Axel Foley (Murphy) is a street smart Detroit cop tracking down his best friend’s killer in Beverly Hills. Axel quickly learns that his wild style doesn’t fit in with the Beverly Hills Police Department, which assigns two officers, Rosewood (Reinhold) and Taggert (Ashton) to make sure things don’t get out of hand. Dragging the stuffy detectives along for the ride, Axel smashes through a huge culture clash in his hilarious, high-speed pursuit of justice.
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When I was looking through streaming, I was finding quite a few Eddie Murphy movies, like Meet Dave and A Thousand Words. Not his best movies. Then I ran across 48 Hrs., and was about to watch that when I noticed Beverly Hills Cop was streaming. While Eddie is known for lots of different roles, his role as Axel Foley is probably one of his most iconic film roles, so that seemed like a good place to start. Would this flashback from the 80’s still be fun today, or had the glamor come off of this one?
Eddie Murphy originates the role of Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, and turns this wisecracking nut into a really likeable guy. While he’s not exactly the definition of a by-the-book cop (in fact, he flaunts the law at will), he doesn’t ignore the pain he puts his fellow police officers through. Whether he’s feeding them or trying to stick up for them, he shows he’s got a bit of a heart, and isn’t just out to make the cops of Beverly Hills look bad. He still does of course, but he’s kind of a likeable guy anyway.
Surprisingly, the folks viewers may remember from the sequels don’t even get second billing in Beverly Hills Cop. That goes to Lisa Eilbacher, who, will decent in this film, is a flash in the pan for this series. More familiar characters, like Ronny Cox (Bogomil), Judge Reinhold (Rosewood) and John Ashton (Taggert) are further down the list, but they back Foley up in this one, and it’s easy to see why they stick around in the series. The camaraderie between them – Taggert, Rosewood and Foley, especially – is easy to see, and the bickering is just fun to watch.
That’s a very good thing in this case, as the villain (played by Steven Berkoff) is largely forgettable. In fact, once the film is done, viewers will probably remember him for the bump on his forehead than for anything he actually did in the movie – but in this case, that actually works.
While the story gives a reason for Axel Foley to travel from Detroit to Beverly Hills, the plot kind of doesn’t matter in Beverly Hills Cop. It’s decent enough – a cop travels from Detroit to Beverly Hills to track down the man responsible for murdering his friend, and his dogged determination won’t ever let him quit. And that all plays out well enough – but it’s the fish-out-of-water aspect that really makes this film.
That whole fish-out-of-water vibe of a gritty Detroit cop suddenly amongst the rich and famous of Beverly Hills is the main theme of the film – and they play it up as much as possible, allowing Eddie to ham it up to his heart’s content. So he gets to use impersonations and sheer bravado to get him into all the places he shouldn’t, and manages to do so with such ease viewers can only laugh and go along with him.
On paper, Beverly Hills Cop probably seemed like just another cop seeking revenge type of flick. But casting Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley gave the film a comedic aspect that they play to the hilt, while still managing to deliver an overall decent movie. While Eddie gets most of the credit, his co-horts – including Ashton and Reinhold – really help to make this movie even better. It’s no wonder they got to stick around for the sequels. After this first film, viewers should be interested in seeing more of the three of them in action. Thankfully, there’s Beverly Hills Cop II.
