People of my generation, born in
the mid 1980s have a problem when it comes to Eddie Murphy. To many of us born too late to
enjoy his 80s heyday the first time around, he’s that annoying guy who pops up
every couple of years to play every character in an awful movie. This is a
shame because recently I saw a film which changed my opinion of the Spice Girl bothering, fat suit wearing
funny man. That film was Beverly Hills Cop. I’d recorded the film when it was
on T.V. so long ago that trailers for Django Unchained were running in the ad breaks but don’t know why I did. I can’t
ever remember enjoying an Eddie Murphy performance and never expected to. Well,
now I have.
Alex Foley (Murphy) is a
wisecracking, talented but reckless young cop from Detroit. When his friend is murdered in front
of him, against the express orders of his superiors, he tracks the case to Beverly Hills where he
begins to investigate the murder while getting under the noses of the Beverly
Hills P.D., especially Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) and Detective Billy
Rosewood (Judge Reinhold). Slowly Foley uncovers a major smuggling operation
and gets his more conservative and by the book colleagues on side as he does
so.
