When Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) plans a sting operation on a mechanic chop shop his commanding officer Captain Todd (Gilbert R. Hall) is gunned down in front of him. Todd’s last words are, “Axel are you on a coffee break, go and get that son of a bitch.” Of course the trail of the murderers will take Foley to Beverly Hills and more specifically a theme park called Wonderworld.
This time Beverly Hills is a little bit different for Foley. Only Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) is there to meet him. Taggert is mentioned briefly as having retired to Phoenix whilst Bogomil is not even given the courtesy of a single line in the script to explain his disappearance. Rosewood now has a silly job title (DDO-JSIOC) and sits in an office where he is supposed to coordinate law enforcement over jurisdictional lines. Alongside him is Detective John Flint (Hector Elizondo) whose role is so clearly meant to be Taggert that the rewrite they did to compensate for it not being him must have taken all of half an hour.
The film in the main revolves around Foley getting into trouble on the site of the theme park. Rescuing some kids from a faulty ride and having shoot outs with security in the bowels of the theme park’s working corridors whilst annoying the villain of the piece.
The resulting film is diabolically bad. The connective tissue with the other films is flimsy. Foley’s commanding officer is gunned down starting the film as the other two began with Foley needing to avenge a friend. But from there everything is off. Foley spends little to no time in Beverly Hills aside from the police station and theme park which means there is little to no “fish out of water” comedy. The fact that only Billy remains means the buddy comedy is limited. This time our villain, Ellis De Wald (Timothy Carhart) is fully hands on and kills indiscriminately. This is no mastermind pulling the strings. In what seems a desperate attempt to make this a Beverly Hills Cop movie they bring back Serge (Bronson Pinchot) from the first film for two scenes as an arms dealer. They even feel the need to throw in a romantic subplot with a character that Foley barely interacts with.
Director John Landis provides a tone more in line with a Police Academy comedy than a Beverly Hills Cop feature. The opening sequence that involves the gunning down of a character seen in all three films is proceeded by a song and dance routine by two burly mechanics to a Supremes song. Whilst the faulty ride that Foley rescues the kids from is broken by some security guards pressing some buttons on the console out of sequence. If the theme park rides break that easily I wonder how it is still in operation. Watching Foley perform an awkward dance alongside theme park mascots is excruciatingly unlike the character presented in the first two films. All the while the film is shot as though it’s a sitcom with harsh bright lighting on functional sets that smack of low budget.
Nothing makes sense. This is a film that features cameos from film luminaries such as George Lucas, Joe Dante and Ray Harryhausen for no reason. It features a made up gun that houses a microwave and stereo system and a wooden park bench that can protect Foley from machine gun fire. Rosewood’s office has a map with flashing lights that tell him where crimes are happening, anyone can walk into restricted areas of a theme park and Axel Foley can hold his weight and that of two kids on a rope dangling from a ride and slide down said rope without any gloves. I could go on and on about how insanely bad and unbelievable every plot decision is and it would be more entertaining than you watching the film.
It should not come as a surprise that this film went through a lot of developmental turmoil before it finally got made. What does come as a surprise is they decided to go ahead with this script. No wonder it has taken another thirty years for the fourth Beverly Hills Cop film to arrive.
Just awful.
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