Beverly Hills Cop **** (1984, Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox, Lisa Eilbacher, Steven Berkoff, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Jonathan Banks) – Classic Movie Review 1,566

The lean and hungry Eddie Murphy (just 23) scores a bull’s eye with the 1984 blockbuster comedy thriller film Beverly Hills Cop, bringing back the cynical, glossy flavour of the 80s.

Murphy stars in his iconic role as Axel Foley, a super-bad, ultra-abrasive Detroit cop causing havoc in LA’s alien culture of Beverly Hills when he goes there in pursuit of the man (Jonathan Banks) who killed his shady best friend Mikey Tandino (James Russo) right in front of him.

Police Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) assigns cop partners Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton), to tail Foley. But Foley finds that the killer works for drug kingpin Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), who is using an art gallery where Foley’s friend Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) works, as a front.

The young Murphy is extremely smart, sassy and likeable, Judge Reinhold ditto as the long-suffering local cop, and there’s fine work too from an excellent support cast. The one downside, cast-wise, is that Bronson Pinchot is shamefully oppressive and unfunny as a camp art-world flunky called Serge. Damon Wayans makes his film debut, aged 24, as a banana salesman.

Daniel Petrie Jnr’s commendable, Oscar-nominated screenplay is inventive, hard-boiled and often hilarious, there’s a famous driving pop score by Harold Faltermeyer and expert, fast-moving direction by Martin Brest. It’s a classic of its kind.

It may be edited when shown on British television for its strong language throughout with many uses of the F-word. Beware the awful American TV version.

Beverly Hills Cop turned into a film franchise of American action comedy films. A fourth film, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, was released in 2024, 40 years after the first film, and 30 years after the third film.

There were originally two much inferior sequels: Beverly Hills Cop II directed by Tony Scott in 1987 and Beverly Hills Cop 3 directed by John Landis in 1994. 

But Murphy said he wanted to make a fourth film because the third one was ‘horrible’ and he didn’t ‘want to leave it like that’. Beverly Hills Cop 4 was initially announced for release in the mid-90s and eventually planned for 2016, but ‘script concerns’ got in the way.

Finally, the belated fourth instalment Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F started shooting on August 29, 2022, with an extraordinary budget of $150 million, and was released on Netflix on July 3, 2024. Eddie Murphy (who also produces) reprises his role as Axel Foley, with Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot reprising their roles, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige and Kevin Bacon star as new characters.

And Murphy’s 1997 movie thriller Metro re-visits very similar territory.

Axel Foley was originally going to be played by Sylvester Stallone, who left the project and used some of his script ideas to make Cobra (1986).

Murphy, Reinhold and Ashton improvised many of their comic lines, and they were often unable to stop laughing during shooting.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,566

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