Film

Beverly Hills Cop

Name: Beverly Hills Cop
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Action
Released: 1984
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox

Beverly Hills Cop is the one where Eddie Murphy proved a joke could carry a shootout. Axel Foley talks his way past velvet ropes, security guards and internal affairs using the same weapon every time: sheer, unstoppable mouth. It's slick, funny, occasionally violent 80s studio filmmaking with a killer synth score, built entirely around one performer's ability to make you laugh a beat before the punch lands.

TMDb rating

7.2

If you liked this

48 Hrs.1982

This is the film that proved Murphy could do it, two years before Foley — a scowling, wisecracking convict paired with a furious Nick Nolte, riffing and racing through a plot that barely matters next to the chemistry.

But Rougher and meaner than Foley's Beverly Hills gloss, with slurs and violence that read very differently now.

Lethal Weapon1987

Riggs and Murtaugh wrote the buddy-cop rulebook Foley half-belongs to — one man reckless, one exhausted, both funnier together than either script alone deserves, with an action climax that actually delivers.

But Darker undercurrents — suicidal grief, real menace — sit oddly next to the one-liners if you want pure fun.

Trading Places1983

Murphy's other great early comedy, and arguably the sharper one — a street hustler and a blue-blood broker swap lives on a rich man's bet, with Murphy again talking rings around people who underestimate him.

But Slower, more of a satire than an action ride — nobody draws a gun for the first hour.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

In the Heat of the Night1967

Same bones as Foley's story — an out-of-town detective treated as an outsider and a threat by a wealthy, hostile community, solving a murder nobody wants solved — but played completely straight, as a story about American racism instead of a joke machine.

Sidney Poitier's Virgil Tibbs walks into a Mississippi town that despises him on sight and simply outworks and outthinks every person who underestimates him — tense, furious, and a genuine landmark.

But No jokes, no chase scenes to speak of — it's a slow-burn moral drama, and the racism it depicts is unflinching, not played for laughs.

Midnight Run1988

Robert De Niro at his funniest, dragging a fussy accountant cross-country as bail bondsman, cops, and mob all converge — proof the wisecracking-outsider-among-suits formula works with a completely different star.

But It's a two-hander road movie, not a Hollywood shootout — patient where Foley is impatient.

Fletch1985no page yet

Chevy Chase's undercover journalist talks his way into every room he's not supposed to be in, wearing a new disguise every ten minutes — pure motor-mouth problem-solving, played entirely for laughs.

But Chase's deadpan is a different flavour of funny than Murphy's fast talk — some find it smugger, thinner.

Bad Boys1995

Michael Bay's first film takes the fast-talking, gun-toting Miami cop template and cranks the volume — Will Smith and Martin Lawrence bicker their way through an action movie that never stops moving.

But Louder and glossier than Foley ever gets, with far less plot holding the explosions together.

Rush Hour1998

Chris Tucker's rapid-fire mouth meets Jackie Chan's precision in a mismatched-cop comedy that trades on the same joke Foley perfected: nobody in the room can keep up with the guy they underestimated.

But Broader and far more slapstick, with comedy that leans harder on culture-clash gags than character.

The Nice Guys2016

Shane Black's love letter to the 70s buddy comedy gives Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe the same rhythm — bumbling banter over a case that keeps getting stranger, shot through with real style.

But More profane and structurally loose, closer to a shaggy noir than a clean, tidy crowd-pleaser.

21 Jump Street2012

A knowingly stupid, genuinely funny reboot that understands exactly why the young-undercover-cop-who-doesn't-fit-in premise is funny, and leans into it with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's surprising chemistry.

But Self-aware, raunchy, and very 2010s in its humour — quite a different comic register entirely.

Eddie Murphy Raw1987no page yet

This is Foley's engine running with no script, no plot and no studio polish — just Murphy, a microphone, and the same improvisational, rapid-fire charm that made a Detroit cop unstoppable in Beverly Hills, caught at its rawest and least filtered.

Widely considered one of the greatest stand-up specials ever filmed — ferocious, filthy, and a masterclass in the exact comic timing that carries every scene of Foley talking his way past security.

But It's aggressively of its era and unapologetically crude — some material has aged badly and it's stand-up, not a story.

The Sting1973

Swap the badge for a con: Foley's real weapon is talking people into believing he's someone he's not, and this is the genre where that skill is the whole plot — a charming outsider running an elaborate bluff on people who think they're too smart to be fooled.

Newman and Redford at their most effortlessly charming, running a long con on a vicious crime boss in a plot built entirely on misdirection and nerve, with a twist ending that still lands.

But Slow, elegant, and very 1930s-period — nothing about its pace resembles an 80s action comedy.