In Beverly Hills Cop III, Detective Axel Foley is working on a new case involving car theft. A number of vehicles have been stolen in Detroit and are being taken to a chop shop.
Axel has plans to raid the chop shop at night, and arrest all those involved. However, minutes before he arrives at the facility, an armed gang appears and executes the car thieves.
When Axel arrives, he disturbs the gang, resulting in a shoot-out. Moments later, Axel’s superior officer, Inspector Todd, joins the shoot-out and is killed by the leader of the gang.
When the killer flees the scene, Axel gives chase, but is intercepted by the Secret Service, who tell Axel to let the killer go. The man is connected to a much larger operation, which is being monitored by the federal government, and Axel is told not to interfere.
Although Axel has no choice but to abide by the Secret Service’s request, he has no plans to let Inspector Todd’s killer get away. And when Axel discovers the man has links to a Beverly Hills theme park known as Wonder World, he heads off in pursuit.
Directed by John Landis, Beverly Hills Cop III stars Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Hector Elizondo, Timothy Carhart, John Saxon, Bronson Pinchot, and Gil Hill. The movie is an action comedy and the third entry in the Beverly Hills Cop movie series.
And it’s ‘third time’s a charm’, right? Well, no, unfortunately not, as Beverly Hills Cop III is something of a damp squib.
The film is certainly less appealing than Beverly Hills Cop II, and is a considerable step down from Beverly Hills Cop. It starts off fine, but gets progressively worse as it goes on, and simply becomes a generic action film by the end.
The biggest issue with Beverly Hills Cop III is its lack of pizzazz and creativity, which starts at the top and works its way down. Director John Landis fails to do anything exciting with his movie, and everything comes across as staged, artificial, or underwhelming.
Landis delivers a by-the-numbers sequel, which lacks any flare or energy. The ideas are there, and so are the set pieces, but there’s simply no passion.
And speaking of passion, this extends to a leading man who no longer seems invested in the material. While Eddie Murphy brought his A-game in the first two movies, this simply isn’t the case this time around.
For reasons known only to Murphy, the actor fails to deliver the same excitement or charisma he displayed in the two previous films. Murphy no longer seems to be playing the part of Axel Foley, instead he’s just playing a version of himself.
The lights are on, but the generator seems out of juice and only running at half speed. This isn’t Axel Foley at all.
This also doesn’t quite feel like a Beverly Hills Cop movie. There’s no John Ashton as Taggart, there’s no Ronny Cox as Bogomil, and even returnees Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot as Rosewood and Serge respectively, seem less arsed this time around.
There’s a weird Hollywood sheen to the film, which removes the gritty aesthetic and appears to dull the performances. It also doesn’t help the majority of the film is set in a theme park, which makes the whole thing feel landlocked and a tad claustrophobic.
No one sets out to make a bad movie, and I believe Landis, Murphy, and everyone else involved in this picture had fairly good intentions to begin with, but Beverly Hills Cop III just doesn’t work. The movie starts off promising, but loses momentum very quickly, and by the end no one seems like they really care any more.
The whole thing is padded out, and no amount of celebrity cameos (George Lucas, Al Green, Ray Harryhausen, etc) can make up for the poor story and half-hearted direction. It should be better than it is, but it’s simply not.
Should you wish to check out Beverly Hills Cop III for yourself (although I’m not entirely sure why you would), the movie is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K as part of the Beverly Hills Cop collection. The movie is also on digital platforms and is currently streaming on Netflix.
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