REVIEW:
Here’s an unpopular opinion… Beverly Hills Cop 3 is one of the better movies of the franchise. It is far superior to the fourth movie, Axel F, and it is also better than this film, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Yes, it takes place in an amusement park, which is an idea that audiences aren’t used to, but that’s exactly what makes it good. Because it’s so different. But this movie, Beverly Hiss Cop 2, is much more generic. It’s about a team of robbers / killers who are so on top of their game, clocking the police response time does to the mixture, that it reminds us of the Robert DeNiro crew from Heat.
When one of Axels’ friends is shot, he flies to California and gets to work. Axel and his two partners (the cops from the first movie,) are all working on their own terms, as these two guys have been suspended from the force, and Axel is out there on a personal vendetta mission. And it’s fun watching him play detective and solve mysteries. The problem is that the action is pretty plain, the comedy isn’t all that funny, and the story is a little too familiar. There are no interesting set pieces or memorable elements. Bridgette Neilson as the henchman to the main villain, is pretty good, but she’s one of the only memorable elements to this movie.
There aren’t many memorable ideas or scenes here. The closest we get is one at a gun club where Axel watching shooters using laser sighting and decided to just take out his own pistol and first away at the walls. It’s a scene that does nothing to advance the plot, but it’s still kind of different and that’s what makes it fun. This movie doesn’t have enough of that. It ultimately feels forgettable and just like every other movie. Yes, it’s nice to have Eddie Murphy doing impressions and cracking jokes, but he isn’t especially funny here, and the movie is just okay.