Movie Review: Beverly Hills Cop (1984) directed by Martin Brest
In Detroit, small-time grifter Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is making a deal to unload a truckload of dubiously sourced cigarettes. One of the people he’s negotiating with makes an insultingly low offer, and the ensuing argument allows some uniformed police officers to sneak up on them. The driver of the criminal panics and recklessly attempts to escape in the truck. The chase causes millions in damages. When the police finally catch up, we learn that Axel is actually Detroit PD Detective Foley. He’d been trying to perform an unauthorized undercover sting using evidence he’d “borrowed without permission” from the impound. Axel’s boss, Inspector Todd (Gilbert R. Hill) has had it up to here with Foley’s flouting of the rules botching cases. Axel’s fellow officers like him though, due to him being a funny guy.
That night, Axel is visited by his old friend Mikey Tandino {James Russo). They go way back, to when they were both juvenile delinquents. Axel was never caught, and Mikey refused to rat on him. Mikey got out of prison six months ago, and has been working with a mutual friend out in Beverly Hills, California. The two men do some catching up and bonding, but unfortunately Mikey has failed to turn over a new leaf. He’s in possession of some German bearer bonds, obviously stolen. It’s sad but not terribly surprising when, upon returning to Axel’s apartment, the men are jumped and Mikey murdered. It’s obviously a professional hit, not a random act of violence.
Inspector Todd refuses to let Axel work the case on the quite reasonable grouds that a) Axel isn’t in the Homicide Division, and b) he’s too personally involved. Plus, he might have a concussion, and hasn’t exactly shown himself to be a team player lately. Axel decides to take some vacation time.
A few days later, Axel Foley arrives in Beverly Hills in his beat-up car, scams his way into an expensive hotel room, and checks in with his other old friend, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher). She’d gotten Mikey a job at the warehouse of her boss, art importer and gallery owner Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff) who’d been kind enough to overlook Mikey’s dubious past career.
Maitland turns out to be the sort of fellow who has several large men lingering menacingly in the vicinity at all times, and has a civilized veneer. The wealthy man blows his cover, however, by not even trying to deflect Axel’s questions, but having him thrown out a window. Maitland spins this as Foley having thrown himself out the window, and because he’s a respectable citizen, the local police go along with this.
The Beverly Hills officers, a strait-laced, by the book bunch, initially do not warm to the Detroit detective’s freewheeling style and smart aleck behavior. Stiff-necked Lieutenant Bogomil (Ronny Cox), having gotten the lowdown on Axel from Inspector Todd, has Foley tailed by experienced officer Sergeant Taggart (John Ashton) and naive detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) who is the “Beverly Hills cop” of the title.
Axel easily gives them the slip, and begins his investigation. But Maitland’s a powerful man, and even Detective Foley may need a hand before the case is over!
Good: Eddie Murphy is a funny guy, ably assisted by other funny people, and much of the humor in the movie still hits in the present day. The comparison between tough, run-down Detroit and the shiny, wealthy Beverly Hills helps sell Axel as the underdog who will prove himself.
Less good: This movie plays up the reactionary “cowboy cop” fantasy. “The police are held back by unnecessary rules, and they could fight crime far more effectively if they were allowed to do whatever they want to get the job done.” Notably, this doesn’t seem to have worked too well on Foley’s home turf of Detroit. He’s had enough success to be promoted to Detective, but has had enough screwups to make him as much a liability as a benefit. It’s in Beverly Hills, where Axel is a wild card, that he can really shine. His approach is repeatedly shown as correct, and Taggart and Rosewood find more success when they loosen up and follow his lead. It might have served the movie better to show that sometimes “by the book” works more effectively to get criminals behind bars. One can imagine, for example, the never seen Detective Rand, the man actually assigned to investigate Mikey’s murder, slowly and methodically building an airtight case only to discover that Foley has just shot everyone involved.
Content note: some fatal violence, racism, quite a bit of foul language (especially from Axel), female toplessness. At one point, Detective Foley pretends to be a gay man and uses stereotypical voice and mannerisms that are cringy in the modern day.
Overall: This is the film that moved Eddie Murphy from a successful stand-up and sketch comedian to a full-fledged movie star. It’s got a good balance of comedy and action. It’s aged well, but the politics may not sit well with some viewers.
