Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
DIRECTOR: John Landis CAST: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Hector Elizondo
With Eddie Murphy returning to the throne of Prince Akeem in Coming 2 America, Awfully Good Movies is looking back at the final collaboration between Murphy and the director of the first Coming to America, John Landis, in the sequel that killed Axel Foley: Beverly Hills Cop 3!
As the mid-90s saw both Eddie and John in the midst of a career slump, Murphy decided to make up with Landis after their tensions during Coming to America''s production for another sequel to the action-comedy smash which established Eddie as one of the biggest stars of the 80s. But instead of making up for the lesser quality of Bevery Hills Cop 2, the third installment ended up cutting off all the edges that made Axel F. such a beloved action hero, as Murphy insisted on playing Axel as a more mature and less wiseass character, while secretly suffering from depression that'd been brought about from Eddie's last couple of box office disappointments.
So no matter how much Landis tries to have fun with Axel searching for his boss' killer in a Disneyland-style amusement park, his star's lack of enthusiasm puts a damper on the woefully few moments of decent action and funny comedy. And although the returning Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot try to bring back the magic of the first film, they can't save this series from a lackluster finale which to this day has kept Axel Foley suspended from the force. Fingers crossed that the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop 4 on Netflix doesn't have Eddie fighting crime alongside himself in a female fatsuit.
Head down to these links for past episodes of Awfully Good Movies to make sure everything is fine before things start falling off on a man…