140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
How huge was this movie? It was released in December & was still the biggest hit of 1984 & the highest grossing R-rated film of all time…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Beverly Hills Cop:
Beverly Hills Cop was released 30 years ago today; I just watched it again for the first time in many years. In hindsight, actually watching the movie really wasn’t necessary – I must have seen it 30 times in the 80’s. Still, I could hardly believe upon rewatch how completely I remembered every line, every scene.
I was curious to see if the film still holds up, though, and it certainly does. A lot of these action comedies do, so long as they are careful not to tie themselves too closely to current trends. So while the 1980’s are clearly alive and well in Beverly Hills Cop, the movie more or less could take place at any time. I don’t recall a single pop culture reference that pinned the movie to 1984 and ran the risk of making it irrelevant. (There is a great bit about doing an interview of Michael Jackson for Rolling Stone magazine, but since both the magazine and MJ’s career spanned multiple decades even that gag still plays.)
I probably don’t need to recount what an enormous success this film was, and I certainly can skip any summary of the plot. This movie was a monster. The best parallel is certainly Ghostbusters, 1984’s other massive, you gotta see it smash hit. As I’ve noted here before, 1984 saw a higher than average number of big-time movies, but the ones that had the largest pop culture impact had to be Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. On what do I base this assessment? T-shirts. True, both films had huge selling soundtracks packed with charting singles that filled the airwaves for months, but so did Purple Rain. But after Beverly Hills Cop, people actually wanted Mumford Phys Ed shirts, just because Eddie Murphy’s character wore one. Think about that; a character in an R-rated comedy wears a faded t-shirt from an Illinois high school and suddenly people all over the world are ordering it.
There’s a lot of reasons why this movie was such a success:
- It’s a quality production, made by talented filmmakers like director Martin Brest and DP Bruce Surtees
- Daniel Petrie, Jr.’s script is great
- The supporting actors are great, including 80’s stalwarts like Ronny Cox, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Judge Reinhold & John Ashton (who would team up with Martin Brest again in 1988’s Midnight Run)
But really it all comes down to Eddie Murphy. He was unbelievably hot at the time, but this is his first starring role – the first test of whether he could carry a picture by himself. The answer, of course, is a resounding yes, as his charisma and wit from stand-up and Saturday Night Live are just as evident here.
The physical work from 48 Hrs. evidently paid off, as well, as while the movie is rightly remembered for the comedy, the action end of the equation is very strong. The 1980’s certainly hosted a lot of these action comedies and the one thing they had in common is an authenticity in the effects. There’s a weight to the car crashes and fights, necessitated by a lack of digital technology that frankly kept these things a bit grounded in reality – while of course being anything but realistic.
Finally, a word about the female lead, Lisa Eilbacher as Jenny Summers. (Actually, she’s the only named female in the film. Also one of only two women who speak in the movie. Now that I reflect on it, I don’t think I remember seeing the camera focus on even five women in the whole picture. Even the strippers are relegated to the background.) Anyway, it’s great and practically unique, but the character of Jenny is not the love interest. She and Axel are friends and nothing more. It’s sort of refreshing.
(That’s the optimistic side of me; the pessimistic side of me wonders if she would have remained a love interest – as she was in earlier versions of the story when Mickey Rourke and Sylvester Stallone were attached to the project – if the lead character were white.)
Beverly Hills Cop is that rare modern movie that works almost exactly as well as it did on its release date 30 years ago. Go watch it again – just watch out for the banana in the tailpipe…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: D (3 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Eddie Murphy Axel Foley, Judge Reinhold Det. Billy Rosewood, John Ashton Sgt. Taggart, Lisa Eilbacher Jenny Summers |
| Rating | R |
| Release Date | Wed 05 Dec 1984 UTC |
| Director | Martin Brest |
| Genres | Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Plot | A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 105 |
| Tagline | In Detroit a cop learns to take the heat. In L.A. he learns to keep his cool. [Theatrical Australia] |
| Writers | Daniel Petrie Jr. (screenplay), Danilo Bach (story) … |
| Year | 1984 |
