Asalto a Beverly Hills

In Beverly Hills, a chemical spill by an out-of-control truck causes a mass evacuation of the entire area. However unbeknownst to the citizens of Beverly Hills, the chemical spill is a smokescreen to allow a group of heavily organized ex-cops lead by former cop turned private security head Varney (Lee Ving) to plunder everything of value from the city. Football player "Boomer" Hayes (Ken Wahl) through chance is left behind and with a target placed on him as a witness he gets help from a collaborating cop, Officer Kelvin (Matt Frewer), who suffers a crisis of conscience and the two pair up to foil the heist.

The Taking of Beverly Hills is a 1991 action film by Sidney J. Furie. A big budget blockbuster developed towards the end of Orion Pictures' life, the film was an attempt by Ken Wahl to transition to film after the conclusion of his TV series Wiseguy with Wahl becoming an executive producer and even bringing along several crew from his series. With Orion's bankruptcy the film wound up in limbo and after being acquired as a fire sale acquisition by Nelson Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, it was given a token release making just under $1 million against an estimated $25 million budget. Critics barely acknowledged the film's existence upon release with what little reception noted praising the effects and action while calling the script and performances silly. The Taking of Beverly Hills is absolute ridiculousness and depending on what you're looking for this might be the answer.

Much like Die Hard, The Taking of Beverly Hills tries to employ an unlikely hero in that Ken Wahl isn't a traditional action hero but a football player who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You can see a kind of logic on display in how much like Bruce Willis had been in an acclaimed TV series prior to Die Hard, there was most likely a similar line of thinking that with Ken Wahl's involvement with the hit series Wiseguy that maybe there was a formula in place for success. Unlike Die Hard however The Taking of Beverly Hills doesn't really have the strong characters or tight plotting and is considerably more over the top with "Boomer" Hayes being about as over the top as his nickname suggests and his pairing with Matt Frewer's Kelvin is more likely to elicit laughs than thrills or tension. There's also a thankless love interest role by Harley Jane Kozak as Laura Sage who doesn't really serve much purpose storywise and Robert Davi after an unimpressive turn as a Bond villain in License to Kill shows himself to be a discount take on Han Gruber. While story and character aren't exactly this movie's greatest strengths, the movie does at least deliver on scope and action setpieces. With Wahl playing a character who's not used to using guns the movie has to find other ways of letting him fight against the bad guys and we get some fun action beats like use of tackling dummies, Molotov cocktails made from decanters, and a car chase involving a Rolls-Royce. The production built a duplicate of Rodeo Drive in Mexico City and you better believe they find every imaginable way and then some to demolish Beverly Hills.

This movie is entertaining but it's also incredibly stupid. This is an example of a B-movie given an A-level budget and it makes an ideal pairing with something like Tango & Cash due to its commitment to present over the top ridiculousness with a straight face. If you're looking for carnage and destruction delivered in a way that doesn't overstay its welcome and allows you to laugh at (not with) it, look no further.

Not a bad film, a fairly unlikely plot (though it's not alone here!) and what I'd call watchable. However I don't think it does Ken Wahl justice as he's a good, natural actor which this part doesn't give him the scope to display. I was surprised to see Ken with a pretty unflattering hairstyle (and brown haired too!) and hear his less than deep voice in this. Would hardly have recognised him in fact. Sadly a good actor can't save a mediocre script and nothing-special direction.

Ok, is this movie cheesy? well, yeah. But it's one of those films I rented when it first came out and I kind of enjoyed it (come on, the cop is the same guy who played max headroom). It has it's cheesy moments, not to mention parts that aren't believable (would the whole town really be ok with just staying up playing cards in some hotel lobby?), not to mention how they somehow had such an accurate tracking system they knew down to the penny how much loot they stole? Nothing ground breaking here, but still a good film.

What started out with a promising premise (for the time) turned into little more than an excuse to string together a few hit songs interspersed with some halfway decent action sequences.

Make no mistake though, it's still a fun movie to watch, it's just a shame it wasn't a bit more solid. If it had been, then maybe it could have been built out into a Die Hard-like franchise with Boomer Hayes getting into more and more unlikely situations.

As it is, though, you could do worse for a switch-off-your-brain actioner. Ken Wahl is decent enough in the lead role, Branscombe Richmond is predictable as a somewhat unhinged hitman, Robert Davi puts in some good work as the mastermind behind the heist, and Lee "Mr Boddy" Ving is...there? Matt Frewer deserves better though, and Harley Jane Kozak feels like an afterthought...

With all the remakes and reboots and reskins being made at the moment, I'd like to see this get a remake on the condition that whoever took it on put a bit of actual effort into it, though.

If you love high octane B-Movies, then this one's for you. It's a relentlessly paced onslaught of huge explosions and action that never let's up. It's also highly absurd and totally ridiculous, which is what makes it so great! You really have to suspend all disbelief and just check your brain at the door because common sense was not a factor when writing the scrip. It's dumb, but also so much fun. It wears it's early 90's vibe on it's sleeve (mullets!), and easily one of the most enjoyable Die Hard knockoff's out there, not to mention on a visual level, it looks fantastic. Yeah it may be unintentionally hilarious because of how absurd it is, or how totally ridiculous scenario's are what drive the film forward, but again, it rules because stuff get's blown up on a minute to minute basis and it's kind of hilarious, awesome, and ridiculous all at the same time.

I had to give credit to Ken Wahl on the lead performance as a quarterback football player. To me, whenever I see this movie, it kind of asks me this question... "How can one man go through an entire night of running from the bad guys that are robbing the city of Beverly Hills as if this is some kind of real life-or-death football game all of a sudden?" Well, I don't have the answer to that one just yet.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10.