Rewatching 1984's Beverly Hills Cop

And why GenXers can still quote our favorite movies

Kids nowadays, with their fancy smartphones and streaming services, are being deprived of the tortured boredom that turned Gen-X into the creative malcontents we are today. They will never know the agony of being stuck inside on a rainy/sick day and being at the mercy of 5 tv channels playing MASH reruns or daytime soaps.

Generation X was the first generation to have widely available and affordable cable television, VCRs, and VHS (or Betamax) video tapes. That doesn’t mean we were never bored though, because sometimes the tv was being hogged by Dad watching the game or we were being grounded with “no tv” for smoking in the boy’s room. But when we were home for hours by ourselves with not much to do, the tv kept us from entertaining ourselves by prank calling strangers.

In the early ‘90s, my younger sister Sarah and I sometimes repeatedly watched movies together when we were bored at home. And by “repeatedly" I mean we’d take a pee break while the movie was rewinding in the VCR and then hit “PLAY” again when we returned. We’re exactly 7 years and 7 days apart, so she’s actually an older Millennial (or “Xennial”), but we were close nonetheless. Maybe I was immature for my age or she was mature for her age, or maybe we met somewhere in the middle. All I know is we laughed a lot together. We had a bevy of VHS tapes for those days we had nowhere to be, no one to see, and nothing new to read. Maybe it was also fueled by the fact that we didn’t have cable tv or a VCR in the ‘80s so we were excited to finally watch rented movies at home instead of only at our friend’s houses. One of our favorite movies was the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop because it’s a perfect action comedy. We quoted it all the time.

“You’re not gonna fall for the banana in the tail pipe? It should flow out more naturally, brotha, like this: ‘Look man, I ain’t fallin’ for no banana in my tail pipe!’ You’ve been hangin’ out with this dude too long.”

That shit was a laugh riot back then.

I recently rewatched it with my hubby Terry and our 13-year-old son, Remy (neither Terry nor I had seen the movie since the early ‘90s). I was curious to see if Remy would find it as funny as I did. He’s mature for 13 so I knew he’d be fine with all the F-bombs, but I was a bit squeamish when the strip club scene came on.

“It’s okay if your dick gets hard, Billy. It’s supposed to get hard!”

I can’t believe I was watching this movie with my sister when she was only like, 8 or 10. But we were home alone a lot so yes I can.

Remy was especially amused when Axel Foley claims to be a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine to get a room at the Beverly Palm Hotel, and when he mocks the police chief after getting chastised, and when Serge speaks in an unrecognizable accent that sounds like a mashup of French and…something else. This reminded me of Bronson Pinchot’s sitcom Perfect Strangers. I asked my husband if he remembered Balki and Larry’s dance but he didn’t, so I performed it for him after the movie ended in the hopes it would jog his memory. It did not, even though my demonstration would’ve received a perfect score in a competition, if I do say so myself.

This time around, there were things about BHC I appreciated for the first time. For starters, it’s notable that the friendship between Axel and childhood friend Jenny stayed a friendship, because it’s a tired trope that there’s always got to be a romantic subplot. We watch Axel and Jenny team up to uncover the criminal mastermind who had their mutual childhood buddy Mikey killed without a forced “sexual chemistry” between the friends developing. So refreshing.

The awesome techno/synth score and soundtrack for this film was on point. Nobody knew what a “Neutron Dance” was, but the Pointer Sisters singing that song hit all the right spots for an opening action sequence with crashing cars and a runaway semi truck. And I can’t be the only one who hears someone say “The heat is on” and instantly has the Glenn Frey song stuck in their head. But it’s the iconic song “Axel F” by Harold Faltermeyer that I love the most. It’s a genius piece of instrumental music, an instant flashback to the ‘80s like Yello’s “Oh Yeah” and Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”. BHC won a well-deserved Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack.

If you never saw the music video for “Axel F” you simply must because Faltermeyer is green-screened into scenes in the most unintentionally hilarious way

Can you imagine Mickey Rourke or Sylvester Stallone playing Axel? They were the first actors offered the role and thank the movie gods that Eddie Murphy starred instead, otherwise Beverly Hills Cop would’ve been another basic action movie. It’s the hilarious scenes where Eddie uses his comedic talents to transform into someone else that separates Beverly Hills Cop from Cobra.

So get this—I had no idea at the time I started writing this piece that there’s a fourth sequel coming out this week on July 3rd. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F debuts on Netflix and I’m looking forward to it but I don’t have high hopes. Nothing could top the original, and I imagine the filmmakers know this so they’re probably betting on it doing well simply for hitting all the right sentimental notes. Most of the original cast returned for the fourth installment while Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play new characters, so it should be interesting at the very least!

I know that’s a photo from 1984 but it’s important to note that Black doesn’t crack so Eddie Murphy looks like he’s barely aged since then

You should know I’ve since apologetically expressed to my sister the sincere shock I now have for realizing she was too young for some of the movies we watched, but all she said was “Dude, repeatedly watching movies all the time when we were kids is probably why I never watch a movie more than once now.” Legit.

What’s a movie you watched so often as a kid that you can still quote your favorite lines?