Beverly Hills Cop

Beverly Hills Cop is the film that made Eddie Murphy the biggest movie star in the world. Murphy's Axel Foley — a streetwise Detroit cop investigating his best friend's murder in wealthy Beverly Hills — is the perfect vehicle for his extraordinary improvisational talent. The character lets Murphy be funny, charming, tough, and smart simultaneously, switching between registers with a fluidity that no other actor of his generation could match.

The comedy comes from the culture clash between Foley's blue-collar Detroit hustle and Beverly Hills' manicured wealth. Murphy turns every encounter into a performance: fast-talking his way into a hotel, bluffing past security guards, turning interrogations into comedy shows. The supporting cast — Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as the by-the-book Beverly Hills detectives slowly corrupted by Foley's chaos — provide the perfect straight-man dynamic.

Harold Faltermeyer's 'Axel F' theme became one of the most recognizable pieces of film music of the 1980s. The film grossed $316M on a $13M budget, making it the highest-grossing film of 1984. But its real legacy is Murphy's performance. Before Beverly Hills Cop, action-comedy was not a reliable genre. After it, Murphy had proved that one performer's charisma could carry an entire franchise. He made it look effortless, which is the surest sign that it was anything but.