Customer Reviews

Beverly Hills Cop 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Long ago, when Eddie Murphy was the biggest star in Hollywood, Beverly Hills Cop 2 was the most anticipated film of 1987. Movies like Trading Places and 48 Hours made Murphy famous. But Axel Foley made him a superstar. Impressed by Top Gun (even though it's a truly awful film), Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer brought Tony Scott on board to direct. What they forgot to do was polish the script.

Foley returns to Beverly Hills to help solve 'The Alphabet Crimes' after his old pal Lt. Bogomil is gunned down in the street. With Taggart and Rosewood in tow (now actually doing police work instead of standing by) Axel uncovers a seriously convoluted conspiracy.

The story should have taken a back seat to allow Murphy to work over the massive holes in the plot with his distracting wisecracks. I won't lie to you, there are some utterly horrible contrivances in BHC2 (Bogomil's daughter digging up dirt at the insurance company she just happens to work at is honestly the most obnoxious movie coincidence of all time), but you'll just have to suffer them.

This might have been easy to overlook, but Tony Scott, still finding his feet as a director, and his editors turn a great deal of the film into an incomprehensible mess. Some of the continuity errors are just baffling (where did Rosewood get the coffee cup from at the night club crash scene?) and it makes the action quite hard to follow.

However, Tony Scott's highly visual style of filmmaking is far more suiting to this kind of environment. The wealth and decadence of late 80s California is all over this movie, and it's the only aspect where it improves on the original. I doubt the latter day Scott would make the movie this way, but it's definitely the best looking of the trilogy. It's also the only one to be shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (however it's Super35 instead of the superior anamorphic Panavision format).

The DVD looks horrible. It really ought to be on Blu Ray.

It's hard to repeat the same magic over again, and perhaps this film best states that. Tony Scott directs this time around and while he made this one flashier and more action-packed than its predecessor, he doesn't quite handle it as well as Martin Brest did. Still, Eddie Murphy is funny as ever and delivers many memorable performances. Judge Reinhold and John Ashton are also onboard and are in fine form. To sum it all up, the performances are great (with Paul Reiser having a larger role than before) and the visual style is WOW. But the plot is very thin this time around and the film drags towards the end. It doesn't hold a candle to the first one, but stands alright on its own. Just watch and enjoy.

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) returns to Beverly Hills to take on thugs after his police captain friend Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is shot and wounded. Flashy sequel is never boring but there are several problems: Murphy is loud and obnoxious, timid by the book cop Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) is now a gun freak who never questions authority, and Bogomil is seen at the beginning of the film happily chatting with Foley about a fishing trip, despite the fact that he ran Foley out of town at the conclusion of the previous film. The action sequences are pretty overkill and come off as exhausting rather than exhilarating. The "Alphabet Bandit" scenario is pretty cartoonish. Mindless entertainment but this was 1987's top grosser, so you decide.

The original Beverley Hills Cop is one of those films that remains a cult classic because of the fact that it's such a product of the time it was made. This quintessential eighties style is carried over to the sequel, made three years later, and although part two; like many sequels, never quite manages that same verve as the original film - it still offers a good time, and anyone that enjoyed the first installment (and who didn't?) will probably have a good time with this sequel too. All the main players from the original film have been rounded up once again, with Eddie Murphy heading a capable ensemble cast, lots of wisecracks and some gratuitously over the top action sequences. The plot is, as you would expect, superfluous to the style of the film; and much of the movie is simply tailored around it; but anyway, it follows maverick copper Axel Foley and his two California police cronies as they are pulled into a case known as the 'alphabet murders', which involves a robbery, a tall blonde woman and a gun shop owner.

I've got to say that Eddie Murphy's wisecracks were a lot funnier in the first film. While they were still over the top, they were at least sort of believable. Here, however, Murphy goes massively over the top, and it's hard to imagine how anyone that obnoxious doesn't end up with a cracked jaw. Anyway, Murphy obviously enjoys himself; and if you can get by the complete lack of logic, you probably will too. True to style, the action is completely over the top too; with several ridiculous sequences combining to make the movie the entertaining blockbuster that it is. The film lacks any kind of themes or substance, meaning that it will both not please serious film fans, and that this reviewer is running out of steam; but I will say that this movie does have a point to make, and that is simply entertaining it's audience. It may be completely silly, illogical fun; but some movies need to be there just to entertain, and this is one of those. I wouldn't recommend sticking this movie at the top of any must see lists, or going into with huge expectations; but it's a good time, that's for sure.

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is back in the hit sequel, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Many times sequels to original blockbuster films are sucky. There even more sucky when the sequel is done by a different director (Tony Scott) than the original film (Martin Brest) , but in this case that's not the case. Beverly Hills Cop 2 is amazingly good, it's funny, has a good script,
has action and suspense.

THe story in this film is that Axel's buddy, and friend former Chief Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) has been shot and left for dead by a crazy lunatic arms dealer named Karly Fry (brilliant done by Brigitte Nielsen).

Axel , back in Detroit, heads to Beverly Hills to see his friend and to aid his fellow friends Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) in getting justice for his friend.

However, a new police chief Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield) a small man with lots of power, plans to derail their investigation while at the same kissing the butt of the mayor (Robert Ridgely) to further his career and reputation.

Like I said, Beverly Hills Cop 2 has alot of action. There are gun fights, car chases and everything found in a good action flick.

However, I also liked the fact that all the characters were back in the film and that all of them were as close as ever.

Billy Rosewood, the nice and anal friend of Taggart, has become a wannabee Rambo type guy collecting guns and weapons leading to Taggart telling him that "We need to talk". lol

However, Billy and Taggart in the last film do become helpful in helping Axel, along with giving us a couple of good laughs.

Axel (Eddie Murphy) is again at his comical best, doing everything legal and illegal to find out whose behind his friend's shooting and bringing them down hard.


All in all, Beverly Hills Cop 2 is a great sequel to the original. Many of the cool music tunes are back along with a couple of new ones, plus the film manages to recreate the hysterical laughs from the first film and adds alot of action.

There has actually been 2 games made of Beverly Hills Cop. One for the PC and one for the Commodore 64.

This is the best one. I love it. Every scene in it is great and the language is funny. Murphy is in his best movie ever. Chris Rock has a cameo appearance. Directed by Tony Scott.

The 2nd movies are never as good as the originals but with that being said, this movie was still great. This time he's back in Beverly Hills to solve a series of Alphabet crimes. Unfortunately this movie is a lot more violent than the first, but If you haven't seen this movie, it's time! Once again, Eddy Murphy is perfect and totally believable in this action comedy. I really can watch all of his Beverly Hills Cop movies over & over again. I don't want to give any of the story away, but this is a MUST SEE!!! Pick up all 3 movies today. You'll be glad you did.

I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it. I felt Eddie Murphy was brilliantly funny. Number two lived up to number one. I could watch this movie over and over agian. I highly recommend it.

Forgive me for using part of my review for the original film to explain my rating for the sequels. "When Eddie Murphy took the world by storm, he was pretty much able to do whatever he wanted in movies. After a few extremely funny films, Eddie took a shot at the action genre and while the Beverly Hills Cop series does succeed on some levels, it falls short because Eddie just isn't that good of a serious actor. This film may seems familiar, almost 48 hours-ish, but with nowhere near the wit. It's a solid action film with some funny moments, but if you're expecting LOL funny Murphy, then this is going to disappoint you. Eddie looks like a kid playing cops and robbers in these films and while they are not meant to be taken completely seriously, they are played serious enough that we must believe Murphy is this character, which we do not!" Surprisingly this sequel is almost as good as the original.

This is a good sequel with a lot of action and comedy! It's been two years since the original and Axel comes back to Beverly Hills because someone shoots Captain Andrew Bogomil. He is still alive, but Axel, Billy, and Taggart figure out who is behind the Alphabet crimes and stop the person who shot the Captain. I highly recommend BEVERLY HILLS COP II!!!