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Beverly Hills Cop (1984) is an American comedy film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy. The film boosted the popularity of Eddie Murphy as he started to become a mainstream actor. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture (1985) and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (1985). It earned an estimated $234 million at the box office.

Taglines: "The Heat Is On!" and "He's been chased, thrown through a window, and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills."

Plot outline

Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) receives a visit from his best friend Mikey (James Russo) from California. Not long after Mikey arrives, he is killed while with Foley, who was knocked unconscious and thus saw neither the assailants or Mikey's murder. Foley, against direct orders from his boss, heads to Beverly Hills, CA to try to dig up any information that might lead to what Mikey was up to that might have precipitated his death. There, he enlists the help of Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Detective Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) (both originally assigned to keep an eye on Axel) in investigating the murder of his friend.

"Schooling" the "by the book" Beverly Hills cops, Axel uses his "street smarts" and discovers that the local art mogul and business tycoon, Victor Maitland, is not all on the up and up. As they investigate further, they find that Maitland is a drug kingpin only using the gallery as a front, and contraband Mikey had with him in Detroit appears to have come from the warehouse where he last worked, a warehouse owned by Victor Maitland.

Main cast

Soundtrack

The instrumental-only title tune "Axel F" is very recognisable and has since been covered by numerous artists. The soundtrack won a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special (1986).

Selected items from the soundtrack:

Trivia

  • Sylvester Stallone was originally intended to play Axel Foley. After his departure due to differences in scope (wanted more action the producers wouldn't budget for) the role was re-written for Murphy. An interesting plot re-write was that the character of Jenny Summers was originally a Stallone love interest, but was rendered only an "old friend" to Murphy's Foley.
  • Axel Foley's boss (Gilbert R. Hill) was a real-life detective in the Detroit Police Department, who later became a Detroit City Council member and mayoral candidate, losing to Kwame Kilpatrick in 2001
  • When Stallone was the main star of the movie, the comedy was downplayed a lot more and the movie was more serious action-oriented. When Murphy took over, the script was vastly rewritten to add comedy to the film.

Sequels

Significance

Up until 1983, "cop movie" protagonists were serious characterizations (Dirty Harry, Hawaii 5-0, etc...) They were tough, but not funny. The Axel Foley character that was developed for and by Eddie Murphy was witty, fast-talking and humorous. Movies such as Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour becoming multi-installment franchises are examples of the amount of interest the viewing public would have in the new breed of funny/tough cop.

External links

  • Beverly Hills COP An examination of the underlying implications of Axel Foley's police methods
1984 films | Action films | Buddy films | Criminal comedy films | Film series | Fish out of water films

Beverly Hills Cop | ビバリーヒルズ・コップ | Полицейский с Беверли Хиллз (фильм) | Beverly Hills kyttä

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Beverly Hills Cop".

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