Movies - Beverly Hills Cop

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	Movies - Beverly Hills Cop

Beverly Hills Cop (1984) is an American comedy film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy. The film boosted the popularity of Eddie Murphy as he started to become a mainstream actor. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture (1985) and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (1985). It earned an estimated $234 million at the box office.

Taglines: "The Heat Is On!" and "He's been chased, thrown through a window, and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills."

Plot outline

Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) receives a visit from his best friend Mikey (James Russo) from California. Not long after Mikey arrives, he is killed while with Foley, who was knocked unconscious and thus saw neither the assailants or Mikey's murder. Foley, against direct orders from his boss, heads to Beverly Hills, CA to try to dig up any information that might lead to what Mikey was up to that might have precipitated his death. There, he enlists the help of Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Detective Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) (both originally assigned to keep an eye on Axel) in investigating the murder of his friend.

"Schooling" the "by the book" Beverly Hills cops, Axel uses his "street smarts" and discovers that the local art mogul and business tycoon, Victor Maitland, is not all on the up and up. As they investigate further, they find that Maitland is a drug kingpin only using the gallery as a front, and contraband Mikey had with him in Detroit appears to have come from the warehouse where he last worked, a warehouse owned by Victor Maitland.

Main cast

Eddie Murphy
- Det. Axel Foley
Judge Reinhold
- Det. William 'Billy' Rosewood
John Ashton - Det. Sgt. John Taggart
Lisa Eilbacher
- Jeannette 'Jenny' Summers
Ronny Cox
- Lt. Andrew Bogomil
Paul Reiser
- Jeffrey
Steven Berkoff
- Victor Maitland
Jonathan Banks
- Zack
Bronson Pinchot
- Serge

Soundtrack

The instrumental-only title tune "Axel F" is very recognisable and has since been covered by numerous artists. The soundtrack won a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special (1986).

Selected items from the soundtrack:

Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F"
Glenn Frey
- "The Heat Is On"
Danny Elfman
- "Gratitude"
Patti LaBelle - "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up"
Pointer Sisters - "Neutron Dance"
Mastered by Greg Fulginiti

Trivia

Sylvester Stallone
was originally intended to play Axel Foley. After his departure due to differences in scope (wanted more action the producers wouldn't budget for) the role was re-written for Murphy. An interesting plot re-write was that the character of Jenny Summers was originally a Stallone love interest, but was rendered only an "old friend" to Murphy's Foley.
The film contains a motif of gay stereotyping, as several characters were seen in gay-themed overtones (Damon Wayans
as a waiter, Bronson Pinchot
as an art gallery salesman, and Eddie Murphy
entering a restaurant looking for the villain posing as a gay man). This, however, is not unlike any period piece where social mores of the day are rendered, such as the racial slurs used to refer to black people in The Godfather
and other such popular gangster movies. It shouldn't be seen as a statement by the movie as much as a simple reflection of the thoughts of the times in pop culture in front of the camera. The simple fact of the changing of the relationship between Foley and Summers due to change in star's ethnicity is another example of this, albeit behind the camera.
Axel Foley's boss (Gilbert R. Hill) was a real-life detective in the Detroit Police Department, who later became a Detroit City Council member and mayoral candidate, losing to Kwame Kilpatrick in 2001.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Beverly Hills Cop ]

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