33 years ago (fuck!) a little movie called Beverly Hills Cop came out. The development of the movie was pretty turbulent. Stars like Mickey Rourke, John Travolta and even Sylvester Stallone were offered the role of Axel Foley. Stallone went as far as taking a crack at the script and even named the character Axel Cobretti. The budget for the script came in too high, so Sly exited the project and took his ideas and made Cobra. Eddie Murphy then became available and the script was rewritten to fit Murphy and the rest is history.
The story of Beverly Hills Cop is about Detective Axel Foley going to Beverly Hills to solve the murder of his best friend and in the meantime also shows the cops in Beverly Hills a thing or two about police work. Culture clash at it’s finest.
Axel is a really good cop, he just gets into trouble very easily. It also doesn’t help him that the guy he’s going after is a well respected art gallery owner. But Axel, being the good cop that he is, also finds out that Maitland (the bad guy) is also a drug smuggler. Of course Beverly Hills PD aren’t too keen on ruffling the feathers of Maitland because they go by the book over there; they’re more like security guards for the rich and famous. Axel doesn’t buy into that shit and takes Maitland head on. He even tells Maitland that if his other friend (Jenny) gets hurt he’s gonna fuck him up. Axel didn’t come here to fuck around.
Now all of this sounds like a pretty serious action movie but with Murphy there is a lot of fun to be had. Eddie Murphy is at his best in this movie and there will probably never be another like it. Murphy takes on the role of jester but also commands and takes hold of every scene he’s in without looking like a dumbass (like some short, popular comedian that’s hitting the rounds these days). Murphy plays the character as a guy who is fish out of water but makes it his own wherever he lands. He’s a true star and it shows.
There are a ton of classic scenes in this movie, and a lot of the jokes are spot on. There is even one scene where Axel fools someone into letting him into a country club to talk to Maitland. It’s a scene that has to be watched just to see the guys expression after Axel tells him why he has to talk to Maitland.
33 years is a long time and Eddie Murphy has cooled down as far as his career goes. We probably won’t get to see him the way he used to be, but check him out in this one and see what true comedy is without having to resort to looking like a fool or falling on your ass to get laughs.
Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!