Beverly Hills Cop (series)

BEVERLY HILLS COP (15)

D: Martin Brest

Paramount (Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson)

USA 🇺🇸 1984

105 mins

Comedy/Crime/Thriller

W: Daniel Petrie, Jr. & Danilo Bach

DP: Bruce Surtees

Ed: Billy Weber & Arthur O. Confirm

Mus: Harold Faltermeyer

PD: Angelo Graham

Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley), Judge Reinhold (Detective Billy Rosewood), John Ashton (Sgt. Taggart), Lisa Eilbacher (Jenny Summers), Ronny Cox (Lt. Bogomil), Steven Berkoff (Victor Maitland), James Russo (Mikey Tandino)

Arguably Eddie Murphy's best and funniest screen performance as Detroit cop Axel Foley.

Following the murder of one of his friends, Axel travels to Beverly Hills to investigate, using unconventional methods more suited to a confidence trickster rather than a man of the law, which get him on the wrong side of the strictly by-the-book local authorities.

Despite the film being a rather run-of-the-mill fish out of water story, it's given unique freshness from Eddie Murphy's exuberant performance and an incredibly funny screenplay. Harold Faltermeyer's iconic music also became something of legend, becoming a hit in 1984 plus remixes later on which propelled it up the music chart. (Damn you Crazy Frog!)

8/10

Did You Know:

Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold improvised most of their comic lines. Literally hundreds of takes were ruined by cast members, actors, or the director laughing during shooting. During the "super-cops" monologue, which was brought on by Eddie Murphy drinking too much coffee, Ashton is pinching his face hard and looking down in apparent frustration. He is actually laughing. Reinhold put his hand in his pocket and pinched his thigh really hard, trying to prevent himself from laughing.

Axel Foley is back. Back where he doesn't belong.

BEVERLY HILLS COP II (15)

D: Tony Scott

Paramount (Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson)

USA 🇺🇸 1987

102 mins

Comedy/Crime/Thriller

W: Larry Ferguson, Warren Skaaren, David Giler & Dennis Klein [based on characters created by Daniel Petrie, Jr. & Danilo Bach]

DP: Jeffrey L. Kimball

Ed: Billy Weber, Chris Lebenzon & Michael Tronick

Mus: Harold Faltermeyer

PD: Ken Davis

Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley), Judge Reinhold (Billy Rosewood), Jürgen Prochnow (Maxwell Dent), John Ashton (John Taggart), Ronny Cox (Andrew Bogomil), Allen Garfield (Harold Lutz), Brigette Nielsen (Karla Fry), Dean Stockwell (Chip Cain)

Axel Foley is back in California! This time he helps fellow detectives Rosewood & Taggart to solve a series of crimes dubbed 'The Alphabet Robberies', which have in turn made the Beverly Hills chief of police a victim of a shooting.

Despite not being anywhere as good as the first film, it's still good fun, has a few moments of laughter and has a pretty decent soundtrack.

6/10

Eddie Murphy & Judge Reinhold in Beverly Hills Cop II

Did You Know:

The cement truck that Billy Rosewood drives in an action scene has a sticker saying DS/JB Construction Company. DS and JB stand for the film's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

BEVERLY HILLS COP III (15)

D: John Landis

Paramount (Mace Neufeld & Robert Rehme)

USA 🇺🇸 1994

104 mins

Comedy/Crime

W: Steven E. de Souza [based on characters created by Daniel Petrie, Jr. & Danilo Bach]

DP: Mac Ahlberg

Ed: Dale Beldin

Mus: Nile Rodgers

PD: Michael Seymour

Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley), Judge Reinhold (Billy Rosewood), Hector Elizondo (Jon Flint), Timothy Carhart (Ellis DeWald), Stephen McHattie (Steve Fulbright), Theresa Randle (Janice Perkins), John Saxon (Orrin Sanderson), Alan Young (Uncle Dave Thornton), Bronson Pinchot (Serge)

The third of the Beverly Hills Cop movies seems to forget what franchise it's from and decides to follow the formula from Die Hard instead. Makes sense since Steven E. de Souza also wrote the script to that movie too.

Axel Foley investigates a counterfeiting operation at a Disneyland style theme park, setting up a finale which takes place amongst roller coasters and merry-go-rounds.

John Ashton & Ronny Cox have the sense to stay away from this one, but Bronson Pinchot reprises his role as Serge from the first movie, although in this one he's an arms dealer rather than a campy art dealer. Only the screenwriter knows why.

4/10

Did You Know:

In a 2005 interview, director John Landis claimed that Eddie Murphy worked against the comedy of the film by deliberately not being funny as he wanted to be taken seriously as an action star. Landis said that the film "was a very strange experience" and Murphy was very difficult to work with.

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F (12)

D: Mark Molloy

Netflix / Bruckheimer-Simpson (Jerry Bruckheimer, Eddie Murphy & Chad Oman)

US 🇺🇸 2024

118 mins

Comedy/Crime

W: Will Beall, Tom Gormican & Kevin Ettan [based on characters created by Daniel Petrie & Danilo Bach]

DP: Edu Grau

Ed: Dan Lebental

Mus: Lorne Balfe

Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Det. Bobby Abbott), Taylour Paige (Jane Saunders), Judge Reinhold (Billy Rosewood), John Taggart (Chief John Taggart), Kevin Bacon (Capt. Cade Grant), Bronson Pinchot (Serge)

Forty years after his initial journey to Beverly Hills & thirty years after his last, maverick Detroit cop Axel Foley once again returns to California, this time to team up with his estranged attorney daughter to crack a case that involves police corruption.

The original Beverly Hills Cop still holds up as one of Eddie Murphy’s best films and best performances, but the format really does feel tired in this retread, especially since fish-out-of-water and culture-clash material has moved on so much since 1984, but I will admit that this is a better film than 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III.

Axel Foley remains a character that Murphy wears well, but he is given no favours by the bland supporting characters and the predictable plot, where you can tell who the bad guy is the very second they’re introduced.

The biggest travesty however is that the entire film feels as though it were written by an AI programme, with not a hint of originality whatsoever, but since this was released directly onto Netflix, it doesn’t feel quite like robbery watching this via a subscription, and it was probably a very sensible decision for this to skip a theatrical release.

It’s shameless nostalgia bait, and nothing more, and the only way it probably could have been made more obvious of this were if it to have Murphy breaking the fourth wall to say “Hey. Remember this song? Hey. Remember this character? They’re back.”

4/10

Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Did You Know:

A photo of Gilbert R. Hill can be seen on the wall of Jeffrey’s office. Hill played inspector Todd in the first three films & sadly passed away in 2016.