Review: Beverly Hills Cop III

Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) has to go back to Beverly Hills when his boss (real-life cop Gil Hill) is murdered and the culprit seems to be a well-respected security bigwig (Timothy Carhart) who is running a counterfeit bank note scam in a dismantled amusement park ride at the fictional Wonder World. Judge Reinhold returns as Billy Rosewood, who now runs a police program with a ridiculously protracted acronym DDOCJISC (It’s supposed to be funny, apparently), whilst Hector Elizondo essentially has the John Ashton role of the crusty, no-nonsense cop who initially dislikes Foley. Bronson Pinchot returns as the heavily-accented and bitchy Serge who now runs a guns and armoury boutique (!). Theresa Randle and John Saxon play park employees, with Alan Young (the token human from TV’s amusing “Mr. Ed”) playing the equivalent of Walt Disney.

 

Director John Landis and star Eddie Murphy are generally a good combination (“Trading Places”, “Coming to America”), and screenwriter Steve E. de Souza (“48HRS” – starring Murphy, “Commando”, “The Running Man”, “Predator”, “Die Hard”) knows his way around a good, tongue-in-cheek action movie as well. So what the fuck went wrong with this utterly boring, weak-arse sequel from 1994? Well, according to IMDb, director Landis apparently knew the script wasn’t terribly good but felt his star could ‘save it’. In Landis’ eyes star Murphy deliberately worked against the comedy and refused to be funny. I agree that the script isn’t good and that Murphy isn’t remotely funny in it. The rest, who knows (though Landis hasn’t got the greatest reputation for his humility among other things) According to co-star Pinchot, Murphy was depressed at the state of his career at the time and was very low-energy during filming. Watching his tired and disinterested performance on screen, I definitely believe Pinchot. The man isn’t even trying here and it’s a completely dispiriting experience, save for some good action scenes.

 

For me the biggest problem here is that the plot just plain sucks and isn’t remotely funny or clever. Landis and de Souza really hitch their wagon to the film’s faux-Disney World theme park, it’s where almost the entire film is set and there’s just no humour or interest in it. Even the usual John Landis cameos aren’t interesting this time around. To be honest, I knew I was in trouble when the main villain was being played by Timothy Carhart. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad actor, but such a prominent role requires more than the TV veteran can really muster up. He’s just not up to snuff here in such a diabolical role. Jerk boyfriend roles? That’s your lane, Mr. Carhart. Leave the big bad guy roles to the big boys. I think the film peaks in the opening scene which contains some good action, though Bronson Pinchot’s requisite appearance as Serge is at least decent. If there’s any (mild) laughs here, Pinchot supplies them. Judge Reinhold and Hector Elizondo look to be having fun, but I wasn’t really having any.

 

Like the amusement park tedium, Landis and de Souza seem far more amused with Reinhold’s acronym-obsessed Rosewood than I was here. It’s not a funny joke the first time let alone the thirtieth. I normally like seeing John Saxon and Alan Young on screen, but they are wasted here. Leading lady Theresa Randle is surprisingly wooden as the love interest, sharing anti-chemistry with Murphy. It’s almost like she’s reacting to a green screen in scenes with Murphy, and given Murphy’s disinterest it wouldn’t surprise me if she was acting opposite a tennis ball on a stick.

 

Flat and boring sequel that favours action over comedy, and whilst there’s some enjoyment in the former, the latter is shockingly bad. Murphy looks completely over it and isn’t even trying. This is pretty insulting from people who should know much better, though by this point both director and star had lost a lot of their comedic mojo.

 

Rating: D+