Beverly Hills Cop

This was the movie that properly launched Eddie Murphy into his first bout of stardom before the troughs of his later career. He's Foley, a fast-talking, foul-mouthed police officer from Detroit, who heads to Hollywood to investigate the murder of a childhood friend.

The comedy lies largely in Murphy's black cop reacting against and beating the mostly white and incredibly polite-but-dim-and-racist Californian society. He's got great support from Hollywood cop Judge Reinhold, comedy foreigner Bronson Pinchot and chilling villain Steven Berkoff. This is definitely a movie to avoid if the word 'fuck' offends - it crops up constantly - but Murphy has such charm that it loses its impact after the first 118 times.