|
**1/2 (out of ****) The main theme of almost all subsequent Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer productions is right here in their early effort "Beverly Hills Cop": the difference between the "fake people" and the "real people." The "real people," who "know the score" and learned life "on the streets" come from Detroit, and are embodied by Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy). The "fake people" live buttoned-down, artificial lives, following abstract principles and wearing stupid clothes in Beverly Hills, where Foley goes to solve the murder of an old friend. The "fake people" tend to be all manner of stupid authority figures--generals, politicians, police chiefs--while the "real people" look like they just walked out of a truck commercial. Read whatever politics into this you like, but, in a nutshell, this is the source of friction between the "Bad Boys" and their buttoned-down police captain, between the wild "Top Guns" and their wimpy superiors, and, most annoyingly, between the beer commercial roughnecks in "Armageddon" and all those stuffy eggheads, lawyers, and politicians. The biggest ivory tower fakers of all are Bruckheimer and Simpson themselves, who never feel sincere to me about any of this. To me, they are always second-guessing what the beer-swilling clock-watching wage-slaves they think we all are must enjoy. Still, in addition to having a dirty name, Martin Brest ("Scent of a Woman") is a better, calmer director than Bruckheimer regular Michael Bay, and the reason to see "Beverly Hills Cop" is to watch a young Murphy use charm, charisma, and obscenity to get through this standard stuff. Judge Reinhold does well as the perpetually un-hip white cop. A satisfactory shoot-out wraps things up. Features catchy-annoying pop-synth instrumental "Axel F." Copyright © 2010 by Peter Kovic |
|
|
All content © Copyright 2007 - 2011 Insert Logo Productions
|