Director: Martin Brest
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox
Have I Seen it Before: I mean, sure. A guy has cable growing up, he’d almost have to.
Did I Like It: A movie like this, so firmly established as one of the great action comedies can really only be analyzed through a series of questions.
How can a film that weirdly defaults to casual homophobia still be charming or even amusing several years later? I’m not sure I have a lot of answers for that one, or at least any satisfying ones. Eddie Murphy is charming, but funny foreign voices are sure carrying quite a bit of the weight here.
What happened to Eddie Murphy? Your mileage may vary, but this is about as good as Murphy gets on film. He’s funny, but it’s more than that. There’s a fierce intelligence to Axel Foley that makes every laugh stick harder than it might otherwise. He’s a hero for the cinematic ages, not unlike the wily nonconformists found in Bugs Bunny and Charlie Chaplin shorts.
But let’s get to the big question: What happened to Martin Brest? He made great movies (I have a vague but insistent desire to watch both Midnight Run (1988) and Scent of Woman (1992) right now. I’d even be up for taking in Meet Joe Black (1998), crazy bus crash and all, as long as I could run the trailer for Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) beforehand and have everyone leave before the movie starts. He makes one notable flop in Gigli (2003) and never gets to make a film again? What about Tim Burton? He hasn’t made a really interesting film in thirty years! What if we decided to return Steven Spielberg to the store after 1941 (1979)? Can anyone really account for the litany of do-overs we keep giving to J.J. Abrams.