DeuceWild_77
Often criticized as a not-so-good sequel, it earned practically the same money at the B.O. than the classic first movie, which of course it's the best from the "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise, no doubts about that, but the second one is still good in its own way.After the good job he made for the Simpson / Bruckheimer team in "Top Gun", Tony Scott was hired on the spot to helm "Beverly Hills Cop 2", with a bigger budget than the previous film & featuring almost the same cast & crew, but obviously, Scott added its own style to the film, way different than Martin Brest, which infuriated some of the "Beverly Hills Cop" purists.As a commercials and videoclips director, Scott was well-known for his flashy and glossy visual style, fast pacing, quick editing and over-the-top action, and that was the expected final product for "BHC2" and for sure, he delivered it even beyond expectations.It have more action than the first one, but the comedy situations (and timing) still dominate the screen and the higher budget is noticeable as much as the polished visual style of the whole, which was an improvement over the first.Eddie Murphy is back on his definitive role as Axel Foley, after the critical panned "The Golden Child", this time also as a co-writer and with him are back too: Judge Reinhold & John Ashton (the "Laurel & Hardy" of the Beverly Hills Police Department, both with more screen time and enhancing Murphy's acting and the general comedy tone of the movie), Gilbert R. Hill & Paul Reiser (as Inspector Todd and Jeffrey Friedman, respectively Foley's Chief & partner from Detroit, both hilarious), Frank Pesce (the cigarettes' smuggler from the first which appears as Robert Pastorelli's nephew, even if he looks older) & Ronny Cox (in an extended cameo role reprising Lt. Bogomil in a break of shooting "Robocop"), together again for another ride.The new additions to the cast, performed it superbly, with the Berliner Jürgen Prochnow playing the eerie main villain, Maxwell Dent and the Danish Brigitte Nielsen playing his sexy bodyguard / henchwoman, Karla Fry in a clear homage to the James Bond's villains, especially the Christopher Walken / Grace Jones evil duo in "A View to a Kill", which was released 1 year before "BHC2" went to production. Eddie Murphy himself is a great fan of the James Bond movies, hence the "Bond-ish" villains presented here.Allen Garfield as the grumpy Chief Harold Lutz; Dean Stockwell as Carlos Cain; Paul Guilfoyle, from future "C.S.I." fame, as the arms' dealer Nikos Thomopolis; Gilbert Gottfried as Dent's accountant, Sidney Bernstein and a cameo from Hugh Hefner complete the main cast, which also features a "blink and you'll miss it" appearance of Coppola's regular supporting player, Glenn Withrow as Willie, one of Karla's henchmen.The major problem about this sequel it's the screenplay which wasn't as good as the original, it was a bit lazy developed and the movie works much better in the comedy and action sequences alone, than trying to making sense.
So in the first movie, Axel and Lt. Bogomil said goodbye to each other in good terms, after Foley helped the L.A. Police to catch the drug dealer / smuggler Victor Maitland, but nothing suggests that they will became as close as being fishing together (the same for both Rosewood and Taggart), but after two years only they're all best buddies in the world, Axel knows his daughter and Bogomil's house and later in the movie, we see Axel entering Rosewood's place for the very first time. It was way more logical for Axel being closer to Rosewood, after the events of the first movie, than to Bogomil. The sudden "Rosewood goes Rambo" gimmick is an in-joke about Sly Stallone being the first choice for "Beverly Hills Cop" and the fact that Stallone's then wife, Brigitte Nielsen, was cast as the blonde bombshell, Karla Fry, in the movie and we can even glance a poster of "Cobra" starred by both Stallone & Nielsen and released a year before, when Axel is using the phone in Billy's room. This decision also upset some of the fans, but i find it harmless to the general plot.About "The Alphabet Crimes", that was a bit childish and corny decision to use as the villains' device, it looks a bit out of place in an 80's action flick, suiting more that campy Batman TV Show from the 60's, something the Joker or the Riddler could have done.A plot hole occurs when "The Alphabet Crimes" were called by that, when only Adriano's was robbed at the beginning of the movie, even before Bogomil was shot, so with only an envelope with an "A", the apparently incompetent Beverly Hills Police Department, led by Chief Lutz and his right hand, Biddle, they know that the city will have more crimes following the alphabet letters ? Johnny Wishbone, they're not...Besides all the plot problems, visually and technically, "Beverly Hills Cop 2" it's a competent directed, staged and photographed film, with lots of humour, fast paced action scenes that keeps the viewer totally entertained.
The soundtrack is as good as the first one, with Bob Seger performing the main theme "Shakedown", written by Harold Faltermeyer (the composer behind the famous "Axel F." theme) & Keith Forsey, a song that became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.In short, it lacks the novelty and freshness of "Beverly Hills Cop", but it's still a very good sequel and an underrated film in the 80's cannon of action movies. Scott was always way ahead of its time and this movie was re-apreciated in later years as one of the first flicks that influenced the way action movies will be in the future... What is a shame is that there wasn't any action movie made in the last 20 years, that can even match what the late great Tony Scott did here...
moonspinner55
After 1982's "48 Hrs." made him a movie star and 1984's "Beverly Hills Cop" made him a superstar, it was disheartening then to see Eddie Murphy make the safe decision to star in sequels to both films instead charting higher ground. Still, Murphy's return to his "Beverly Hills Cop" role of streetwise Axel Foley from Detroit--as well as his reunion with his likable "Cop" co-stars--seemed to make a lot of moviegoers happy, even if Tony Scott's 'chic' direction turns the whole overproduced thing into a dislocated "Miami Vice" rerun with profane humor. A seemingly unstoppable terrorist ring in Beverly Hills, led by a statuesque platinum blonde female, has left the police captain shot up and on life support and his lead detective and sergeant busted down to traffic duty; feeling loyal to the friends he made on the force when he infiltrated Beverly Hills in 1984, Foley volunteers his services. Perhaps as an incentive to get Murphy on-board, the star was given a co-credit for originating the story, though there isn't much of one. Duty-bound Foley cons his way passed secretaries and security guards--he even tries to b.s. Hugh Hefner!--but these posh hot spots he stakes out seem chosen merely for their photogenic qualities (the plot being negligible). However minor the first film was, it did have a fresh, squirrelly charm that is missing this time. Self-enamored, self-amused Murphy does work hard, though even the camaraderie between he and the supporting players feels rote. ** from ****
Steve Pulaski
If there were ever a sequel to almost, almost succeed entirely on the charisma and charm of its lead actor, it would be Beverly Hills Cop II, the sequel to the unexpected action-comedy surprise of 1984 that skyrocketed at the box office and made actor Eddie Murphy a high-profile name. It also helped kickstart the career of Martin Brest, a highly underrated director who went on to do films like Meet Joe Black and Midnight Run. The film helped the careers of several involved, and the main problem with the sequel is that it operates as if its predecessor never existed in the strangest possible way.Before elaborating on that, Murphy reprises his role as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who teams up once again with Beverly Hills detectives Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to stop a gun-smuggling gang after the department's captain is shot and seriously wounded. Of course, when working with Axel, it's never a dull day, as Axel uses his wiseguy attitude, motormouth tendencies, and exaggerated emotions to further himself in the Beverly Hills life, which he learned in the last film, is much different than the kind of "street operations" that are conducted in Detroit.The issue at hand here is that Beverly Hills Cop II, despite undergoing a change in writers and a change in director, simply feels like it's trying to replicate success rather than trying something different with the formula. Even with the visual artist and the dazzling-effects manager of Tony Scott in the director's chair, providing Beverly Hills Cop II with a distinct look and hue in the visual department, the film never feels like it wants to take any chances or provide us with some daring, more elaborate instances that would make it standout rather than seem almost like a remake of its predecessor.The person to thank for not making this feature as glaringly obtrusive as it could've been is definitely Eddie Murphy, who simply doesn't change and doesn't need to. Murphy has such a zippy and energetic comedic flow and talent that his abilities translate beautifully to a sequel, as he winds up giving probably one of the strongest comedic performances in comedy history in the last two films. Murphy's hilarity is only heightened when Larry Ferguson (writer for The Hunt for Red October) and Warren Skaaren (writer for the original Batman and Beetlejuice) create a scene that he can steal without almost any effort, commanding the entire set with his trademarks and his energy. With those scenes, Murphy becomes an unmatchable force of comedic wit.It's a shame the film surrounding Murphy isn't as good as Murphy himself. Outside of its core performance and immersing visual style, Beverly Hills Cop II lays dormant as it is overtaken by a cookie-cutter, forgettable plot and a setup that feels too close to the original to succeed just as well as it did the first time around. Axel Foley is a memorable comic character and Murphy is an amazing comic spirit; both persons deserve more than Beverly Hills Cop II can offer them in a grander term.Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, and Ronny Cox. Directed by: Tony Scott.
