Beverly Hills Cop


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Story: A Detroit cop head to Beverly Hills to investigate the death of one of his buddies.

Detective: Axel Foley

Release Date:  December 5, 1984

Writer: Danilo Back, Daniel Petrie, Jr.

Source: original screenplay

Mystery Analysis:
Detective as protagonist?
Alastair: Yes, there’s no doubt this is Axel’s story.
Lani: Yes, always clear from the start who the protagonist is, although the trouble doesn’t start until a little while in.

Murderer as antagonist?
Alastair: Yes, albeit by proxy.
Lani: Yes, although not the guy who actually pulled the trigger, it’s Victor Maitland who’s behind everything from the start.

Conflict created by mystery/murder?
Alastair: Yes, although this is an interesting case of a murder that builds into a larger mystery.
Lani: Yes; without the murder, Axel would have no interest in Maitland.

Fair play with all the clues given?
Alastair: It’s not that kind of mystery, I think, although the meaning of each clue — except perhaps the coffee — is transparent enough that we can keep up.
Lani: Not really; although we do see the clues, we don’t know what they might mean, and we’re not given the opportunity to play along the way a good mystery does.

Solved using deduction, not luck?
Alastair: Yes, although the problems aren’t necessarily approached in the smartest way.
Lani: Yes. Even if we don’t understand what’s going on, Axel does, and he puts it all together.

All threads pull together in the end?
Alastair: Yes, if a little too early. The mystery is done by the end of the second act, and then we get twenty-five minutes of shoot-out.
Lani: Yes.

Story Analysis & Ratings:

Alastair says: 4 Pops
Mystery: 3, Craft: 3, Suspense: 2, Romance: N/A, Comedy: 5

Lani says: 4 Pops
Mystery: 3, Craft: 4, Suspense: 2, Romance: n/a, Comedy: 5

Lani

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7 responses to “Beverly Hills Cop”

  1. Heh, heh, heh. The duck. That was me. Well, I hope Jenny feels better. Allergies are killer this year. If she wants a good pick-me-up tell her hot tea and Kdrama, it’s what gets me through.

    I can’t believe I’ve never seen Beverly Hills Cop before. Any of them. I think my movie history must be lacking. Now though, I look back and wonder, have I ever actually seen an entire Eddie Murphy movie? Um… I might have to go with no.

  2. Two questions:

    How did I miss the return of PopD???? This was one of my absolute favorite online discussions, and I thought (apparently mistakenly) it was on indefinite hiatus.

    And how do I figure out what movie is being shown next?

    SOOOOO glad to see this series is back!

  3. Stephanie – did you watch it? Did you like it? Some people don’t like Eddie Murphy, but I’ve always loved him. He reminds me of my misspent youth, I guess. 😉

    KEITH! You’re back. We missed you. You probably didn’t know PopD was back because we’re terrible at self-promotion. Good to have you back, baby!

  4. I liked this movie a lot. I agree that the whole opening sequence could have been cut, for me that would have made this a better movie. The actual mystery I think we know why Mikey is killed once you see Maitland or at least once you see the bonds in the warehouse, so compared to comething like Hot Fuzz the mystery is figured out too early.

    I’ve always liked this movie, and as a comedy it does it’s job. I like Eddie Murphy in it. This movie reminds me of how funny he is. I think the thing that for they did the best was the realtionship between the beverly hils cops and Axel. So for me as a mystery it doesn’t really work, but for the comedy it does.

    Are you going to Who Killed Roger Rabbit? I haven’t seen it in a while but I remember it being really good.

  6. Sorry, guys – I’m still not sure which movie is next. Krissie’s here for a surprise visit this week, and we might end up doing Avengers or Dark Shadows, since we’re going out. But if we do that, we’ll do Roger Rabbit next week, and then move into the Supernaturals, which start with The Frighteners and Dead Again.

  7. I need to find this and watch it again. I’m not sure I’ve seen it since Erol’s rented copies in VHS and Beta:)