A Movie That Couldn't Find Its Footing

Beverly Hills Cop III Review: Will Three Be the Charm, Part II

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to part two. Now, where were we? Let’s see, Wonder World, undercover pervert, Uncle Dave; Oh and fine ass models who wouldn’t be caught dead working at a theme park. 

Now, they would be giving rides, alright; Just not at a theme park. 

The Foley theme they play on the ride to the beach has really grown on me.

The trio arrives at the beach as Rosewood notifies every law enforcement agency from the US of A all the way to Lebanon.

Damn the truck! I want to search those beach babes that just strolled by.

Oh, how I miss the 90’s more and more each day.

Poor Billy; Dirty Rosewood called on all that firepower for nothing.

His superiors are not going to be amused when they find out about the truck being empty.

This is Geraldo inside Al Capone's vault all over again.

All Rivera found was an empty can of Coors’ Light and a box of Cheese Ritz.

As for the truck, it wasn’t completely empty.

It did contain some paper residue which would lead to a big break in the case.

Foley spots the paper as being used to make funny money which ties back t0?

If you guessed Wonder World, you would’ve won a big ass prize that you would never be able to collect.

Back to Wonder World we go.

By now, all the security guards have pictures of Foley so he dresses up as one of the mascots to sneak into the building.

He’s spotted by the chubby kid from The Parent’Hood and the granny from 227.

The kid from The Parent’Hood might have only 4 teeth in his mouth but he loves himself some Okie Dokie as we all do.

Oh, Okie Dokie is the costume Foley’s wearing.

The kid’s very sweet but his brother’s a pain in the a, crooked letter, crooked letter.

There’s always that one in the family.

Usually, he's older and a bedwetter until about the age of 13.

He asks Okie to do the Okie Dokie Shuffle.

Foley just does a dance but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "the Okie Dokie Shuffle."

Maybe, it was the Icky Shuffle or the Super Bowl Shuffle.

Either way, it’s not the correct one.

Foley tries to set the older brother straight but is greeted with a punch to the stomach by the young punk.

Foley does what any adult wearing a kiddish costume would've done; He knocked his wormy ass into the water which makes the chubby kid chuckle.

I bet he’s been waiting so long for someone to set his brother straight that he was beyond elated when somebody finally did.

The punk kid did what punk kids often do; They start something and when things go awry, they call upon others to fix it.

Now, the granny doesn’t look to amused as she balls up her sleeves and heads Okie Dokie/Foley’s way.

Okie Dokie shuffles himself the hell out of dodge.

Smart man! You don’t ever want any smoke with grandma.

Next, they have a scene where all the characters of Wonder World are getting together, playing cards and talking shit all while Patti LaBelle’s “Right Kind of Lover” plays in the background.

Remember that record? Unfortunately, I don’t think LaBelle’s with that man anymore.

I guess he eventually became the wrong kind of lover for her.

Foley makes his way to meet up with Janice Perkins, who tells him to follow her.

My reply would’ve been,

“take me wherever you wanna go, baby.”

The two go over a map of Wonder World as Foley asks her about any places that might be restricted access.

She tells Foley about the Happy Forest section which has been closed down.

Foley asks how long its been closed.

She looks at him with this seductive look on her face and replies, “too long.”

I think she’s talking about her very own happy forest.

Baby, that's not a problem; We can get it up and running in no time and I know it will be worth the price of admission.

The two make plans for a dinner date as she tears off a piece of the plans off the Wonder World building and places it into his costume.

Foley sneaks into the Happy Forest. Not Ms Perkins’ but Wonder Worlds’.

I’m pretty sure he got into hers also.

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing that since this is a PG rated movie.

I’m afraid we will just have to wait for HBO’s After Dark for that one.

Foley finds out they’re using the Happy Forest area to print counterfeit money.

DeWald spots Foley through his reflection from a nearby mirror.

He notifies the head thug and Foley is attacked.

Foley’s able to get by DeWald’s band of thugs and tries to escape through the Wonder World theme park.

The Wonder World theme song's catchy as hell.

Wonder World could really be a competitive theme park if someone were to come along and help develop it into a real business venture.

Foley finds a phone so he can notify Fulbright about discovering the fake money printing shop at Wonder World.

Now, before he can make the call, he has to dodge a pesky kid who's trying to hit him while his father's chatting away on the phone.

Stuff like that really happens in real life too.

The parents be off in their own worlds with other adults as their kids are causing all kinds of havoc all over the place.

Poor Foley; Not only does he have to worry about the big, bad guys but apparently, the bad, little guys just the same.

Foley survives the toddler’s onslaught and makes the call to Fulbright.

During the convo, one of DeWald’s happy family security team takes a shot at Foley which narrowly misses him.

Janice Perkins sees this happening and notifies 911 immediately.

I told you Axel. She will always have your back, literally.

She's certifed, wifey material indeed.

Flint’s notified of a disturbance at Wonder World and knows it’s Axel.

Foley’s cornered by DeWald’s thugs but comes up with an ingenious way of saving himself by firing shots into the air when he sees a man filming.

He’s thinking they won’t harm him while they’re being recorded.

He surrenders to them and is taken away.

Flint and Fulbright each show up to chastise Foley.

Foley tells Fulbright about what DeWald has been up to at Wonder World.

Fulbright goes and checks out Foley’s story.

The guy’s not fooling anybody with that secret knock he just did.

The bad guys switched out the fake money for Wonder World money to cover their tracks.

After this discovery, Fulbright takes Foley outside and reads him for filth.

He even threatens to have him doing time in Leavenworth if he wasn’t a cop.

And not just any time but dead time which I have no idea what the fuck that means.

I would think it’s bad enough just doing time in prison but doing dead time; Hell no!

Flint’s crying like a baby over spilled milk and shit because his criminal friend may never speak to him again.

See, this is the problem right here with some folks.

They turn their heads away when criminal activity is going on in order to “keep their pensions” and pay for mortgages on houses they don’t even own.

Smh. Ain’t Merica’ beautiful?!

Foley notices they have a tail.

Flint tells him it’s the security guys from Wonder World making sure he gets on that plane back to Detroit.

Foley creates a distraction which causes Flint to stop the car as Foley makes a break for it.

I don’t know what Foley was running from worse: the security guards or Flint’s bitching.

My monies on the latter.

Foley meets up with Uncle Dave to go over the note Roger Fry sent him.

Uncle Dave’s driving a very nice Rolls-Royce.

I see it pays very well to be a frontman for a theme park.

Where do I sign up?!

Foley figures out that the note Uncle Dave’s friend sent him contained the same paper used in DeWald’s counterfeit operation.

The aforementioned DeWald shows up out of nowhere with his merry group of thugs.

He must have mental telepathy like a motherfucker.

I must say those are some nice gloves DeWald has on.

Who says it’s the suit that makes the man; I say it’s the gloves.

The gloves just gives you that extra badassness.

DeWald takes the note, lays out a scenario about how he’s going to get away with all of his shenanigans.

Then the punk mofo shoots Uncle Dave.

Foley lunges at DeWald but is taken about by the lead henchman.

DeWald has his thugs organize a framejob up on Foley.

Foley takes out all three men, retrieves the note and rushes Uncle Dave to a nearby medical facility with some very daring theme music playing in the background.

Say what you will about the script but the score was done excellently.

It fit perfectly with what they wanted to do with the film.

Foley escapes out the hospital when his desciption hits the police blogger.

Foley has to lay low since everybody heard about how “some black guy shot Uncle Dave.”

DeWald’s a whole lot smarter then he looks because he kidnapped Janice knowing Foley would contact her which he did by payphone.

Ahhh, the payphone. What a lost art?!

You know, the other day I actually saw one across the street from Lowe’s.

Pretty cool, eh?!

Ah, you folks ain’t no fun. Back to the movie.

DeWald orders Foley to Wonder World or else.

It’s the usual “if you don’t show up at a certain time at a certain place, I’ll harm the little lady” type of bit.

Foley commandeers a very nice-looking ride as a nice-looking lady gets out of it.

I don’t know what I want more, the ride or the lady. Shit, how about both?!

Anyways, he hightails it over to visit Serge’s gallery to retrieve a weapon.

Axel gets the annihilator and heads on his way.

He calls Billy and tells him where he’s headed.

Foley arrives at Wonder World and is taken by DeWald’s men into the building.

Foley and DeWald have a back-to-back discussion about the location of the Roger Fry note.

DeWald believes Foley’s lying and the notes in the car.

Foley uses that cool keychain Serge gave him earlier to blind the bad guys and gets the drop on them momentarily.

He has everything under control until Rosewood comes walking through the door and that’s when all hell breaks loose.

Ms. Perkins floors one of the bad guys with a punch.

That fine thang packs quite the wallop.

Unfortunately, she and Rosewood get locked inside a section of the room when the fire alarm is activated.

Now during the gun battle, the music that they’re playing is annoying.

They could’ve edited it out.

It’s not bad just overused.

Foley’s able to escape the room and tries using an outside line but DeWald riddles the interface system with bullets.

To be honest, the bad guys had the advantage here because Foley left behind his friend and his future girl.

All they had to do was get the door open and they would've been able to take Rosewood & Janice hostage.

Also, why are the security guards standing around and eating popcorn outside?

These lazy, good-for-nothing, bums.

Where did they get these scumbags from?! 1-800-Rent-a-Villain?!

They’ve been notified that Foley’s on the loose.

You know, these guys might suck as crooks but they would make some damn good electricians from how they got the main entry door open and cameras back working after being damaged by all the bullets.

Foley goes & grabs the annihilator weapon and does his best to figure out how to use the damn thing while being under fire from DeWald’s lazy ass thugs.

It’s a helluva weapon once he figured out how to use it.

Plus, it has a no-skip Compact Disc player.

You figure after all that firing the CD would be skipping all over the place.

It’s nice to see a product made so well.

The janitor crew for the Wonder World theme park is not going to be too happy with cleaning up all this shit later.

Foley takes out a large chunk of the DeWald’s security in the Alien Tunnel.

Don’t ask!

We have another cameo here.

This film might be short on quality but it’s not on cameos as we see the late director, John Singleton casted as a fireman.

Hope he’s resting well.

Flint gets a series of pages by Rosewood from the Wonder World computer system.

It takes him some time but he realizes there might be some trouble out that way so he heads there.

Foley storms his way into the counterfeiting room, takes out the bad guys and makes a few alterations to DeWald’s funny money.

Here we go. It’s now time for the final showdown.

The music used to set up this scene was quite impressive.

DeWald and his leading henchman are looking for Foley as Foley’s looking for them so you can say they’re all looking for each other.

Meanwhile, Rosewood and Perkins are finally able to break through the window of the door to get out that freezing, cold room.

Orrin Sanderon sees the alterations Foley made to their money and is not a big fan of it.

It now contains a picture of Foley’s face with a special “kiss my ass” caption above it.

Sanderson is visited by another mystery figure.

He tries to explain what Foley’s done but is gunned down by said mystery figure.

“Hmmm, I wonder who it could be.” Places hand on my chin.

Outside, we see the return of Dirty Rosewood as he lays down two of DeWald’s henchmen before being layed down himself.

Next, we see Flint arrive to the scene.

Well, it’s about damn time. (in an Allen Iverson font)

And not a moment too soon I might add.

No wonder why this dude has to kiss hella ass to move up the ranks in his profession other then doing it on his own merit.

It’s because of his lack of professionalism.

Flint arrives just in time to the hail of gunfire.

I might knock Flint’s work ethic or lackthereof but he’s one hell of a shot.

Foley pops out of nowhere and takes out DeWald’s leading man but is struck in the shoulder by a live round courtesy of Ellis DeWald.

Foley’s able to escape and returns the favor by surprising DeWald as the two exchange blows.

Foley gets the better of the exchange and grabs a gun as does DeWald.

DeWald fires first hitting Foley in the knee and Foley returns fire and blasts DeWald away to kingdom come.

Well, looky here. It’s Fulbright.

These motherfuckers show up at the most opportune times.

Then he has the nerve to ask Foley if he’s hurt badly as if his head doesn’t have a big ass gash on it.

Plus, he’s walking around with bullet wounds in his body.

Oh, I bet he’s just dandy!

Fulbright tells him some jive story about how Foley was right about everything and that he has Sanders in the car.

Foley lets him know, in a subtle way, that he knows who else was involved.

Fulbright raises his weapon to Foley who easily takes it away from him and finishes him off as well.

Fulbright went out with a whimper.

He went out quieter then a church mouse pissing on cotton on a Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, Flint’s struck by one of the stray bullets.

I bet you he believes Foley now.

You know, a slug to the shoulder has been known to change a man’s perspective on life.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Rosewood’s hanging in there, literally, as well.

Uncle Dave’s on the mend as too.

They have a parade honoring Foley where Uncle Dave announces that they’ve named a Wonder World character after Foley; Axel Fox.

Also, Foley’s promised a trip through “the tunnel of love” by Ms. Perkins.

Damn the fox! There’s another piece of tail I have my mind on.

They roll credits with Terence Trent D’Arby’s, “Right Thing, Wrong Way” playing in the background.

Now that’s a blast from the past if I ever seen one.

It seems like he took a bit of a sabbatical after a string of hits in the late 80's but a great track and a great way to end the movie.

Now, before I go, I mentioned in my last post about realizing why this movie failed halfway through the film so without further ado;

Here are the top three reasons why this shit flopped

3. Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was on top of the entertainment business with no signs of slowing down.

He scored big with a series of hit films minus the Best Defense & The Distinguished Gentleman debacles.

He was on a hit TV show, Saturday Night Live back when SNL was SNL.

He even had a hit pop record.

Now, Murphy had matured a lot from 84 to 94 stylistically, comedically & personally as well.

Even his on-screen presentation was much different in the early 90’s then it was in the early 80’s.

Just look at The Distinguished Gentleman, Harlem Nights or Boomerang and you will get a sense of the style he was going for at the time.

Also, he had gotten married and started a family of his own.

He also stopped doing standup for a long time and action movies as well.

Other then the flop Metro, it would be years before he appeared in another action flick.

Maybe, Murphy had some things going on in his personal life he had to sort out and wasn’t really feeling the movie.

Or maybe, Murphy was looking to get away from the hard Rated R films to the more PG-13 stuff.

When you look back at this movie, it would serve as a precursor to many of Murphy's later hit movies such as Dr. Doolitte, The Nutty Professor and the Shrek films which were of the kid-friendly variety.

2. No Taggart/Lack of Seriousness from the Supporting Characters

Another thing this movie was desperately missing was Taggart played by John Ashton.

Taggart was like the conscious of the trio.

He brought a certain seriousness to the role which blended in perfectly with Murphy's playfulness.

The character was firm but fair.

He knew when to play it safe and when to just say,

“fuck it! We’re doing it this way.”

He was the perfect balance in between Foley’s “running foul of the rules” type of attitude and Rosewood, who was a combination of them both.

His replacement was Hector Elizondo, who played Dt. Flint was a little bit too lackadaisical here.

I’m not saying Elizondo’s a bad actor; I just believe his character needed to be a little bit more serious.

1. Horseshit Script

The script was bad and everybody involved with the film knew it.

I read somewhere that John Landis, who directed the film, said he thought the script was bad as well but felt Murphy could've did more to help the movie by being more funny.

Landis is dead wrong here.

If Murphy would’ve been over-the-top with the comedy, it would’ve been disastrous to his career and the movie still would’ve bombed.

I believe Murphy was spot on with his performance.

His character needed to be more mature.

After all, he was older and with age comes more responsibilty.

And I don't care if you got Murphy, Pryor, Redd Foxx & George Carlin all together in this film.

As talented as those four men are, they cannot make a bad script better.

Maybe, that’s why Murphy hadn’t agreed to do another BHC movie until recently.

Sure, he did a pilot for a BHC tv series which hasn’t seen the light of the day, yet.

I think he knew back then the shit wasn’t going to work unless the right foundation was laid properly.

Bottom line: You cannot save a bad script.

You just need to rip it up and start all over.

You can put honey on shit all you want to but at the end of the day, it’s still shit just a little sweeter.

Overall, a decent movie. It’s not a bad film. It just could’ve been a whole lot better.

It has a certain charm and some memorable lines but nowhere the near the quality of the first two films.

It remains to be seen whether this upcoming Beverly Hills Cop movie will be able to pick up where this movie left off.

It’s already starting off on a bad foot with me with because of the title.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F? Scratches head.

Hears crickets.

That’s the best you could come up with?

If you were searching for simplicity then why not just call it Beverly Hills Cop IV?

Could this lame ass title be some sorta precursor of what’s to come?

Did the people learn their lesson from the previous sequels’ flop?

I guess we all will have to stay tuned to find out the answers to those poignant questions!