REVIEW:
Contrary to popular belief, Beverly Hills Cop 3 is not a bad movie. In fact, it is way better than the fourth movie, Axel F. People don’t like it for the very reason that they should like it. Because it takes place in an amusement park. It’s different. And people aren’t used to that. They like the same type of thing they’ve seen before. Which is why every other Beverly Hills Cop movie is generally rated higher than this one, even though they all take place in the same sort of scenery and atmosphere. This one tries to do something different, and gets put down left and right, even by its star, Eddie Murphy.
That’s right. Murphy, himself, has gone on record saying this movie is the worst because there are no stakes. In the other movies he was out to avenge a friend who was murdered and here he was just out to help Uncle Dave, the owner of the park. Wrong. Murphy must have completely forgotten his own movie. The very first scene of the film has his captain murdered in front of him. A man who he has been serving with in the previous films. That’s your out for revenge story right there. Not Uncle Dave.
So if the movie is not bad, is it actually good? The answer is yes. The last act gets a little goofy, but up until then, it’s a pretty clever movie. Setting tons of scenes in the amusement park during broad daylight, when the park is crowded with guests is a lot of fun. We get action scenes that are different. Like one where a Ferris wheel ride falls apart with Axel on it, and he has to jump from car to car in order to reach the one where two kids are in trouble ands are having on for dead life. We get another scene where early in the movie Axel witnesses how a ride called Alien Invasion works, only to later use that ride against his enemies, setting them up to fall into the traps of the ride.It’s all pretty creative. And yes, we do get one brief scene where Axel dresses in costume as a cartoon character in order to do some spy work, (one of the scenes that haters of the film point to for why the movie is bad,) but this is such a brief moment that it hardly defines anything. Overall this is a fun movie. It uses the theme song, called “Axel F,” better than most films in the series. And it gives us something different. Not another Die Hard on a train, plane, ship, bus, or anything else kind of movie, but in an Amusement Park. The setting makes the movie, and the movie is definitely enjoyable.