(Includes Spoilers)
One evening I sat down and turned the TV on, this movie was just starting so I decided to watch, having nothing else to do. I have never seen the original Beverly Hills Cop but I felt with Eddie Murphy back in 1987 this movie couldn't go too far wrong.
I must admit I almost switched off halfway through, but the fact that I didn't must mean something, even though I wasn't too involved in events on screen I wasn't counting down the minutes till it ended either. This is passable as light entertainment, from the Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer stable which produced the likes of Top Gun, Pirates of the Caribbean, Con Air, The Rock, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide, and Days of Thunder. The latter three were all directed by Tony Scott, just like this, but you have to feel this must be classed as one of his lesser achievements.
I think the movie relies somewhat on characters and themes introduced in the original, which is perhaps why I didn't engage in this as much as I could have. This is a buddy movie for Murphy and Judge Reinhold, with most of the jokes being directed at Reinhold's partner John Ashton or the stupid chief (and Gerry Ford). The villains of the piece, who include Bridgette Neilsen in their number, are seemingly there for the sake of it, and only pop up significantly for a shootout at the end, except for some needless intimidation of Dean Stockwell.
Perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention but this seems to be mostly a vehicle for Murphy to showcase his talents, rather than a serious attempt to push the envelope in the action-comedy genre. Most of the film's highlights involve Murphy's character Axel Foley getting into situations where he acts outlandishly, such as in a strip joint, a building site, a gun club, or Hugh Heffner's place. Yes HH cameos as himself, just to give you an idea of how seriously Scott, Bruckheimer, Simpson, and Murphy were taking this movie.
There are entertaining moments with the usual 80s gun fights and car chases, one-liners, humourous internal police squabbles in Detroit and Beverly Hills, as Murphy shoots from the hip and plays all sides against each other, but the movie seems undermined by a lack of purpose, other than making slick gags or making the chief look stupid. You can rely on a Simpson/Bruckheimer movie to be put together well on the technical side, it has clearly had quite a budget lavished upon it, just a shame such attention to detail was not applied to the script (co-written by Murphy).
In all this is a popcorn flick, nothing offensively bad or tasteless creeps in, but if you hate mediocre action/cop comedies, just steer clear and watch the Lethal Weapon movies instead.
5/10
One evening I sat down and turned the TV on, this movie was just starting so I decided to watch, having nothing else to do. I have never seen the original Beverly Hills Cop but I felt with Eddie Murphy back in 1987 this movie couldn't go too far wrong.
I must admit I almost switched off halfway through, but the fact that I didn't must mean something, even though I wasn't too involved in events on screen I wasn't counting down the minutes till it ended either. This is passable as light entertainment, from the Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer stable which produced the likes of Top Gun, Pirates of the Caribbean, Con Air, The Rock, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide, and Days of Thunder. The latter three were all directed by Tony Scott, just like this, but you have to feel this must be classed as one of his lesser achievements.
I think the movie relies somewhat on characters and themes introduced in the original, which is perhaps why I didn't engage in this as much as I could have. This is a buddy movie for Murphy and Judge Reinhold, with most of the jokes being directed at Reinhold's partner John Ashton or the stupid chief (and Gerry Ford). The villains of the piece, who include Bridgette Neilsen in their number, are seemingly there for the sake of it, and only pop up significantly for a shootout at the end, except for some needless intimidation of Dean Stockwell.
Perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention but this seems to be mostly a vehicle for Murphy to showcase his talents, rather than a serious attempt to push the envelope in the action-comedy genre. Most of the film's highlights involve Murphy's character Axel Foley getting into situations where he acts outlandishly, such as in a strip joint, a building site, a gun club, or Hugh Heffner's place. Yes HH cameos as himself, just to give you an idea of how seriously Scott, Bruckheimer, Simpson, and Murphy were taking this movie.
There are entertaining moments with the usual 80s gun fights and car chases, one-liners, humourous internal police squabbles in Detroit and Beverly Hills, as Murphy shoots from the hip and plays all sides against each other, but the movie seems undermined by a lack of purpose, other than making slick gags or making the chief look stupid. You can rely on a Simpson/Bruckheimer movie to be put together well on the technical side, it has clearly had quite a budget lavished upon it, just a shame such attention to detail was not applied to the script (co-written by Murphy).
In all this is a popcorn flick, nothing offensively bad or tasteless creeps in, but if you hate mediocre action/cop comedies, just steer clear and watch the Lethal Weapon movies instead.
5/10