective Billy Rosewood and Detective Sergeant John Taggart who follow him to see what he's up to. If you love action, comedy, and buddy cop classics, you'll love BEVERLY HILLS COP!!!

Eddie Murphy Great!!!
2008-11-25 - This Movie lists John Ashton as the star of this movie, but in reality it is Eddie Murphy the Con Artist Cop from Detroit who goes to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of a friend. He soon encounters beverly Hills finest including Ronny Cox as the Police captain and Judge Reinhold as the officer along with John Ashton. All straight laced Cops who Eddie bends his way to solve this crime. An Eddie Murphy must see!

Murphy's Best Role - A Unique Fish-Out-Of-Water Comedy!,
2008-10-11 - Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is in Beverly Hills for a few days to investigate the murder of an old acquaintance. Axel assumes the suspect is a local tycoon, but no one seems to believe him - including the police force, being semi-run by Ronny Cox (in one of his rare good-guy roles).

Axel comes into trouble with the law his first day on the job after getting thrown through a glass window by some thugs. He is arrested, and when released finds himself hounded by a pair of inept police officers around the town for a few days. After outsmarting them (in one of cinema's most delightful moments - ever) Axel gets hooked up with an old friend and manages to roam the streets looking for clues - which, of course, he finds very easily.

Before this film Eddie Murphy had starred in one film that had launched his name into Hollywood: "48 HRS." But by all reasonable comparisons this is a much, much better film, and it's also much, much funnier, too. What's most refreshing is that it doesn't fall back upon the stereotypes of African-Americans inherent in so many mainstream motion pictures - the role of Axel Foley was originally written for Sylvester Stallone (who was actually attached to star early on in pre-production before dropping out of the project) and it's quite clear that Foley was intended as a white character. Although massive rewrites were employed only two weeks before shooting, script flaws can still be spotted - the heroine of the story is a white businesswoman, for example, and we expect some sort of sexual tension between them but there is none. We begin to question the very presence of the female lead because in essence it leads nowhere. We can imagine how it might have developed into a love story, but Murphy works against the flow, awkwardly treating her as nothing more than a friend.

These sorts of things sometimes bring out the occasional odd touches in the film - ironically they unintentionally set the film apart from other such movies of the genre because it's not typical in any sense. Sure, it has the routine shoot-outs but there is no romance subplot, no pointless racial comparisons (more of which would be seen in the two sequels), etc. The movie greatly benefits from this because it seems so fresh, and far more believable - after all, rarely are romances developed in two days. The action genre always seems to end with the hero sending off the crooks to jail, and finally getting a long-awaited kiss from the leading lady. "Beverly Hills Cop," to its credit, manages to avoid this and the result is a far more enjoyable film, even if most of its sequences are far from being 100% realistic.

The film's director, Martin Brest, has a clear handle on the buddy genre and would go on to direct the immensely successful Robert De Niro / Charles Grodin road-buddies-comedy "Midnight Run," one of the most popular (and best) of the genre. Beverly Hills Cop works just as well - it's funny when it needs to be, thrilling when it wants to be, and features a stellar lead performance by Murphy in his most unusual role.

Murphy is the driving force behind the film, presenting us with a truly likable character - the most likable character he's ever played, as a matter of fact. Axel is unorthodox but a generally good guy - Murphy is sometimes typecast into playing roles similar to that of which he played in "48 HRS." (being the loud, obnoxious racist who's got it all together), but here he plays someone we actually want to root for. At one point in the film he manages to get a couple of police officers in trouble with their superior - but he takes all the blame, and actually fabricates a lie wherein they were heroes doing their job, despite the fact that they were all actually hanging out at a strip club. Axel is tough, cool, quick-witted, nice, sarcastic, and likable - one of cinema's most enduring characters, and proof that African-American cinema heroes don't always have to be loudmouths in order to succeed as characters (pay attention, Chris Rock and Chris Tucker).

The now-famous soundtrack (including 'Axel F' by Harold Faltermeyer) is a great blend of techno-pop and electronic rock - the movie's theme is bouncy, rambunctious and fun: a good parallel to Axel himself.

Overall "Beverly Hills Cop" exceeds exceptionally well, even if a great deal of the film's success itself derives from pure accident and chance. I don't think anyone can say that those involved in the production knew exactly what they were doing at the time (DVD supplements include anecdotes about hectic filming and the project almost falling through at one point) -- but as luck would have it everything turned out fine. "Beverly Hills Cop" is an immensely enjoyable film, and one of the best examples of the cop-comedy genre executed properly.