“Eddie Murphy = biggest star in the world”: Dwayne Johnson Gives a Shout Out to Eddie Murphy, Calls His $712M Franchise ‘Brilliant’
Kevin Hart is this decade’s biggest black comedian turned actor, who has delivered a number of hit action comedies, impressing fans by bringing his knack of delivering punch lines – that he learned over the years on stage – at the right moment on the big screen.
Before Hart, this very specific bracket was ruled by Chris Tucker, who generated plenty of laughs through his character James Carter in the Rush Hour franchise, making his cop partner Lee’s (Jackie Chan) life hilariously tough in their bid to stop criminals across three Rush Hour movies.
And in the late 80s and early 90s, Eddie Murphy was the biggest star of the art, ruling the box office with his Beverly Cop Hills franchise.
Dwayne Johnson Is Still Watching Beverly Cop Hills’ Star Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy was prominently working on Saturday Night Live in the early 80s, but a few years later he changed his fortunes and perhaps kick-started a franchise that still continues to inspire different comedians to try their hands at action sequences in their own funny way.
The first Beverly Cop Hills movie was released in 1984 and stunned the box office with a collection that stands tall at $234 million. Murphy’s character of Axel Foley finds himself in a muddle after his friend Mikey is murdered following his arrival in Detroit. Foley’s follies combined with his serious investigation became an instant hit and led to two more sequences of the movie: Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994).
Such was Foley’s cultural impact – ranked 55 on Empire magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of all Time – that it’s talked about to this date. Its latest public fan is Dwayne Johnson, who himself has worked alongside Hart in a similar genre – Central Intelligence.
Been doing housework all afternoon and have Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2 on in the background. I forgot, what a brilliant franchise! 👏🏾👏🏾
Eddie Murphy = biggest star in the world at that time and crazy likable.
(still massive iconic OG movie star today). Reinhold, Ashton & Rieser ⭐️s pic.twitter.com/PY06NDGbzL— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 21, 2022
The WWE fighter-turned-actor tweeted, while focusing on his house chores, to sing praises of Murphy, calling him “the biggest start in the world at that time”.
Eddie Murphy Working On Beverly Cop Hills 4
The Beverly Hills Cop trilogy not only inspired a number of similar franchises (Rush Hour, Bad Boys, etc) to make their own place in Hollywood, but it also earned big, with all three movies generating $712M at the U.S. box office.
As such, it’s little surprise that Netflix decided to take a bet on its fourth installment, titled Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley.
The movie is likely to stream in 2024 and will see the return of Eddie Murphy in his beloved character Axel Foley. Although, realistically he should’ve retired from getting mixed up in fights 30 years after his last action gig. But considering his still strong fan following, emphasized by ‘The Rock’, it’s understandable why Netflix isn’t willing to miss the chance for another take.
Source: Cinema Blend
