Martin Brest's Beverly Hills Cop (1984) is a film very near and dear to this critic's heart. I was thirteen when I first saw it with a live audience. Almost immediately I was impressed with relative unknown stand up comic Eddie Murphy who seemed to be able to shoot barbs as quickly from his hip as he could shoot bullets from his holster.
Then and there I decided that Eddie Murphy's brand of comedic genius was tailor-made for the movies. The passage of time has not altered my snap assessment of his talents some thirty years later, although I will concede that Eddie's made some terrible movies since.
Now, 80s movies get a bad rap in general. Those who haven't seen enough of them will quickly point to the tacky hairdos and flamboyant fashion trends (padded shoulders, mesh tank tops, pastel Don Johnson suits that I must agree have heavily dated since), the materialism run amuck (lifestyles of the rich and famous here we come), the improbable feather-weight airiness of scripts and finally, to the whole laissez faire attitude toward 80s acting as over the top grandiose, transparent or just plain dull.
True enough, there's no shortage of 'bad' movies made throughout that decade, but then again, isn't that true of any decade in the history of cinema? And, I have no doubt that if either Sly Stallone or Mickey Rourke had accepted the challenge of playing Axel Foley (both were initially offered the role) that this film would be wedged in a bargain bin heap of forgotten whacky-tacky fluff. How refreshing then to discover that with Eddie Murphy in the driver's seat not only has Beverly Hills Cop not dated, it seems to have successfully avoided all of the aforementioned pitfalls.
The film opens in the slums of inner city Detroit. Undercover cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is attempting to bust a ring of smugglers by pretending to fence stolen cigarettes when the squad cars move in. One of the smugglers gets cold feet, steals the semi with the contraband and Axel barely clinging inside, and leads the cops on a harrowing chase through the back alleys.
The smugglers get away and Axel is left to face the wrath of his superior, Inspector Douglas Todd (Gilbert R. Hill) for this botched showdown. That evening Axel hooks up with his old pal, Mikey Tandino (James Russo), once a cop himself who left with their mutual friend, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) to work for Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff); a Los Angeles high roller. One problem: Mikey stole from Victor's private stash and it gets him murdered.
After narrowly escaping the same fate, Axel informs Todd that he is taking some time off for a presumed vacation. Todd warns Axel not to pursue Mikey's homicide but Axel makes his way to the city of Angels anyway. Almost immediately he is met by Victor's violent opposition and this plays Axel directly into the hands of the L.A.P.D.
Axel is investigated by Lt. Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) and his two arresting officers, Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sgt. John Taggart (John Ashton). Although all three cops sympathize with Axel's predicament and vow to look into Mikey's murder they absolutely refuse to invest themselves in anything but procedural by-the-book investigative practises. Naturally, this conflicts with Axel's more intuitive powers of deduction.
Axel finds Jenny working as the curator in one of Victor's art galleries. As their friendship rekindles, Axel and Jenny begin to realize that Victor Maitland is involved in illegal narcotics smuggling. But Axel must prove this as a motive to kill Mikey while dodging Bogomil and sidling up to broker a truce with the inexperienced rookie, Billy and veteran hard ass Taggart.
Daniel Petrie's screenplay deserves the real credit here. In as much as Eddie Murphy proves himself to be master of the adlib on this project, it is Petrie's clever shaping and moulding of the buoyant buddy-buddy relationship developing between Axel, Taggart and Rosewood that really keeps the film's pace alive and electric.
Reportedly, director Martin Brest flipped a coin to decide whether or not he would do the film. After it became a smash hit, Brest had the quarter framed to hang on his wall as a good luck piece. In retrospect, Beverly Hills Cop seems to have had everything going for it. In reality, it might just as easily have been a disastrous flop.
The original script was written in 1977 as a more serious crime drama with action split between Pittsburgh and California. Jenny Summers was to have been Axel's lover and Mikey his brother. When Eddie Murphy became the lead major rewrites were in order - all of them in service to making the film an action/comedy.
This 'cut and paste' work done on the final draft was still incomplete when Brest started to roll his cameras. To fill in the gaps, the director relied heavily on Murphy's genius for improvisation to literally create dialogue and situations on the spot, many ultimately staying in the film and proving to be enduring highlights.
In the final analysis, everything clicked to produce the first megawatt hit in Eddie Murphy's film career. Both 48 Hours and Trading Places precede Beverly Hills Cop in Murphy's canon but neither came anywhere close to clinching the comedian's universal popularity with audiences. 30 years later, the film still holds up spectacularly well.
The same can be said for Paramount Home Video's new Blu-ray incarnation. After some opening credits that belie their 1080p mastering efforts with some wonky colour flickering, the image becomes razor sharp and nearly pristine. Colours burst forth with a robust integrity not seen anywhere since the film went to home video. Film grain is thicker during interior scenes (as expected for film stock of this vintage) but is in keeping with a very film like presentation. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are clean, though never blooming. Contrast levels are bang on. Fine details are perfectly realized. This is a video presentation that will surely NOT disappoint.
The audio is advertised as a newly remastered DTS. Nevertheless, it remains very frontally focused as is probably in keeping with the original soundtrack elements. Early Dolby movie recordings really didn't do much with rear channel sound and this audio is no exception. Sorry, but my mind doesn't go back that far and even if it did, I was thirteen when I saw this movie in theatres. It sounded good to me then. It sounds even better now.
The highlight of the extras is a 29 minute 'making of' featurette. Martin Brest's audio commentary left me wanting, what with long pauses of silence and only the most superficial of recollections about the film. Featurettes on casting and underscoring the film are relevant but produced with excess concision. Together, they barely add up to 18 minutes. All of these extras, save the original theatrical trailer, are in standard definition.
Nevertheless, Beverly Hills Cop on Blu-ray is another must own catalogue title given its due on Blu-ray. The folks on the mountain ought to be proud of their enduring commitment to creating quality hi-def transfers of catalogue film titles. Show them they deserve more than honourable mention in this review. Buy this disc!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
4
EXTRAS
3
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