40 Years On, Eddie Murphy Has Still Never Been This Good

It would be very easy to distill Eddie Murphy’s career down to before Beverly Hills Cop and after, such was the impact of the 1984 movie. It was, without doubt, one of the most important movies of his career, and the biggest at the box office that year, and it is widely considered among the very best Eddie Murphy movies. But 40 years have passed now, and sometimes it’s just as important to revisit classics to remind us all of just what earned them such praise.

After four decades, there are now four Beverly Hills Cop movies, and Murphy’s career has evolved so much that we’ve already seen a revival period, and calls to re-evaluate some of his more critically divisive projects. In short, we’ve come a long way since Axel Foley crossed the country and both cultural and class lines in pursuit of justice for a murdered childhood friend. But looking back now reveals an infectious, charming action comedy that remains remarkable for Murphy’s work in it.

Beverly Hills Cop Announced Eddie Murphy As A Hollywood A-Lister

Coming To America may objectively be a better all-round movie, but Eddie Murphy’s performance in Beverly Hills Cop is still his most explosive. He has gone on to more critically lauded performances – as in Dreamgirls and Dolemite Is My Name – but it’s impossible not to view Axel Foley in his original context. Murphy wears his Hollywood freshness with the confidence of a new haircut. The only other “announcement” performance I can think of that compares is Jim Carrey’s turn in Ace Ventura.

In just over 100 minutes, you’re forced to reckon with the Eddie Murphy brand, mostly undiluted. Yes,Trading Places came before it and 48 Hrs too, but that was far more of a true fish out of water movie: Murphy changed to fill the vessel, as it were. Compare it to Delirious, the firebrand comedy special released the same year, and Murphy feels like he’s playing to Hollywood a bit more. With Axel Foley, the fish isn’t an impostor; rather, the water is.

Yes, he’s more restrained than he was in Delirious, because he had to be, but it’s still hard not to watch Beverly Hills Cop as Murphy bending Hollywood to his will. There are flashes of Murphy’s “say what he wants” comedy, and most impressively, there’s even a meta nod to Murphy’s own rising star when he encounters two men walking the streets in the same leather-on-leather costumes he wore in his comedy specials. That should feel outrageous, but really, it’s confirmation that this was the moment he became an A-lister.

Beverly Hills Cop Didn’t Invent Action Comedy, But It Wouldn’t Be The Same Without It

Considering Axel Foley was almost played by Sylvester Stallone, Murphy’s achievement in Beverly Hills Cop is even more impressive. Stallone had infamously tried to remove all the comedy, making it a straighter, colder action movie, and looking back on it now, that would have been close to fatal. Because Beverly Hills Cop impresses most because of its ability to blend the genres.

Before it, the likes of 48 Hrs and The Blues Brothers had mixed up the two genres to great success, and the former can boast more stylish action sequences, if not more impressive ones. The Blues Brothers‘ action was more slapstick, and sillier as a result, and Beverly Hills Cop feels like an evolution standing firmly between the two. It’s very funny, but its action sequences are also stand outs, and their destructive spirit would escalate with each sequel.

It didn’t invent the sub-genre, but without Beverly Hills Cop, there arguably wouldn’t have been the rich run of great action comedies that followed. Alongside 48 Hrs, it also helped invigorate the buddy cop genre, and it did so without making the culture clash solely about Foley’s race (which its predecessor dealt with more overtly). Instead, Foley is unconventional because he’s Foley.

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Beverly Hills Cop Is Not Just About Eddie Murphy…

Beverly Hills Cop is also, of course, an ensemble affair, even if Murphy’s presence looms large. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) are as important to the movie’s dynamic as the lead. Reinhold plays Rosewood with a delightful naivety with bubbling chaos under the surface that evolves across the sequels into something not untroubling, while Ashton’s Taggart is the very personification of curmudgeony conflict. Foley upends their worlds, and the fact that neither is remotely unlikeable despite that conflict is genius writing.

Whisper it, but Axel Foley isn’t really the most memorable character in Beverly Hills Cop. It’s Bronson Pinchot’s art dealer Serge, who has just one scene and steals it wholesale from Murphy. That Murphy allows it, and shrinks back to the straight man in their odd dynamic is another point scored for his performance, but Pinchot is a delightful, silly caricature who avoids any kind of comic victimization despite the colorful performance choices.

Elsewhere, main villain Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff) is one of the quintessential British action movie villains of the 1980s (Berkoff played several in the decade, in fact), offering another point of parallel with Foley. He’s cold but refined, well-mannered but brutal, and a reminder that while Foley is rough, his background and poorer lifestyle (exemplified by his POS car and inability to make rent) don’t lead him away from fundamental goodness. A shout-out is also due to Jonathan Banks as his main henchman, who feels like the blueprint for all such characters.

But Really, Is Beverly Hills Cop Still Great?

Legacy has a way of shrouding movies in gloss that overlooks whether they’re actually good or not. There’s no doubt that Beverly Hills Cop is an important movie: in genre terms, it was foundational; for Murphy, it was transformative; and for a black lead to be in such a prominent project in 1984 is not to be overlooked. But it’s also just a great time, even now.

It’s not as quotable as the likes of Coming To America, though “get the f*ck out of here” is a strong contender in 1980s comedy terms. Its best scenes, though, are more than just lines: Foley arguing his way into the Beverly Palms Hotel is delightful; the strip club robbery scene very memorable; meeting Serge is a joy. All of them rely on Murphy’s unadulterated brazenness, but there’s also deep and convincing humanity to his performance.

For all my insistence that Beverly Hills Cop‘s greatness – and huge rewatchability – is down to more than Eddie Murphy, he’s at the heart of everything. Even without the context of his seemingly instant success, his performance here is magic, filled with the kind of energy you’d like Hollywood to bottle and put back into circulation.

The story is serviceable without distracting too much, the villain’s plan is quite straightforward but nowhere near as silly as some other 1980s examples, but everything works in service of Axel Foley and Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop has some interesting observations about race, policing, class, and other such “politics” that various people might make a bigger deal of in 2024, but this is the Eddie Murphy show, and 40 years on, it’s impossible not to totally get why it all went so right for him.

Beverly Hills Cop

4.5

Eddie Murphy stars in Beverly Hills Cop as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit police officer who travels to California to solve his friend’s murder. Directed by Martin Brest, the film was a critical and commercial success, spawning three sequels.

Director

Martin Brest

Release Date

November 30, 1984

Runtime

105 minutes

Budget

$14 million

Pros

• Eddie Murphy’s performance is solid gold
• The supporting cast is better than they ever get credit for
• The genre mash-up of action and comedy is incredibly well-observed
• The theme song is a bona fide classic

Cons

• The story is a little paint-by-numbers