Capo
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Post by Capo on Jul 22, 2007 23:34:16 GMT
Beverly Hills Cop Martin Brest 1984 USA A black cop from Detroit goes on a personal vendetta to LA to solve the murder of a friend. Immensely enjoyable, commercially successful and received well by critics, all of which it achieves for a number of reasons: it was the first Hollywood feature with a black protagonist, Eddie Murphy's standup persona was well liked and well adapted into a narrative which, in essence, is an excuse for his mouth to run - Jim Carrey's films followed the same pattern a few years later - and it's a feel-good buddy film. Saying that, it's quite odd, and quite interesting, too, in its complete lack of heterosexual romance to balance out the collisions between male egos, it has constant themes of homosexuality running beneath all the action, and Murphy's often having to play up to that role with some sexually ambiguous identity-forging. Set in politically correct LA, it exploits that and exposes it very cleverly - race, gender, sexuality all touched upon at least if not mocked entirely. Murphy is excellent.
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