Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

That was an excellent one.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This movie is just underrated. imo, this is better then 2. 2 was the weakest.

Eddie Murphy was a symbol of the more flamboyant, uncompromising, politically incorrect and, above all, fun and entertaining 80's Era, but by the time the decade was over and the 90's arrived, this kind of actors and the peculiar genre of 80's lighthearted comedies started to go downhill in favor of a more matured, adult oriented comedies, but Eddie as a profitable mega-star with several hit movies and legions of fans, the studios tried everything they could to establish him for the new Era.Maybe his wisecracking screen personna didn't fit well in the general mood and tone of the 90's or the screenplays he started to receive were poor, the fact is that besides the Disney oriented "The Nutty Professor", which was a major hit everywhere, all of his movies were critically bashed or B.O. flops and "Beverly Hills Cop 3" was, deservedly, both.In the absence of Martin Brest who helmed the first movie and Tony Scott who directed the 'not so well received' sequel, John Landis was the perfect replacement for the director's chair, after all, he directed Murphy in two of his major hits: "Trading Places" ('83) & "Coming to America" ('88).The major problem was that at that time, Landis was far away from his glory days of comedy gold and Murphy was more interested in becoming the next action hero, following Wesley Snipes who also started on comedy, but was enjoying major success as a lead action star in such movies as "Passenger 57" ('92); "Demolition Man" ('93); "Rising Sun" ('93) or "Drop Zone" ('94).Murphy came back to the character of Axel Foley, playing him more mature & restrained and showing his dramatic side, as well trying to enhance him as a "man of action" too for the 90's decade, but he looks kind of lost in the role this time, like if the light he once had, switched off and he became a bit dull, playing it 'by the book' with more 'correctness' and less energy that didn't fit well in an once colorful, wisecracking and vivid character. Probably it was deliberated, as Murphy wanted to establish himself as a grown-up actor, but that simply didn't work.In the years between "BHC2" and this one, several screenplays were penned to conclude the trilogy, and the one that was actually filmed was certainly the worst, it lacks humour, it lacks excitement and in fact, it's a way boring film. The previous one also had a very childish approach to the villains' motifs and devices, but at least it had Murphy in his prime, improvising through the scenes; almost the same cast & crew; a frenetic pacing and stunning visuals, everything that "Cop III" don't have, just a generic & uninspired direction and passable photography. In the supporting cast, Judge Reinhold is back as Billy Rosewood, but John Ashton's absence as John Taggart is sorely missed, even with a great character actor as Hector Elizondo used as a "fill-in", the 'Laurel & Hardy' chemistry was gone. Ronny Cox & Paul Reiser also didn't come back and Gilbert R. Hill just appears in a tiny cameo as a favor to Eddie Murphy to give the Foley character a motif to go back to Beverly Hills (a re-hash from the first movie). Bronson Pinchot is hilarious as Serge as he was in the original, this time around with a bigger screen time and his scenes are some of the movie's highlights. Tim Carhart is a good main baddie, not as good as Steven Berkoff as Victor Maitland or Jurgen Prochnow as Maxwell Dent, but still leaves his mark of vileness to the franchise that always had great antagonists.In short, "Beverly Hills Cop 3" isn't a total disaster, it have its moments of humour (the "Ellis DeWald! Ellis DeWald! scene, when the viewer can glance the shades of the old Eddie Murphy playing Axel Foley) and some o.k. staged action sequences in the third act, but overall it's a bit depressing experience to follow, and even more if it was watched in a movie marathon of this franchise, after the brilliance of the first two...

Axle Foley (Eddie Murphy) is in charge of a car theft ring take down but doesn't call in SWAT. They confront some heavily armed killers who just massacred the crew. His beloved boss Inspector Todd (Gilbert R. Hill) is killed. Secret service agent Steve Fulbright (Stephen McHattie) stops him from catching the bad guy. Some evidences point to Wonder World in LA owned by Uncle Dave Thornton (Alan Young). Axel goes out to California to reunite with Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) who has a new partner in Jon Flint (Héctor Elizondo). Axel gets into a shootout at Wonder World and even rescues a couple of kids. Ellis De Wald (Timothy Carhart) is the head of park security who Axle immediately recognizes as the man who killed Todd. Flint is a fan of De Wald and doesn't believe Axel. Uncle Dave tells Axel about some suspicious things and Janice (Theresa Randle) tries to help him.The story is pretty stupid and the amusement park setting is really silly. I guess it's suppose to be subversive somehow. Instead, it just diminishes the movie's edginess and realism. It makes everything look cheesy especially with George Lucas making a cameo. Bronson Pinchot's Serge makes one of the strangest career change ever and it adds even more to the cheese factor. Eddie Murphy is still the same charismatic guy and it's nice to have Judge Reinhold back. However this one misses John Ashton and Ronny Cox. It also misses some sense of realistic action.

By critics' reviews, Part III may have been the worst off of the three Beverly Hills Cop movies by far; however, I thought it was still fun to watch and great entertainment. Part III deals with Detroit Cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) stumbling upon a counterfeit ring, operating from a Beverly Hills theme park by a corrupt community leader Ellis De Wald (Timothy Carhart). Foley witnessed the same man that gunned down his boss when he was investigating a car theft ring in Detroit earlier. As a result, it's back to Beverly Hills for Axel and another mission of exact revenge and clashing with the Beverly Hills Police Department.Although comedies, the first two films had a sensitive and no-nonsense touch to it, dealing with high-profiled police cases. This film, by contrast, has a more light-hearted touch as a large part of the movie is set in a Disneyland-style theme park called Wonderland. I didn't mind this, actually. The movie was still action-packed and Murphy still had his humorous and witty-style while portraying Foley. De Wald, the main villain, is probably the most ruthless of all the bad guys in the three movies - very devious and trigger-happy.Theresa Randle was great as park employee Janice, and she had good on-screen chemistry with Murphy. And, Judge Reinhold returned and gave another memorable performance as the calm and cool Billy Rosewood. I didn't care for the Jon Flint character very much (Hector Elizondo); I thought he served no real purpose in the movie other than trying to intervene with Foley's unsuspecting police moves. I would have preferred the the filmmakers putting Sgt. Taggert's character (John Ashton) back in the movie rather than retiring him off.Rounding up the cast was a bunch of nice cameos by screenwriters, composers and directors, including George Lucus and Richard and Robert Sherman, and a co-star role by Alan Young as Walt Disney-like character Uncle Dave. He gave a memorable and touching role and I wished the filmmakers could have made Young appear in more scenes.Overall, not the best of the Beverly Hills movies, but not a distant third either.Grade B