Genre Grandeur – Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – Encore Review – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – L.A. Films, here’s a review of Beverly Hills Cop (1984) by me.

Thanks again to Amanda of Hollywood Consumer for choosing this month’s genre.

Next month’s genre has been chosen by David of Blueprint Review and we will be reviewing our favorite Hong Kong Martial Arts Movies.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Nov by sending them to hkdave@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice David!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

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“You can’t go in ’cause you’re a cop in this town. You go in there without probable cause, they’re gonna call it an illegal search. You know that. Or didn’t they teach you that in cop school? ” – Axel Foley

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (Theater, Cable, video, DVD, 15 Sep 2013 and 29 Oct 2019)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – A Detroit detective travels to Beverly Hills in order to try and solve the murder of one of his closest friends.

My Take on it – When debating films for this months theme, this is one of the movies that jumped out at me because of the way that it accentuates the glamor and glare of California.

This comes across as being even more neat and clean after we get to see the down and dirty life of people living on the streets of Detroit.

Eddie Murphy was perfectly cast in the lead role of this movie and shows that he isn’t just a comedian because he is able to deal with the dramatic and action scenes just as well as the comedic ones.

His character is great and becomes endeared to the audience right from the very first scene.

The jokes in this film are still hilarious even after 35 years but the heart of soul of this film is the complex mystery that is aced so well throughout the film.

The soundtrack is superb and is filled with some great music from the 80’s.

The theme music of this film Axel F. is quite iconic and helps build the perfect tone for this movie.

They do a wonderful job showing the contract between the city of LA and the city of Detroit especially in the way that they present how the police department works.

It might be extreme, but it still woks excellently!

I am still shocked whenever I hear that Sylvester Stallone was originally meant to star in this film and am really curious to see the script of that film because it would be so very different from this one.

This film spawned two sequels but they fail to work as well as this one because this movie constantly feel fresh and innovative while the sequels seem to just rehash hings that we’ve already seen.

Bottom Line – Great film that works on so many levels. Murphy is the perfect choice for the lead and shows with this film that he can play an action comedy lead role. The jokes are all great here and sill remain funny even after 35 years but the heart of the movie is in the plot which works as a great mystery that slowly unfolds as the story moves along. The music of the film is superb and the theme for the film Axel F. still is amazing to listen to because it works so well with this film. The movie does a wonderful job showing the contrasts between life in high society of Beverly Hills and life on the streets of Detroit and it does so in a way that accentuates the glamor and glare of California. The idea that this story was originally meant to be a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone is quite mind boggling and I’d love to one day see that script. Best of the trilogy of films with these characters because it constantly feels very fresh and original the whole way through. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold improvised most of their comic lines. Literally hundreds of takes were ruined by cast members, actors, or the director laughing during shooting. During the “super-cops” monologue, Ashton is pinching his face hard and looking down in apparent frustration. He is actually laughing. Reinhold put his hand in his pocket and pinched his thigh really hard, trying to prevent himself from laughing. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10) (no change from original review)