Beverly Hills Cop

"He's been chased, thrown through a window and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills."

1984 1h 45m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🍅

83%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 4,773🍅83%Rotten Tomatoes●66Metacritic★7.4IMDB · 227,862

ComedyCrimeAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Fast-talking, quick-thinking Detroit street cop Axel Foley has bent more than a few rules and regs in his time, but when his best friend is murdered, he heads to sunny Beverly Hills to work the case like only he can.

“He's been chased, thrown through a window and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills.”

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Cast

Eddie Murphy
Axel Foley
Judge Reinhold
Det. Billy Rosewood
John Ashton
Sgt. Taggart
Lisa Eilbacher
Jenny Summers
Ronny Cox
Lt. Bogomil
Steven Berkoff
Victor Maitland
James Russo
Mikey Tandino
Jonathan Banks
Zack

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Martin Brest
Writers: Daniel Petrie Jr., Daniel Petrie Jr., Danilo Bach
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $316M — a 22.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Beverly Hills Cop Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Original score by Harold Faltermeyer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Arthur Coburn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold and John Ashton carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "He's been chased, thrown through a window and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Brest directs. Bruce Surtees behind the camera. Harold Faltermeyer scores. Arthur Coburn cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $316M — a 22.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
242 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Beverly Hills Cop Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Harold Faltermeyer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Arthur Coburn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold and John Ashton carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "He's been chased, thrown through a window and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills.".
9IMDB entry: tt0086960 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 29 themes, including "showdown", "drug smuggling", "undercover", "cocaine".

The technical file

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees
Original score: Harold Faltermeyer
Editing: Arthur Coburn
Production design: Angelo P. Graham
Costume design: Tom Bronson
Makeup / hair: Ben Nye Jr.
Sound: Donald O. Mitchell
Stunt coordinator: Gary McLarty
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $14,000,000
Box office: $316,360,478
Return: 2260% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Rotten Tomatoes: 83% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 66/100
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 227,862 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 7 nominations total

Part of

Beverly Hills Cop Collection

Beverly Hills Cop is a series of action-comedy films starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop who travels to Beverly Hills, California to investigate crimes out of his jurisdiction, and help his friends, local detectives Rosewood and Taggart, solve crimes.

Also by

Martin Brest

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-12-31
The heat is on - indeed! Cocky rule dodging Detroit Cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) heads to Beverly Hills in search of those responsible for murdering his friend. Upon getting there he falls foul of everyone he meets due to his tough Detroit approach work. Undaunted, Foley, aided by old friend Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) and two intrigued local detectives, starts to unravel the mystery. Hey Axel you got a cigarette? There was a time when Eddie Murphy ruled the world. After Trading Places had introduced us to his sharp comedic tongue, and 48 Hours had shown him to be a more than capable action character actor, Beverly Hills Cop fused the two together and propelled Murphy to super stardom. Directed by Martin Brest and produced by Messers Simpson & Bruckheimer, it's really no surprise that "Hills Cop" is shallow, simple (a fish out of water comedy standard) and utterly commercial. Yet with its gusto, humorous script (Daniel Petrie Jr) and neat plotting, it becomes a hugely entertaining film - led superbly by Murphy due to infectious comedy energy and superb knack for timing. You're not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe routine! It's hard to believe that the likes of Sly Stallone and Al Pacino were first mooted for the role, so not as a comedy one imagines, but as it being a standard police action movie, but enter Murphy and it ended up as a fine blend of action and comedy. There's little digs at Beverly Hills and its smugness, a way of life that Foley, with his down on the streets toughness, can't comprehend, while opposing police methods also get a wry once over - wonderfully threaded in the relationship between Foley, Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold). Small gripes reside, such as Steven Berkoff's by the numbers villain being something of a let down and Ronny Cox is sadly playing filler time with an underwritten character. But this is about Murphy, the fabulous stunt work and the successful union of action and comedy. And hey! even Harold Faltermeyer's bobbing synth score, "Axel F," has a nippiness that remains quintessentially 1980s. 8/10
CinemaSerf2023-02-26
★ 7/10
This is probably my favourite outing for a fresh-faced and wise-cracking Eddie Murphy. He ("Axel Foley") is the cop from Detroit who finds himself embroiled in some criminal antics in the upper class and distinctly by-the-book LA suburb of Beverly Hills. Despite the serious reservations of "Lt. Bogomil" (Ronny Cox) he ends up working with two of his detectives "Taggart" (John Ashton) and "Rosewood" (Judge Reinhold) as they try to track down the murderer of a childhood friend from Detroit that, of course, soon has them knee-deep in a lucrative - and deadly - drugs operation. It's the unorthodox nature of Murphy's character and the paradox with the posh culture of his new surroundings that gives the star a chance to be exactly that here. The writing provides him with quick-fire dialogue and the two foils work well in being the butt of the gags and, as the relationships develop along fairly predictable lines, the whole thing marries the comedic, the slapstick and some pyrotechnics with just enough sophistication to keep it from being cringeworthy. Of course there's no doubt that the guys will get their man - a rather hammy Steven Berkoff, but the manner in which this is all pursued is funny and entertaining. Keep an eye to for the disdainful Stephen Elliott as "Chief Hubbard" whose disbelief in just what's going on under his nose raises a smile, as does Bronson Pinchot's "Serge". It's got quite a memorable soundtrack - even if I hated "Axel F", and is good fun!

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