‘Now, my advice to you is crawl back to your little stone in Detroit before you get squashed...’
The 1980s were not only the golden age of action movies, it was also the golden age of buddy cop movies specifically. 48 HRS., Lethal Weapon, Tango & Cash, Midnight Run, Turner & Hooch… it truly was a wonderful time for film titles that included an ampersand. Whilst it’s not as gritty as Lethal Weapon or as revolutionary as Die Hard, Martin Brest’s Beverly Hills Cop is still one of the finest movies of the decade. Let’s dive in…
After his buddy Mikey Tandino (James Russo) is murdered in a gangland style execution, maverick Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) travels to Beverly Hills in an attempt to solve the murder. After recruiting a pair of reluctant local cops in the shape of Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), Foley must try and take down Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), an evil local business tycoon, whilst at the same time avoiding the disapproving glare of his superiors.
A pretty generic plot then, but one that is beautiful in its simplicity. Brest brings the action to life bathing the whole film in the bright glare of the Beverly Hills sun, and his cast are at the top of their game. Seeing how brightly lit this film is, how clear the sound editing is, how goddamn fun it is, whilst still retaining an R rating, made me long for the days when Hollywood made films as blindly entertaining as this. Murphy was close to becoming the most bankable movie star in the world at this point (this is the first of seven Murphy movies in a row to open at #1 at the US box office), and it is easy to see why. A true tour-de-force. The characters are so well written; however, that credit must also be given to screenwriter Daniel Petrie Jr. (who coincidentally also wrote the aforementioned Turner & Hooch). Ashton and Reinhold make for a fantastic double act, so much so that they could have a movie of their own, and Berkoff channels both Hans Gruber and Hannibal Lecter in his suave portrayal of Victor Maitland. In short, everyone shines in this movie.
Whilst the various needle drops have perhaps aged poorly, and this possibly contributes to this film’s reputation as somehow less serious than Die Hard say, Harold Faltermayer’s unforgettable synth score is iconic, and deservedly so. It’s a much a part of this franchise as bananas in the exhaust pipe and Foley’s ridiculous laugh.
Beverly Hills Cop has seen its status diminished somewhat over the last few decades, but this is grossly unfair. One of the most purely enjoyable movies of the 1980s. Once, at Leeds Festival, in a foul smelling metal tin that passed for a toilet, I noticed in between bouts of gipping that someone had written in graffiti on the inside door that ‘Eddie Murphy is a good actor’. No arguments here.