Criminal Christmas # 1 – Beverly Hills Cop
A Detroit cop looks to avenge his friends murder and finds himself in Beverly Hills chasing an art dealer.
A big hit of 1984, second behind only Ghostbusters, BHC was a raucous tale of a fish out of water, with the fish being the foul mouth cop Axel Foley. The first action picture produced by the partnership of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer who would go on to produce such movies as Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and Bad Boys.
Starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, BHC blew away audiences with its mixture of action, humour, and probably one of the most popular soundtracks to a movie in many years. Murphy was already a hot property after making 48 hours & Trading Places (not the TLC program) and was perfect as the rough, make it up on the spot cop who is willing to risk it all to find out who murdered his friend.
From the opening scene where the audience music, swearing and action all wrapped up in a great little package, BHC keeps the pace going throughout. Obviously the movie review wouldn’t be complete without mention of the Axel F theme tune by Harold Faltermeyer. Love it or hate it, you could not avoid the song that summer as it shot to the top of the charts everywhere you went. It is as much a part of the movie is as Eddie Murphy’s catchphrase, ‘Get the f**k out of here’.
A true modern classic movie in the car chase, explosion type of a way.
