Beverly Hills Cop
****
I was writing a review for Malone (1987) earlier and the
thought came to me about it regarding the first time I actually watched it. I
happened past the black VHS box for the film (didn’t know what it was admittedly)
as it sat on my stepdad’s dresser and curiosity got the best of me. I opened it
and Malone was the film inside. It was probably 1991 or so I guess. Yeah, I cop
to it. I would occasion myself to see what he might have rented from So and So
Rent-a-Movie. I thought to myself: this is the first time I come across Malone
perhaps since then. That’s quite a while. Random Saturday afternoon action on a
movie channel while looking for something else. What does this have to do with
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)? In the 90s, I couldn’t tell you how many times the
popular 80s films were popped in the VHS player, some snuck off my stepdad’s
dresser, others second/third hand recordings. We had our ways to get past the
censors. That is what teenagers do really. But there came a time when a bit
older those films kind of become distanced. Not really on purpose did I no
longer watch Beverly Hills Cop, time just kind of got away from me…eventually
we reunite. Like I reunited with Malone, Beverly Hills Cop was on Saturday
night and I took the time to watch it.
Axel Foley wasn’t admired by Roger Ebert that much. He took
advantage when the chance was available, often using lip service and double
talk to get into places and alternate his way out of sticky situations. In a
warehouse where he shouldn’t be trying to sniff out criminal, illegal
activities fronted by an art dealership or acquiring a fancy, ritzy hotel room
through fake employment titles similar to Fletch (Chevy Chase). Getting
involved Beverly Hills cops (Judge Reinhold and John Ashton) assigned to tail
him by their boss (Ronny Cox). They are unsuccessful at following him but once
he recruits them to help him take down the ones responsible for murdering his
thieving buddy from childhood (James Russo), which includes art dealer, Victor
Maitland (Steven Berkoff, known for his foreign heavies in action films of the
time) and his Number 1 (Jonathan Banks) the trio eventually have to fend off
plenty of gunmen firing machine guns at them. Berkoff gets plenty of face time
so he can get you to hate him and Banks has that sociopathic coldness to him
that provokes a response…especially when Banks shoots Russo. The aggressive confrontations
between Axel and Maitland give you the incentive to look forward to their final
meeting at the end when it will come to guns drawn and bullets fired. Cox can’t get
much relief as Axel can be quite a handful with his bananas in tailpipes,
ordered food for the cops right off the hotel menu, visits to strip clubs,
trips out windows, coffee grains from cargo boxes possibly concealing cocaine,
and threats to Maitland in posh restaurants after chunking Banks’ Zach across a
cuisine table. There’s the other friend (Lisa Eilbacher, looking quite yummy in
her custom Beverly Hills attire, fitting all the right curves with that hair
all done up, certainly going through the rounds with the stylist: I’ll vouch
that they dolled her up real nice) who was waiting tables before Maitland set
her up with the operations manager of the art studio, a rather profitable gig.
Bronson Pinchot as her fey assistant offers espresso and small talk, stealing
his scenes with a willing Murphy participating in humorous banter. Paul Reiser
is the cop in his Detroit department always outmatched by Murphy’s unflappable
gifts of gabby avoidance, retreating from cop matters that might undermine his
goals to successfully close assigned investigations. And poor Gilbert R Hill’s
Inspector Todd—Murphy’s foul-mouthed, over-extended boss, always cleaning up
his messes it seems—tries to keep from having an anxiety attack. From blue
collar Detroit, with its smog, poverty row ambience, and unemployment to
affluent Beverly Hills, with its palm trees, sunny ambience, and wealth; Axel
goes from the outhouse to the penthouse, causing plenty of problems for the “nice
police” unaccustomed to his streetwise, stubborn, clever, malcontent ways. He
is definitely not content with letting those who murdered his friend (for
stealing “dirty” bonds from Maitland and returning to former home, Detroit, to
visit Axel) get away with it, even if this results in his career being over as
a cop.
I see the appeal of Foley as a think-on-his-feet cop who
always finds himself in car chases, gunfights, and traded barbs. Disguised in
personae, every bit the escape artist, Axel amazingly evades the forces that
might work against him (working as a cop although technically “on vacation”,
confronting Maitland when told not to, investigating places illegally, etc)
and, ironically, is assisted by Cox in putting down Maitland. With Ashton and
Reinhold reluctant participants (the strip club results in the capture of two
trenchcoat, shotgun bandits Foley notices, later trying to convince Cox they
were the heroes), debating getting involved, only to go against their better
judgment in order to stop Maitland, the chemistry of this trio and their
back-and-forth was the series’ enduring legacy truthfully. After watching the
sequel after this, that was the only positive I could derive from part 2. The
first film, though, gets the most out of the trio. Everything just clicks. The embarrassment
of Foley bettering them (and then bettering their duo cop rivals when Cox can
take no more of Ashton and Reinhold’s incompetence) and then their active roles
in stopping the bad guys is part of the film’s charm, I think. Cox obviously
won over by Foley’s instincts and generally on-target observations combats the
shenanigans he often pulls. It all comes out okay in the end, of course.
If the compound raid and bullet-ridden bodies at the end
doesn’t give action fans enough, the opening car chase where Foley hangs out in
a cigarette box truck while being pursued by police has plenty of auto carnage.
And yes, a fruit/vegetable stand gets plowed…I wouldn’t expect anything less. Only thing missing is the Wilhelm scream. We do have the Eddie signature laugh aplenty.... that'll do.
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