When Eddie Murphy first burst onto the screen as fish-out-of-water
Detroit cop Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop, it was a landmark moment
not only for Murphy, but the production team of the late Don Simpson
and Jerry Bruckheimer. It was 1984, and Murphy had already been
successful on the big screen up until Cop hit, with such successes as
Trading Places and 48 Hours, but Beverly Hills Cop cemented his status
as one of the top draws of the decade. Similarly, Cop was a coming out
party for Simpson and Bruckheimer, who had recently had a modest
amount of success with Flashdance in 1983. With these two films,
Simpson and Bruckheimer tapped into the "MTV Generation" and
were able to create not only theatrical smashes, but kickstart the
trend of hit-laden soundtrack album tie-ins, something that had
generally been an afterthought at the time.
Since
Paramount is releasing all three cop films on DVD at once - 1984's
Beverly Hills Cop, 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II, and 1994's Beverly
Hills Cop III - for the movie part of this review, let's take a look
at the trilogy as a whole. In Axel's first adventure, he is drawn from
away from his home turf of Detroit when his shady buddy Mikey (James
Russo) is capped for stealing some German bearer bonds from his
employer. While he's "encouraged" not to follow up the case
by Inspector Todd (Gilbert R. Hill), he is determined to solve the
murder no matter what. So Axel flies out to Beverly Hills and we're
treated to a fast and funny fish out of water story. The comedy of the
first Beverly Hills Cop develops from the situations of a Detroit cop
in the snooty Hills , such as Axel's first experience with a
stereotypically flamboyant homosexual named Serge (Bronson Pinchot),
to his "banana in the tailpipe" gag. There are good
supporting roles all around in this first installment, especially John
Ashton, Ronny Cox and Judge Reinhold as Taggart and Lieutenants
Bogomil and Rosewood. Steven Berkoff is also awesome as the sadistic
art dealer and smuggler Victor Maitland.
As with all box-
office hits, Hollywood law almost dictates that a sequel must be made.
But with Beverly Hills Cop II, Eddie Murphy took a crack at writing
the story, while Simpson and Bruckheimer enlisted their then-hot Top
Gun director Tony Scott to helm this adventure. Far more action-
oriented than the first installment, Beverly Hills Cop II was not
quite as successful at the box office, but more than satisfied most
fans of Axel Foley.
The story begins when Captain Bogomil is
shot in broad daylight, and Axel feels the need to head out to
California to help his friends find his would-be assassin.
Begrudgingly, Taggart and Rosewood once again team up with Foley, and
uncover a tangled web of insurance fraud and gun running. Knowing that
the fish out of water gag was already tired, the script wisely focused
on the relationship between the trio of detectives, and the highlight
of this film is probably the expansion of the Rosewood character.
While his antics were definitely over-the-top, it never quite fell
over the ledge of stupidity. Once again the cast contains a wealth of
strong supporting lineup, with Jurgen Prochnow, Brigitte Nielsen and
Dean Stockwell playing the heavies this time around, Gilbert Godfrey
as his typical obnoxious self, and Paul Reiser once again returning in
a cameo as Axel's buddy from Detroit.
This finally brings
me to Beverly Hills Cop III, and where do I start with what went wrong
with this picture? First, Steven E. De Souza took a crack at the
script, and I personally feel this wouldn't have been a bad thing
since he had recently written Street Fighter and part of The
Flintstones. But Eddie Murphy was still smarting from a rash of box-
office failures since the release of Coming to America, so a third go-
around for Foley? And enter John Landis, who also hadn't had a real
hit since Coming to America. The ingredients may have seemed right,
but instead of the humor evolving out of the situations, Landis chose
to hammer the audience with an overabundance of slapstick.
Cop III opens with Axel and Inspector Todd busting up a chop shop
in Detroit, but when Todd is killed during the action, Axel must find
his beloved inspector's killers. This weakly devised plot takes Axel
back to Beverly Hills where he discovers a counterfeit money ring, and
in what I assume is a thinly veiled slap towards Disney and/or
Universal, the trails leads Axel to an amusement park. Judge Reinhold
also returns as Rosewood, but his eccentricities from part II are
taken to a sad extreme this time around. Theresa Randle shows up as
Janice, Axel's love interest in this film, but what's the point? And
as good as an actor as Hector Elizondo is, nothing could save this
disastrous movie. So, alas, the main highlight of Cop III is playing
the game of "Spot the director cameos!" In what may now be
seen as justice for Jar Jar Binks, George Lucas pops up briefly as a
disappointed man in the amusement park...
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Like any good film-
collecting automaton, this is my third go around for the Beverly Hills
Cop films. After the wonderful THX widescreen releases in 1994, I
didn't think the films could be improved, but I was wrong. Beverly
Hills Cop III is the bastard stepchild of the series, but while the
movie itself is quite weak, it sports the best-looking transfer of the
bunch.
Presented in it original 1.85 aspect ratio, this new
anamorphic print benefits from the overall simplicity of the
production. As with all of John Landis's films that I've seen, he's
pretty straightforward in his style and avoids the heavy-filter look
of a Beverly Hills Cop II. The print still seems to sport some of the
blemishes that marred the original laserdisc, but the colors are much
richer and more accurately portrayed. The hues are incredibly vibrant
during the scenes set in the whimsical Wonder World, for example, and
fleshtones accurate. Black level and contrast are solid throughout,
with strong shadow delineation the sharpest presentation of the three
films. And as with the previous two installments, there are no signs
of compression artifacts and edge enhancement is negligible.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
Unfortunately, when
Paramount released the widescreen versions of the Cop films on
laserdisc, it was right before Dolby Digital became standard on most
releases. But now, they have wisely sprung for new 5.1 mixes for all
three films. Beverly Hills Cop III was the first of the series to take
advantage of digital sound, and as with the video transfer, the audio
mix of this film is the best of the bunch.
While Paramount
took the time to separate the center channel for the mixes of Beverly
Hills Cop I and II, there was no need to do so with this film, and the
rear channels are also much more active. Unlike Cop I and II the
differences between the 5.1 and surround sound mixes we much more
obvious. Not only is the score decently mixed to the rear channels,
there are some very distinct split surround use. During the opening
firefight and ensuing chase, there is a wonderful balance between the
music and effects. Shots ricochet in the rear channels, and cars
whoosh up the left and right sides of the sound field with strong
imaging. I think there were even a few solid left to right rear
channel effects used in this film that lend a nice sense of
envelopment to the mix. The use of the LFE channel seemed a little
more subdued on this film than in the first two, but it worked fine
with the overall mix.
In addition to the English 5.1 and 2.0
surround tracks, a French 2.0 surround dub is also included, along
with English subtitles and Closed Captions.
Supplements:
What Goodies Are There?
As you would expect given its weak
box office and general disdain even among Axel Foley fans, Beverly
Hills Cop III features the least amount of extras of any the Paramount
Cop DVDs.
The menu design is mildly amusing, taking us to
Serge's Beverly Hills Gun Boutique, but it is the most basic if the
three discs by far. Besides the Theatrical Trailer for Beverly
Hills Cop III only (in anamorphic widescreen and 2.0 surround) there
is a new featurette featuring all-new cast and crew interviews, the
24-minute Beverly Hills Cop III – Triple Axel. This is the
most slipshod of the documentaries, and has been culled from a few new
interviews with Judge Reinhold, Steven E. de Souza, and Robert Rehme.
(Actually, I'm only assuming that de Souza and Rehme's interviews are
new, since these snippets are of lower quality than most other
sequences so I can't be 100% certain.) Unfortunately, the only
contributions from John Landis and Eddie Murphy have been take from a
series of 1994 onset interviews, but considering how poorly this film
was received, , I'm surprised any people came back to provide
perspective at all...
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get
when you pop the disc in your PC?
The F in Axel F stands
for failure. There is no DVD-ROM content to speak of, not that I
really expected any on a Paramount release.
Parting
Thoughts
It about time the Beverly Hills Cop franchise
arrived on DVD! Available separately for $24.95 a pop or together in a
3-pack for $74.95 (not much of a deal, eh?) Beverly Hills Cop III is
unfortunately the weakest film of the series but still a solid DVD.
The extras are comparatively weak, but the transfer and audio mix well
above average so if you're a diehard Axel Foley fan, this is worth
picking up, especially as part of the box set.
Top Sellers 
