Beverly Hills Cop

Norbit, Daddy Day Care, Meet Dave, The Adventures of Pluto Nash... Eddie Murphy has made so many stinkers over the last decade it’s easy to forget in the ‘80s he reigned supreme.
 
Launching his career with guns and guffaws in 48 Hrs and Trading Places, Murphy hit his peak at the tender age of 23 in the fish-out-of-water comedy Beverly Hills Cop.

After a murder too close to home, Murphy’s street-smart Detroit detective Axel Foley heads to California’s richest neighbourhood to find the men responsible.

Tagging along for the ride are angry police chiefs, bickering detectives and rent-a-villain Steven Berkoff, who barely breaks a sweat as the token Brit baddy.

It’s easy to get sentimental about a film so universally adored, but fond memories can’t hide a flimsy plot that’s more Murder, She Wrote than The Wire. Even the shoot-out conclusion is pilfered straight from a TV movie.
 
But, the wafer-thin premise is merely a springboard for Murphy’s dynamic personality, allowing him every opportunity to take his celebrated Saturday Night Live persona to the big screen.
 
Now impossible to picture anyone else as the cocky Axel F, the initial casting of Sylvester Stallone threatened to turn the film into an instantly forgettable, straight-faced action flick. Fortunately, he bowed out at the last minute making room for the motor-mouthed Murphy, who took the part and made it his own.

Much of the rapid-fire dialogue was ad-libbed, and often you can catch the star guffawing at his own jokes, along with other cast members.

This fresh, improvised quality is part of the movie’s appeal. Like Judge Reinhold’s naïve Rosewood and John Ashton’s tough Taggart, the rule-abiding detectives who come to admire Foley’s way of policing, it’s difficult not to be won over by Murphy’s ceaseless enthusiasm.
 
Harold Faltermeyer’s Grammy-winning synth soundtrack boasts the infectious instrumental ‘Axel F’; probably the catchiest theme tune of the decade, and still haunting ringtones to this day.
 
Add this up and you’re left with an unmissable ‘80s action comedy that still entertains decades later.

Spare a thought however for Martin Brest, who also directed Midnight Run and bagged Pacino an Oscar for Scent of a Woman, but was last seen making the Bennifer blunder Gigli and waving his career goodbye.

David Parrett