With any Halloween marathon, you need at least one scary movie; thus we have the final chapter of the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy.  Cop 3 came out 7 years after Cop 2 and eliminated half of the original cast.  The story has Murphy tracking down his boss’s killer to LA and invading a theme park.

I get what they were trying to do from a broad perspective: BHC showed a cop just starting out and making rash decisions; Cop 2 showed some maturity in some of the actions; and Cop 3 would show how he had fully matured and could lead a whole team.  Unfortunately, Eddie Murphy was no longer believable as Axel Foley.  BHC gave him an “everyman” look that matched his character; however the looks in 2 and 3 have shown an actor enjoying success when his character shouldn’t be that slick.  Combine this with jokes that do not work and yet another new director and it becomes painfully obvious that what made BHC work was a combo of director, cast, writer, and producers that needed to remain the same.  You can tell that Paramount does not think much of 3 either since there is only one featurette.  I did think it was interesting that the interviewees knew they had a shaky product based on their answers.

There is a rumor that Cop 4 is being shopped around/developed.  I hope this rumor is false.  Paramount needs to let the series remain “finished” and be satisfied with one great classic.

My advice:  See it only if you are bored or want to do your own comparison – if you hate it, you can’t say I didn’t warn you….

Continuing my Halloween marathon, next up is Beverly Hills Cop 2.  Of course it was a no-brainer for Paramount to greenlight a sequel when the first one made $250 – 300 million.  The one big difference was the change in directors from Martin Brest to Tony Scott.  After watching the first movie and the interviews, I am in firm belief that BHC would have not performed as well with a different director. Tony Scott was coming off of Top Gun, another smash for Paramount.

Cop 2 finds Eddie Murphy heading back to Beverly Hills to investigate the shooting of one of his buddies from the first movie.  Again, the story is fairly straight-forward with no twists.  Unfortunately, it also lacks the depth the first movie had, as well as some of the comedy.  In the DVD interviews, even Tony Scott admits that he was looking to film a straight-up action movie versus a comedy with action.  It is these choices that create a movie that does not completely live up to fan expectations.  As a matter of fact, I still remember the conversation in AP Calculus that I had with Mike Harvey where he blasted the movie for phoning it in and turning out a “piece of crap” compared to the first one.  While I did not enjoy it as much as the first one, I felt it was still decent enough entertainment.

Similar to the BHC DVD, this disc featured interviews and a trailer.

My advice:  decent enough to watch, but I would not choose it over the first…

I was listening to the “Best of” show yesterday for The Monsters in the Morning and the topic centered on comedic movies that could stand the test of time.  It made me think back to a discussion I had with Robert atSmart Guys Computers earlier in the week where we brought up Beverly Hills Cop.  So, I decided to spend Halloween watching the entire series.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, Eddie Murphy plays a Detroit cop who has a high school buddy gunned down in his apartment.  From there, Murphy pursues the case to Beverly Hills and its inevitable resolution.  No real twists were incorporated into the story; the story focused more on character development and comedic moments.

Along with 48 Hours and Trading Places, BHC is considered the genesis of Eddie Murphy’s movie career.  Interestingly enough, while he was the first choice of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, Murphy was not Paramount’s first choice.  The studio wanted Sylvester Stallone and had actually begun working with him on revising the script to better suit him.  Martin Brest, the director, finally made the studio see that the movie was moving too far from the original vision of “cop-out-of-water” idea.  Stallone agreed to step aside, and eventually made the movie Cobra based on some of the work he had done on BHC.  Paramount agreed to bring in Murphy and the rest is history.

The other notable feature of this movie is the soundtrack.  Harold Faltermeyer is responsible for one of the most recognizable movie themes, Axel F.  The way the theme is interlaced with the action helps balance the tone between action/mystery and comedy.  With songs from Glen Frey, The Pointer Sisters, and Patti LaBelle, the soundtrack became one of the most sought-after albums of 1984.

The DVD I have is part of a 3-disc collection that Paramount released for the whole series.  I liked the amount of interviews contained on the disc, which became the source of some of the info you have just read.  The audio is the standard 5.1 mix and the original trailer is also included.

My advice: grab a copy of this DVD and see a comedy/action movie that holds up 25 years later – In the words of Axel Foley, “Trust me….HEH HEH HEH”