Beverly Hills Cop II - Un piedipiatti a Beverly Hills II

Long ago, when Eddie Murphy was the biggest star in Hollywood, Beverly Hills Cop 2 was the most anticipated film of 1987. Movies like Trading Places and 48 Hours made Murphy famous. But Axel Foley made him a superstar. Impressed by Top Gun (even though it's a truly awful film), Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer brought Tony Scott on board to direct. What they forgot to do was polish the script.

Foley returns to Beverly Hills to help solve 'The Alphabet Crimes' after his old pal Lt. Bogomil is gunned down in the street. With Taggart and Rosewood in tow (now actually doing police work instead of standing by) Axel uncovers a seriously convoluted conspiracy.

The story should have taken a back seat to allow Murphy to work over the massive holes in the plot with his distracting wisecracks. I won't lie to you, there are some utterly horrible contrivances in BHC2 (Bogomil's daughter digging up dirt at the insurance company she just happens to work at is honestly the most obnoxious movie coincidence of all time), but you'll just have to suffer them.

This might have been easy to overlook, but Tony Scott, still finding his feet as a director, and his editors turn a great deal of the film into an incomprehensible mess. Some of the continuity errors are just baffling (where did Rosewood get the coffee cup from at the night club crash scene?) and it makes the action quite hard to follow.

However, Tony Scott's highly visual style of filmmaking is far more suiting to this kind of environment. The wealth and decadence of late 80s California is all over this movie, and it's the only aspect where it improves on the original. I doubt the latter day Scott would make the movie this way, but it's definitely the best looking of the trilogy. It's also the only one to be shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (however it's Super35 instead of the superior anamorphic Panavision format).

I finally saw this sequel and it was better than what many people say. Murphy has some very hilarious moments and Reinhold and Ashton were just as good. Also, the action scene's were decent too, though the chase with the cement truck was'nt as good as the chase in the first with the transport truck. I did notice that the film lacked the freshness of the first one but still it was fun to watch.

Sequel to the hugely successful 1984 movies, this film was most unfairly slated by critics. I believe in some ways it is better than the original and certainly far, far better than the third installment. The story is, despite what everyone says, very engaging and keeps you watching the whole time. Eddie Murphy starred in Coming to America shortly after this, and then his career took a nosedive, although he seems to be making a comeback. If he is given more roles like this, he'll do better.

In Beverly Hills, cops Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox), Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), and John Taggart (John Ashton) are investigating a series of crimes known as "The Alphabet Crimes" so named because of the envelopes containing coded messages with a letter of the Alphabet on the envelope. Meanwhile, in Detroit, Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is working undercover on a credit card fraud ring. After Bogomil is shot and wounded by assailants attached to the crimes, Axel soon learns of what has transpired and without his superior's knowledge travels to Beverly Hills to assist Taggart and Rosewood on an investigation as they avoid the incompetent and politically motivated Chief Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield).

Following the success of Beverly Hills Cop, Paramount Pictures, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, and star Eddie Murphy were eager to do a follow-up. While original director Martin Brest turned down the opportunity to return, Tony Scott who'd directed Top Gun for Bruckheimer and Simpson was hired due not only to his work on Top Gun but also due to Scott's desire to work with Murphy. As with the original film there was a lot of re-writes going on behind the scenes, but in addition to the usual on the fly improvisation the film also needed reshoots as Tony Scott proved more adept at action rather than comedy necessitating the inclusion of additional comedy scenes. While the film was not as successful as its predecessor, it still made enough to be considered a blockbuster hit becoming the third highest grossing film of 1987. Critical reception tended to run more mixed and even Eddie Murphy has voiced similar feelings saying "it was probably the most successful mediocre movie in history". Beverly Hills Cop II isn't an awful movie and is perfectly serviceable, but it also feels like a more manufactured take on the first film often eschewing the rawness of the original in favor of flash and polish.

Despite not having the best material to work with, Eddie Murphy is still fun playing Axel Foley who still gets to use his motormouthed lies to work his way through situations such as how he manages to live in a mansion for the duration of the plot. Admittedly there's a lot of scenes where it seems like Murphy's trying to wring life out of not all that impressive sequences (an opening bit involving Foley investigating fraudulent credit cards goes nowhere except a reference to a one off character from the opening scene of the last movie) and some of his lies don't have the feeling of spontaneity they had previously such as one involving the Playboy Mansion. Murphy, Reinhold, and Ashton work well together and the fact they share so much screentime together is a plus to the movie. In terms of the rest of the movie, it does feel like it's more of a traditional blockbuster this time around. If the first Beverly Hills Cop was a comic detective story with an edge and some action, Beverly Hills Cop is an action movie where the comedy is largely secondary. There are many more action setpieces in this sequel with each one trying to up the ante on the climactic ending from the first film, but in the process the movie loses a lot of the raw identity that resonated so much in the first film. The plot basically follows the same path as the original with Foley investigating in Beverly Hills for personal reasons (in this case rapidly setting up Foley and Bogomil have since become friends) but there's so little build-up or personal investment that the stakes never feel as high and you're constantly reminded of how much better the first one did this. Jurgen Prochnow and Brigette Nielsen are at least charismatic and imposing villains, but they don't play against Murphy as successfully as Steven berkoff did.

Beverly Hills Cop II is the definition of "servicable". There's nothing especially wrong with it, but there's also nothing especially right with it and it mostly rests on the goodwill of its cast to justify its existence.

Axel Foley is back in Detroit when he hears his old friend Bogomil has been shot during an investigation into the Alphabet robberies. He returns to Beverly Hills to rejoin Taggart and Rosewood in the investigation. Hooking himself up in a big mansion Axel lives well until the trio find themselve up against Maxwell Dent and Karla Fry who are planning a major arms deal with the profits from the robberies.

Never one to turn down a sequel to a hit film (how many has he done now?) Murphy returns for part 2. The first problem the film has is how to keep the material fresh. One of the first things we discover is that the producers didn't manage to answer this question very well. The plot again is nothing special – it could be any cop thriller although the action scenes are a little bigger this time around.

In terms of comedy, Murphy's shtick isn't as funny this time around as he merely wheels out the same sort of jokes all over again – we even have the difficult Lieutant from part one replaced with, you guessed it, another difficult authoruty figure! While Murphy tries hard he can't lift this the way he lifted the first one, however it still has some funny touches added.

The best addition (and one of the few that works) is Rosewood's sudden obsession with big guns – that works because it's new, but it's the only bit. Ashton replays his performance as the annoyed Taggart. The baddies are not as good as before – Nielsen is pretty vapid if you ask me, and I don't think she's sexy in the least. Prochnow is ok I guess but really can't match the `ham and eggs' haminess of Berkoff. Stockwell is a nice addition and Reiser is always watchable.

Overall it's still fun but really it's an inferior copy to the original (just like all Murphy's sequels). Lacks spark, flair and freshness but is still a passable cop comedy.