Beverly Hills Cop movies
I have written several posts that address the recent theme of rebooting old franchises so now it does not seem rare to see an entry to a film series that was popular thirty or forty years ago, even with the same lead actor and character. Mel Gibson continues to promise that a Lethal Weapon 5 is coming (which I'll believe when I see it) and this year we get the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
Spoilers below:
A unique feature of this franchise is the sequels have no real following. All the love and most of the quoted lines comes from the superb original. Each sequel tries to recapture the charm of what is ultimately a fairly straightforward fish-out-of-water story. I think the title has handcuffed the franchise as each film is about a Detroit police detective named Axel Foley who goes to Beverly Hills to solve a crime that has impacted him personally and brushes up against local culture and to some degree, authorities. If the sequels sent Axel to other areas it might open up more comedic possibilities but then they would have to change the name and audiences might not realize it's about the same character.
I saw Beverly Hills Cop on VHS a couple of months before II came to theatres. It was the first time I watched a film from start to finish with Eddie Murphy and I laughed as hard as most people did. Murphy was a hilarious African American comedian turned actor who inspired and helped a lot of young African American talent like Chris Rock and the Wayans brothers. Murphy was a little too foul mouthed but like other great comedians such as Robin Williams, he was extremely smart, energetic, and was a gifted mimic. Beverly Hills Cop was his first solo starring role after a very successful period on Saturday Night Live and the action film 48 Hours, an action film in which he costarred with Nick Nolte, and Trading Places, a comedy with Dan Ackroyd.
A couple of years ago I wrote about the Coming to America films and briefly discussed Murphy's career. I will add to those notes only to say that while Murphy has worked in a number of franchises (48 Hours, Nutty Professor, Dr. DoLittle, Shrek) I believe among people of my generation (X) he will always be remembered most as Axel Foley.
The first two films were produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, a team who made a lot of high octane films around the time such as Top Gun, Flashdance and Days of Thunder. Don Simpson passed away in 1996 but Bruckheimer has remained very active, and has put out among other films, the Pirates of the Caribbean series and has returned to the series with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
Spoilers for all the films below:
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
The original film was scripted similar to its current state but for a time Sylvester Stallone was attached to star. Stallone, who was less comfortable with the comedic aspects of the story, rewrote it to be more of an action film. Eventually the producers realized this film was turning into something else and they parted ways with Stallone. Stallone took a lot of these ideas and turned them into the film Cobra (1986). I have seen a few scenes of Cobra and found both unpleasant and not at all entertaining so I am glad Beverly Hills Cop eventually found Murphy and just as importantly, director Martin Brest.
Murphy was only twenty three when he played the part and but his Axel Foley comes across as seasoned, street smart, and a cop who always pushes the envelope. We first meet him on an undercover operation that goes bad and see how he is always in trouble with his boss, Inspector Todd, played by real life Detroit Police Inspector (at the time) Gil Hill. Hill only acted in the first three Beverly Hills Cop films which is why audiences never see him in other films.
Brest keeps the tone relatively light with a lot of daytime scenes and generally sticks Murphy in the center of the frame but gives the other characters enough agency so they are not just reacting to him. The film would not work without the appealing combination of John Aston's crusty Taggart and Judge Reinhold's wide eyed Billy Rosewood. Ronny Cox' Bogomil is not a stereotypical screaming police captain but rather a man who wants to do things the right way but never forgets his duties. One of the film's best conceits is to give Cox' Bogomil a Chief of Police that even he needs to answer to. The Chief is played by Stephen Elliott who had a memorable authoritarian yet smarmy voice. Elliott scared me badly as a young boy when I saw him threaten Dudley Moore with a knife in the film Arthur (1981), though the way he was stopped was ingenious.
Murphy is the only African American actor with any significant role in the film. Lisa Elibacher and James Russo who plays Foley's buddy Michael Tandino are both white yet their characters grew up in the same neighborhood as Axel. Tandino's death is the inciting event that sends Axel to Beverly Hills. While it is nice to see African American and Caucasian characters so friendly with each other (and Russo is touching as the loser friend who can't stay out of trouble but has a good heart) the casting also suggests cautiousness by the producers. I feel they may have thought white audiences would not care as much about finding Tandino's killer if he had been African American.
The rest of the cast includes Steven Berkoff, an accomplished British theatre actor who is mostly known to American audiences for playing villains in three franchises in the 1980s (Cop, Rambo and James Bond). Jonathan Banks brings some menace to Zack, Maitland's killer who kills Tandino. Lisa Elibacher plays Jenny an old friend of Axel's from Detroit who now works for Maitland and comic actor Bronson Pinchot has a couple of funny scenes as Serge, a French employee who works at Victor Maitland's gallery. Pinchot and Murphy have fun playing off of each other with Serge's odd pronounciation of specific words.
The funniest parts of the film to me are when Axel fast talks his way into places he has no business entering such as a Maitland's office, warehouse, and country club. Also in my most recent rewatch I noticed Ashton and Reinhold trying hard not to laugh during Murphy's "supercops" monologue which looks to be pure improvisation. Ashton as Taggert lowers his head apparently in embarrassment of Axel's story but the way he covered his face reveals a lot.
Brest stages an exciting climax when Axel, Taggert and Rosewood break into Maitland's property to rescue Jennny. There is a lot of comedy such as when Taggert is trying to scale a wall by climbing on Rosewood's shoulders but once the shooting starts it is intense. The sound design, staging and stuntwork as the cops try to avoid the automatic fire of Maitland's guards are all superb. We feel the danger but also how the cops are able to narrowly survive.
The success of the film owes a lot to its catchy soundtrack. Some of the best songs are "The Heat Is On" by Eagles singer Glen Frey, "Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters (which plays during the opening truck chase) and "Stir It Up" by Patti LaBelle which plays twice. However the music most identified with the film is "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer. I heard the song long before I saw the first film and wondered why an instrumental piece was so popular. I only realized it was part of the film when I saw it. Axel F is combination of several synthesized sounds and stab brasses that give it the unique staccato sound.
Beverly Hills Cop remains Murphy's signature film for Generation X and it still holds up as terrific entertainment. ****
Beverly Hills Cop 2 (1987)
Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills after Captain Bogomil is gravely wounded while looking into a series of robberies which are being perpetrated by Karla Fry (Brigette Nielsen) and Maxwell Dent (Jurgen Prochnow). Axel works with Taggert and Rosewood to uncover the mystery while trying to avoid the nasty new Chief of Police, Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield) Tony Scott, who directed Top Gun for the producers the year before, takes over the direction from Martin Brest.
Cop II works to largely recreate the experience of the first film. Once again Axel opens the film undercover in Detroit. Again a planned arrest goes south, earning him a chewing out by Inspector Todd, Axel takes off for another unauthorized trip to Beverly Hills. There is another chase scored to a Pointer Sisters song and Foley again scams his way into a lot of places and the three cops visit a strip club. The main difference is Axel is now working hand in hand with Taggert and Rosewood instead of trying to evade them, even though Axel and Taggert occasionally bump heads. The Stallone connection from the first film is referenced in a lot of ways. Rosewood has posters of Cobra and Rambo in his house, there are several lines about Rambo, and Nielsen was Stallone's wife during filming.
One interesting change is Rosewood has a fascination with heavy weaponry which plays well with Judge Reinhold's wide-eyed look. Scott, uses his signature lower lighting and faster editing and is clearly more comfortable with action than comedy. However although at the time a lot of Scott's films used very heavy close-ups he holds the camera back a little here. The police station, which was so bright in the first film, is a darker set here, emphasizing the environment created by the bullying Lutz. During the comedic scenes Scott like Brest, just sticks Murphy in the middle of the frame and lets him do his thing. The film is a pretty misogynistic, which is uncomfortable at times. Apart from the strip club Karla is often referred to as a "6 foot tall b-----" and is shown to be an utterly remorseless killer.
Axel is presented a little more slickly here. In the beginning as part of his cover he drives a red Ferrari (instead of the 1970 Chevy Nova) and wears an expensive suit. When Axel gets to Beverly Hills he wears a Detroit Lions jacket and drives a classic 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass S. Axel almost never loses his cool and is always a step ahead of even his partners.
The final shoot out near an oil field is bigger but nowhere near as interestingly staged as the climax of the first film and feels like it was conceived and executed on the fly. Dent's and his approximately ten men surrender to Taggert and Rosewood before the police backup arrives even though the men have Taggert and Rosewood outgunned. At one point Taggert and Rosewood take their eyes off their quarry to shoot at a couple of people fleeing and Dent's men never try to take advantage. Foley's face off with Dent and Karla is uninspired as is their characterizations, which, though full of menace, are pretty one-note.
The resolution of the story, with Lutz being fired on the spot after chewing out his underlings in front of the conveniently present mayor is satisfying because we hate Lutz so much but makes little sense overall. The closing scene of Axel leaving the house he has been staying illegally as the owners return is pretty funny and his goodbye to his partners has some subtle poignancy.
Beverly Hills Cop II is not as good as the original. While Bogomil and Foley had developed a mutual respect in the first film it hardly seemed like the beginnings of the deep friendship shown here. But the film is entertaining and some of the laughs (such as Foley convincing a club owner that Taggert is Gerald Ford, who Taggert bears only a passing resemblance to) are as big as in the first film. I am glad this film exists and my son liked it more than Part I. ***
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
Beverly Hills Cop III went through a number of iterations before coming to the screen. Murphy for years said he would not do another film until I expect the combination of a large salary and the need for a hit after audiences were less interested in his films such as Harlem Nights and Another 48 Hours, convinced him to come back. John Landis, who worked with Murphy in Coming to America and Trading Places, signed up to direct which seemed an odd choice. I assumed they may have wanted to focus more on comedy since Landis was not known as an action director, but I turned out to be wrong.
In the film Axel follows a cop killer named Ellis DeWald who guns down Inspector Todd during the opening sequence to a Disneyland like park called Wonder World in Beverly Hills. DeWald is running a counterfeiting scheme out of the park and Axel tries to figure out the scheme and close him down.
DeWald is played by Timothy Carhart, who is completely uninspired here. The role is bland and DeWald seems like an unpleasant board member and we only hate him because of what he does int e beginning. Carhart is a good actor and I thought he was believably sleazy as a crooked politician in the second season of 24 a few years later but DeWald is not a career highlight. None of the rest of the villains generate any interest at all.
When Axel first goes to Wonder World he is stopped at the gate even though he has an appointment, and I geared myself to watch Axel scam his way in. Instead Axel complains and then PAYS. This is utterly out of character and apparently rose from Murphy claiming he did not want to play Axel using that type of humor anymore. The problem is, a large part of Axel's appeal is we as audiences want to see him come up with something clever. Axel goes in, ends up in a shootout with DeWald's men and gets on a ferris wheel type ride that goes haywire and ends up rescuing kids. This does not work at all and the action scene is very flat. Axel gets into shootouts in the other films but they do not drive the films. Murphy might not have felt inspired to create comedic bits but if that is the case he should not have made the film.
Ironically, putting aside the lack of impressions, Murphy does give an engaged and energetic performance (especially in the scene where he tries to humiliate DeWold publicly) and he looks really good but the playground Landis gives him to play in does not work either. Watching a movie about an amusement park is not much fun. The rides are nothing special and seeing people get shot in the midst of them during the climax feels atonal in a setting that is for children. The movie tries to give us some light laughs in putting Axel in a costume but seeing him fail to entertain some small kids is more fitting for one of Murphy's later roles, but not this one.
Judge Reinhold returns in a far more reduced role than in the other films but John Ashton sits this one out and is replaced by Hector Elizondo, playing a character named Flint. I normally like Elizondo a lot but he has almost no character to play here and at one point seems to be in league with DeWald's men when they get mutually frustrated at chasing Axel. Ronny Cox also skipped this one.
The film also gives us a Walt Disney like character named Uncle Dave played by Alan Young. DeWald shoots him in the stomach and Axel barely gets this elderly man to the hospital on time. At the end of the film Uncle Dave is standing and looks fully recovered fine as he presents Axel (who is in a wheelchair recovering from his wounds in the climax along with Rosewood and Flint) with a new character named Axel Fox. Why is Uncle Dave all recovered but Axel and the others are not (they were all shot the same day)?
Theresa Randle plays Janice, an attractive park employee who becomes Foley's only onscreen love interest in the series. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F introduces us to Foley's daughter but she is said to be 32, which tells me Janice is not her mother assuming the film is set in the year of release 2024, 30 years after this one.
Landis likes to have cameos of famous of directors in his films and here includes George Lucas, John Singleton, and Arthur Hiller. Robert Sherman, who wrote a lot of classic Disney tunes also appears.
Beverly Hills Cop III is a mess of a movie that damaged the franchise. I would give it one star but I will give it two for one scene that does not even involve Murphy. Early on two mechanics in the chop shop excited sing and dance along to the Supremes' 1964 hit "Come See About Me". It's so unexpected and out of nowhere that it made me laugh pretty hard. Little else in this movie did. **
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
Like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny I wondered and (and often doubted) this film would be made since it came after a belated and unliked sequel. Yet audiences hoped that he might do one more but only if it turned out to be entertaining. Several versions were scripted and in 2009-2010 it appeared a film might be coming soon but it never got going. Murphy eventually produced a pilot TV show about Axel's son who is a police officer in Beverly Hills but it never aired. Murphy did appear as Axel in several scenes and it now serves as a kind of alternate universe story. In 2016 development on the film started up again and from then it appeared the film would eventually materialize. Will Beall, who wrote a couple of DC Extended Universe films along with the series Castle came up with the story and co-wrote the final script with Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten. Mark Malloy, who has directed a lot of short films and commercials made his feature debut with this film which debuted on Netflix instead of going to theatres.
Axel F was shot in late 2022 but Netflix held it until July 2024. I watched it with my family on July 4th and am happy to say we had a great time with it. Axel F follows the basic formula for these films. As in the others Axel is a little too reckless during a bust in Detroit which gets him in trouble with the department. An emergency then sends him to Beverly Hills where he repeatedly gets in trouble with the local police while also working with a couple of them while trying to solve a bigger crime.
Since Gill Hill's character was killed off in the last film ( and Hill passed away in 2016) the chief this time is Jeffrey, Axel's friend, played by Paul Reiser. Jeffrey retires to save Axel's job because he loves Axel so much, which is pretty consistent with how he felt about Axel in the past. Reiser usually plays people who are friendly in a funny way (see The Kominsky Method) and that certainly is his approach with Jeffrey.
Axel F also acknowledges Murphy's age (61 during shooting) by giving Axel a grown daughter, an attorney who has been threatened. We never find out who the mother is but Axel doesn't think much of her. Axel goes to Beverly Hills to help her (she has correctly guessed that a client of hers is not guilty of a murder he is accused of) but she correctly accuses him of being addicted to the action. In this film Axel is wrong as much as he is right and Taylour Paige as his daughter Jane sets him straight a lot of the time. However the reason for their estrangement has some depth. Axel sent his wife and daughter to Beverly Hills to protect them after they were targeted by Detroit mobsters Axel was investigating. This gives both the sense that the characters have had a full life in their long absence from the screen. However Jane's age of 32 would mean that Jane was born before the events of Beverly Hills Cop III so I wonder how the romance Axel has with Janice figures in. Or Axel and Jane's mother were broken up during Cop III but eventually got back together (for a time). A third theory is Axel was cheating on his wife but the truth is it is probably a plot hole.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Beverly Hills detective Bobby Abbott, Kevin Bacon plays Captain Grant, who turns out not surprisingly to be the villain, who is working with a drug cartel and the murder Jane's client is accused of ties in with the cartel's activities. Bacon has fun as this sneery cop who has long sold out and his casting provides some symbiosis with the series-Bacon's first starring film Footlose (which he will always be most remembered for) was released in 1984, the same year as Beverly Hills Cop and they were both Paramount films.
John Ashton returns as Taggart who had retired in III but due to his rocky marriage (referenced in II) has come out of retirement and is now the police Chief. Judge Reinhold also returns as Billy Rosewood who is now a private investigator but the plot keeps him offscreen for most of the story. Axel is shown more down to earth here. The film opens with him driving his old Chevy Nova across Detroit (no Ferrari this time) while people he has helped during his long career greet him. In Beverly Hills he drives a beat up looking 1982 Bronco. Axel's fast talking attempts to scam people is revived here and is funny but rarely works. The one time he does pull it off he references the string of Liam Neeson's single title action films. Axel wears his old Detroit jacket and looks great for his age but many of the action scenes are also staged so he is usually in a vehicle as opposed to sprinting or getting into an extended fist fight.
Axel F is loaded with references to the first two films. Here are a few:
- The Heat is On plays over the opening scene of Axel driving through Detroit,
- T snow plow chase in the beginning is scored to Bob Seger's "Shakedown" from Cop II,
- The Pointer Sisters "Neutron Dance" (from Cop I) plays during a chase in which Axel flees the bad guys and the cops.
- When Taggert first sees Axel Taggert pretends to slug him in the stomach as he did in Cop I. the framing is nearly identical.
- We hear more about Taggert's difficult marriage to Maureen and even meet her briefly.
- The climactic shoot out is again in a mansion and Taggert and Rosewood are pinned down.
- The final scene has Axel once again surprising Taggert and Rosewood by jumping into the back of their car. The closing line and Axel smiling into the camera while the frame freezes is identical to that of Cop I.
The previously mentioned finale is a little contrived. I doubt that Jane could really convince the Chief of Police to stakeout the hospital round the clock just to make sure Axel does not sneak out but it is fun to see the three men in a police car again.
Axel F is not a classic film but it more than crosses the t's and dots the i's and it is enjoyable to see Axel and his buddies again, though I would not have minded seeing Jenny (Lisa Elibacher's character from Cop I) again. I think it is about on par with Cop II, maybe slightly better. ***
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