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….