Review of Beverly Hills Cop (1984) by Richard D — 08 Oct 2015

Here's a movie that could have failed ... very easily. It's partly a cop action film, but those elements of the plot are really bland, by-the-numbers stuff involving drug smuggling, warehouses, bearer bonds .

.. all stuff that shows up a million times in the 80s in bland, genre fare. It's also a comedy, but quite a lot of the scripted comedy is only okay. If this film had been made with someone like Jim Belushi, it would have been utterly forgettable.

It's often said that you can't save mediocre material by putting the right people in it, but I submit this as a counter-example. Murphy at his peak with this great supporting cast, a great director, and Simpson/Bruckheimer's big-money professional gloss turns this into a really great film.