The popularity of this movie is mystifying. At the time of its release, it was a smash hit and glowingly reviewed. This can at least partially be explained by the fairly new genre mix of action and comedy in a law enforcement setting. The continued love this movie receives is even harder understand.
This movie is pure vehicle. It barely contains a plot, and it's mostly a scenario set-up. Basically, 'Eddie Murphy is a wise and wise cracking Detroit detective who's a fish out of water in fancy Beverly Hills.' The film is overly long, slow-paced and feels cheaply made and claustrophobic. Even in hindsight of the lasting career of Murphy, the fawning nature of the writing is tiresome. Every scene is written to show how funny, handsome, charming, smart, good hearted, and quick tongued Eddie Murphy is. Not, Eddie Murphy's character, Eddie Murphy himself. This film makes no attempt to create any character. Everyone is barely an archetype. The Beverley Hills police are all stiff, dull-witted foils for Eddie's soap-scrubbed, streetwise genius. Eddie's character is just a fantasy version of himself, and every scene makes him look like an idol, a hundred times smarter, funnier, better at his job and sexier than anyone in a 100 mile radius. When will everyone in California realized how great he is!?
The comedy elements barely register as humor if you aren't paying attention. Often when stand-up comedians jump into film, there is some aspect of comedic originality somewhere in their film's script or performance. Not the case here. The humor is barely sketched out and of the most tired, stale type. It's not even a 'buddy cop' movie, so there is no constant contrast to Eddie's character. He bounces from scene to scene with different, completely non-developed foils, giving them stares, grins or non-witty sass.
Much of the movie is episodic. That often happens when the script or concept is thin. But I've seen a lot of technically not very good movies that lean on episodic storytelling, which are in their own way highly entertaining. I have a weakness for that style of storytelling at times. I guess it is relatable, as it reminds the viewer of everyday life a bit. Beverly Hills Cop is so thin that most of the film leans on episodic writing, but even the episodes feel weirdly spaced out and they are flat and unimaginative. One involves registering at a hotel that is expensive. Another involves making the innocent, proper Beverly Hills officers go to a strip club (gasp) wherein, somehow zero laughs are generated by their awkward response. There are no memorable characters outside of Axel, and he's really not memorable either if you don't already take to the 'Murphy persona'. Axel has little background, few quirks, no real challenges, as every situation is such an obvious set-up to make Murphy look good that the character really doesn't have to respond to actual adversity. His flaws include being too cool, being too funny, being too good a cop, being too laid back, being a get-things-done rebel, and being too street smart etc. The 'love interest' is actually in the film so little and is so under developed that she isn't a love interest. The straight-laced cops are all clones except for Judge Reinhold's incredibly naive and wimpy (until he stands up for Axel and helps at the end, of course!) version of a straight-laced cop.
The movie is unbelievably dated. The music was probably 'cool and badass' at the time, but is about as badass as a neon windbreaker now. That's the fun, 'of its time' part of it being dated. Most of it is low standards of character development, script writing and even cinematography/locations that simply would never see the screen today. I tend to not think of film as an art form that is getting progressively better at this point, and many 80's films are superior to what is coming out today. Beverly Hills Cop manages to find that sweet spot of thrown together cliche that even today is too shameless to get green-lit. 2 and 1/2 stars.
This movie is pure vehicle. It barely contains a plot, and it's mostly a scenario set-up. Basically, 'Eddie Murphy is a wise and wise cracking Detroit detective who's a fish out of water in fancy Beverly Hills.' The film is overly long, slow-paced and feels cheaply made and claustrophobic. Even in hindsight of the lasting career of Murphy, the fawning nature of the writing is tiresome. Every scene is written to show how funny, handsome, charming, smart, good hearted, and quick tongued Eddie Murphy is. Not, Eddie Murphy's character, Eddie Murphy himself. This film makes no attempt to create any character. Everyone is barely an archetype. The Beverley Hills police are all stiff, dull-witted foils for Eddie's soap-scrubbed, streetwise genius. Eddie's character is just a fantasy version of himself, and every scene makes him look like an idol, a hundred times smarter, funnier, better at his job and sexier than anyone in a 100 mile radius. When will everyone in California realized how great he is!?
The comedy elements barely register as humor if you aren't paying attention. Often when stand-up comedians jump into film, there is some aspect of comedic originality somewhere in their film's script or performance. Not the case here. The humor is barely sketched out and of the most tired, stale type. It's not even a 'buddy cop' movie, so there is no constant contrast to Eddie's character. He bounces from scene to scene with different, completely non-developed foils, giving them stares, grins or non-witty sass.
Much of the movie is episodic. That often happens when the script or concept is thin. But I've seen a lot of technically not very good movies that lean on episodic storytelling, which are in their own way highly entertaining. I have a weakness for that style of storytelling at times. I guess it is relatable, as it reminds the viewer of everyday life a bit. Beverly Hills Cop is so thin that most of the film leans on episodic writing, but even the episodes feel weirdly spaced out and they are flat and unimaginative. One involves registering at a hotel that is expensive. Another involves making the innocent, proper Beverly Hills officers go to a strip club (gasp) wherein, somehow zero laughs are generated by their awkward response. There are no memorable characters outside of Axel, and he's really not memorable either if you don't already take to the 'Murphy persona'. Axel has little background, few quirks, no real challenges, as every situation is such an obvious set-up to make Murphy look good that the character really doesn't have to respond to actual adversity. His flaws include being too cool, being too funny, being too good a cop, being too laid back, being a get-things-done rebel, and being too street smart etc. The 'love interest' is actually in the film so little and is so under developed that she isn't a love interest. The straight-laced cops are all clones except for Judge Reinhold's incredibly naive and wimpy (until he stands up for Axel and helps at the end, of course!) version of a straight-laced cop.
The movie is unbelievably dated. The music was probably 'cool and badass' at the time, but is about as badass as a neon windbreaker now. That's the fun, 'of its time' part of it being dated. Most of it is low standards of character development, script writing and even cinematography/locations that simply would never see the screen today. I tend to not think of film as an art form that is getting progressively better at this point, and many 80's films are superior to what is coming out today. Beverly Hills Cop manages to find that sweet spot of thrown together cliche that even today is too shameless to get green-lit. 2 and 1/2 stars.