Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Now Available to Stream and on Physical Home Media.

The follow up to the massive Eddie Murphy star maker from 1984 is a much different film than the original. While Martin Brest had a lot more of his film tilted in to comedy action, Tony Scott tilts this sequel in favor more of action comedy. There’s the patent Axel Foley goofy comedy that we’ve seen before, but Scott also injects a lot of his own sensibilities that help his installment stand out. The usual orange and brown hazy lens are included unabashedly. There’s also a lot of Scott’s penchant for framing establishing scenes with wide shots of establishing settings.

“Beverly Hills Cop II” is a fine follow up, even if it’s by no means a great film. The original wasn’t a great film either, but it garners something of a step up because unlike Martin Brest, Tony Scott injects his own flavor. “Beverly Hills Cop II” ups the ante a bit by raising the stakes and giving Axel Foley something of a revenge mission. Two years after the events of the first film, Axel is still conning his way through life and infiltrating the underworld. When his old friend Captain Bogomi is shot and nearly killed in an orchestrated hit, Axel travels back to Los Angeles to help solve another case.

This time, with the help of his old pals Rosewood and Taggart, he must direct his efforts towards unravelling the Alphabet Crimes, a series of robberies committed by leather-jacketed punks. The investigation puts him on the trail of an illegal arms dealer and his hit lady, all of which he hopes to foil to avenge Bogomi. “Beverly Hills Cop II” once again eschews giving Axel Foley much character progression in an effort to keep him a fast talking clown who is a more than capable police officer. When we reunite with Axel Foley, he’s once again on the edge of the underworld and on the verge of being fired by his boss.

Murphy is back in the star making role, delivering on some quips and some interesting improv that is pretty fun, overall. Murphy’s comedic punches help drown out the rather dire tone and assembly of bad guys that don’t really play off of Murphy. At the very least there is Brigitte Nielsen who is gorgeous in the role, even if she also lacks any actual chemistry with Murphy. One of the big missed opportunities of this series is that the writers never actually give us villains that can match Murphy’s energy as Foley, and that’s such a sad missed opportunity. All things said, “Beverly Hills Cop II” is slightly better than the original, even if it’s still just a pretty good action flick.