With Eddie Murphy making a full-fledged return to acting (“Coming 2 America” is coming soon, and “Beverly Hills Cop 4” is in the works), over three days we’re looking back at his most famous role, Axel Foley in the “Beverly Hills Cop” series:
Sticking with what works
It would be so easy for “Beverly Hills Cop II” (1987) to run off the rails and be one of those sequels that’s bigger in every way except quality. And granted, Eddie Murphy pushes the limits with Axel Foley’s shtick.
But despite Tony Scott – known as an early purveyor of action frenzy and bombast – taking over as the director, this sequel ultimately sticks with everything that works from 1984’s original and gives Murphy room to do his thing. Despite flirting with going too big at times, it remains enjoyably (relatively) grounded.
Writers Larry Ferguson (“Alien 3”) and Warren Skaaren (“Batman”) smartly draw Axel back to Beverly Hills by having Ronny Cox’s chief Bogomil – the only authority figure who likes Axel – get shot and hospitalized.
The sequel has a slightly better case than the original, with Brigitte Nielsen as the striking leader of the alphabet bandits who rob businesses in alphabetical order. OK, Karla Fry – or “the big b****” in Axel’s parlance – is not technically the leader, but I already forgot who her male boss is despite having just watched the movie.
The new boss of the Beverly Hills PD, Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield), is a disappointment: He’s there to ride Billy (Judge Reinhold), Taggart (John Ashton) and Axel for no good reason.
He’s in denial about the trio solving the case even as he’s standing at the scene of the villains being rounded up. His behavior makes little sense, because even with the power he holds, he’s not fooling anyone.
Axel gets some help
Back in Detroit, it’s nice to see Paul Reiser’s Jeffrey get a little more to do as he helps Axel with a phone fake-out of Inspector Todd (Gil Hill) so he’ll be allowed to operate in Beverly Hills. “This isn’t my office!” Jeffrey says in a callback to a line from the first film.
In a movie that flirts with being full of itself – thankfully the Hugh Hefner cameo is brief, and Gilbert Gottfried’s turn is just right – the standout supporting character is Billy. He has built up quite a weapons collection since his last experience with Axel, so much so that older-brother-figure Taggart says “We gotta have a talk, Billy.” The always grinning Reinhold joins Murphy in having fun with this stuff.
Billy and Taggart take less convincing this time to follow Axel’s lead, but Axel himself does particularly cringe-worthy things, notably squatting in a mansion after using his huge personality to convince the building contractors to depart.
It’s truly shocking that the place doesn’t get shot up and destroyed, especially since he gives the address to the shady gun clubbers. I’m still waiting for one of Axel’s targets to call him out for being full of shit, but it’s mildly amusing to see him get into the gun club by faking holding a bag of explosives that could go off if he sneezes.
Milder action
Surprisingly, none of the action pieces are as complex as the original’s opening truck chase (it’s nice to learn here that the driver is fixing the damaged vehicles as part of his sentence), although there is a chase where police cruisers turn into bumper cars and there’s decent gunplay in the finale set in a sprawling warehouse yard.
The first film flirts with commenting on rogue police officers and the Drug War, and makes a case that going outside “the book” is sometimes defensible when doing this job, but the sequel doesn’t pretend to be about anything. Now it’s just a case of Axel being Axel.
We’re required to get on board with him in order to like the movie, and “Beverly Hills Cop II” doesn’t have to twist our arm too hard.