Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

Movie Info

An elephant never forgets…that Eddie Murphy used to be funny!

A bust on an auto chop-shop turns deadly, and Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) sees his boss Douglass Todd (Gil Hill) gunned down by Ellis DeWald (Timothy Carhart).  With a Fed named Steve Fulbright (Stephen McHattie) telling him that it is part of a bigger investigation, Foley breaks orders to check out ties to the popular Wonder World amusement park.  There he discovers DeWald and Sanderson (John Saxon) are respected leaders of the security, but with his old friend Detective Sergeant Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), Jon Flint (Héctor Elizondo), and Wonder World founder “Uncle” Dave Thorton (Alan Young) and one of his workers Janice Perkins (Theresa Randle), Axel Foley is out to discover what is really going on at Wonder World.

Because of you, Axel Foley, I’m going home to write poor prequels to Star Wars…hope you’re happy!!!

Directed by John Landis, Beverly Hills Cop III was the follow-up to the 1987 hit Beverly Hills Cop II.  The movie was released to great criticism and was nominated for two Razzies for Worst Director and Worst Remake or Sequel.

Beverly Hills Cop III is a mess.  Both Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II had an edginess to them that is lost in this third installment.  The movie is instead of edgy is goofy, and it becomes obvious that Eddie Murphy is much better at edgy than goofy.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t fall into so-bad-it-is-good-territory, and there were lots of strange reports from the actors involved in the film about the situation from the set which led to a very mixed up movie.

Worth about as much as the movie…

The problem with the film has a lot to do with the script.  The amusement park setting led to lots of light comedy which tries to lampoon Disney World, but ends up failing.  It has become obvious from movies like The Avengers (the British one where Sean Connery dresses as a big bear) and Octopussy (where Roger Moore dresses as a clown) that the main character dressing as a goofy character doesn’t make a movie funny or good…Here Murphy goes undercover as an elephant.  With parts like this, the movie just drags, and what once was a smart series becomes dumb.

I think a movie about Eddie Murphy and this Cylon would have been better…

The cast suffers the other blame of the film.  It had been a long time between Beverly Hills Cop II and Beverly Hills Cop III, and Murphy allegedly wanted his character to “grow-up”.  Axel isn’t a kid and his actions are that of a smart detective using his resources.  Murphy’s “adult” Axel is a less interesting Axel and the loss of Ronny Cox and John Ashton also hurt.  The movie tries to substitute them with Héctor Elizondo, but he doesn’t work.  Bronson Pinchot’s Beverly Hills Cop character Serge returns (with little reason), and also the movie features cameos by people like John Singleton, Joe Dante, Ray Harryhausen, and a scene with George Lucas…plus the Battlestar Galactica Cylons stop by!!!

Beverly Hills Cop III essentially ended the Beverly Hills Cop franchise.  In hindsight, Murphy, Landis, and much have the cast have admitted the movie was a mistake.  The original plan to send Axel and his crew to London probably would have been worse, but this movie in general shouldn’t have been made.  An attempt to bring Beverly Hills Cop back as a series in 2013 failed, but the premise was to have Foley’s son following in his dad’s footsteps.

Related Links:

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)