BEVERLY HILLS COP III
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1994 Michael John Legeros
Directed by John Landis Written by Steven E. de Souza, based on characters created by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr. Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold Hector Elizondo, Theresa Randle, Bronson Pinchot, Timothy Carhart, John Saxon, and Alan Young (!) MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language and violence) Running Time 103 minutes
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Second sequels suck. No, not always, but they sure do disappoint. SUPERMAN III, GODFATHER III, ALIEN 3, LETHAL WEAPON 3, and, now, proudly, shamelessly, BEVERLY HILLS COP III.
Eddie Murphy is back as Axel Foley, that street-smart show-off who can't seem to shy from Bevery Hills. His target is the LA amusement park Wonder World and Foley is hot on the heels of a murderer he met in Detroit. Giving him grief are the FBI and the BHPD, neither of whom want Axel grease in their affairs.
Seven years have passed since our last visit to the COP shop; seven years of civil suits and bad press and all those things that have officially nixed the notion of the Maverick Cop. Can we *really* believe that enforcement agencies would even *dream* of condoning Axel's actions. Of course not.
As implausible as the premise plots, COP III works for a while. The pace is fast and the jokes are okay. Murphy breezes through scenes that are tame enough and lame enough to suggest that, maybe, hopefully, bigger and better things are yet to come.
Not so.
Axel digs deeper into the ways and whys of Wonder World--courtesy of a few too many unlocked doors--and the plot holes grow and grow and grow until they swallow the film whole.
Are we to believe, courtesy of a counterfeit subplot, that Axel Foley can pull a digitized photo of himself out of thin air? Or that the "largest private police force in the country" doesn't have a soul on their staff who can shoot straight? Or that Axel and associates can kill person after person without even batting an 'brow?
I don't sink so.
The humor is sparse, but not absent. A cute bit bags four off-duty cartoon-characters playing poker under Wonder World. And there's a great scene where Murphy, dressed as an elephant (don't ask), pushes a mouthy moppet into a fountain.
For film fans, the director's trademark touches are few and far-between. If you *must* see the film, watch for a SWAT-team send-up, a soul-music shoot-out, and, as usual, cameos from a drove of directors including George Lucas, Joe Dante, John Singleton, and Barbet Schroeder.
Beyond Murphy's contractually efficient performance, Bronson Pinchot has two scenes as Serge, now selling arms instead of art. Judge Reinhold, back as Billy Rosewood, does a cute imitation of Jack Webb. And Hector Elizondo is agreeable as John Ashton's replacement Jon Flint, the obligatory family-man-character-with-nothing-else-to-do.
The surprise find is former "Mr. Ed" second-banana Alan Young, who plays Uncle Dave, designer and proprietor of Wonder World. Leave it Landis to inspire inspired casting.
LOOK: Watch for a minor reference to George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE, which also starred Young.
BOTTOM LINE: COP III is too violent and too implausible to be taken
seriously funny. Maybe the concept of an exciting
second-sequel is an oxymoron.
Grade: D+
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