This article is part of a directory: Beverly Hills Cop 5: Will It Happen? Everything We Know

Summary

  • Eddie Murphy points out Beverly Hills Cop III's weak villain and the absence of Taggart as key factors in its failure.
  • He explains that a cliché line in the script was a key sign the movie wouldn't work.
  • Changes in production teams and budget problems contributed to the disappointing outcome of Beverly Hills Cop III.

Beverly Hills Cop franchise.

With many hoping to see the franchise’s legacy restored with the Netflix sequel, Screen Rant spoke with Murphy about the issues with Axel’s previous outing. Explaining that Beverly Hills Cop III suffered from having a weak villain and the absence of Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton), the iconic comedian points out the key sign of the movie’s impending failure was its use of an overly used line. Check out his comments below:

The reason Beverly Hills Cop 3 was soft was because Taggart's not in the movie, and the villain isn't villainous enough, and Axel didn't have any skin in the game.

The first movie, Axel's best friend is killed. And the second one, his boss, the Chief, gets killed. And then in the third one, Uncle Dave is in trouble. That's what the movie's about.

This is when you can tell a movie's not going to work: when you have one of those lines that you've seen millions [of times] and hundreds of thousands of movies have said this line. There was one scene where I had Uncle Dave in the back, and he was dying. I was driving, and I said, "Don't you die on me, man!" How many times have you seen that in a movie? When somebody's dying, "Don't you die on me!" If you in a movie, and you scream, "Don't you die on me," that means the movie's not going to work. [Laughs]

Beverly Hills Cop 3 Missed Far More Than Taggart

Eddie Murphy's Maligned Threequel Didn't Live Up To The First Two Movies

Axel Foley in a car staring incredulously at something in Beverly Hills Cop 3

Sitting at a disappointing 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III is by far the lowest-rated entry in the franchise that helped turn Murphy into a Hollywood star. By comparison, the original Beverly Hills Cop boasts an impressive Certified Fresh 83% rating on the aggregator site. While the silver-tongued comedian may be quick to point out that many of the threequel’s issues revolved around its weak villain and Taggart’s absence, several other notable components are also missing from Axel’s previous big-screen adventure.

Movie

RT Critics Score

RT Audience Score

Box Office Gross

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

83%

82%

$316.3 million

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

46%

58%

$299.9 million

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

11%

35%

$119.2 million

While the first two movies were produced by the powerhouse production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the pair would later part ways with Paramount during the threequel’s protracted development process. Meanwhile, the movie’s new producers, Mace Neufeld & Robert Rehme, would also come to inherit a budget that was quickly exceeding the studio’s initial estimates and necessitated several changes to the script, including a reduction in action sequences.

A composite image of Axel pointing a pistol with Axel smiling in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Related
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - Release Date, Cast, Story, Trailer & Everything We Know About Beverly Hills Cop 4

Beverly Hills Cop 4 is officially on the way, and there are already a ton of exciting updates about Eddie Murphy's return as Axel Foley.

Moreover, Beverly Hills Cop III would also notably break with a tradition established by the first two movies and fail to include a soundtrack contribution from R&B group The Pointer Sisters, whose song Neutron Dance is now synonymous with the franchise’s original film. However, with Bruckheimer back co-producing the franchise’s newest sequel, and Neutron Dance even featured in the official Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F trailer, all signs seem to point to the franchise making a triumphant return to the kinds of success enjoyed by its earliest entries.

Beverly Hills Cop Axel F Film Poster

Your Rating

Rate Now
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
R
Action
Comedy
Crime
6/10
7.0/10
Release Date
July 3, 2024
Runtime
118 Minutes
Director
Mark Molloy

Cast

See All

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley is the fourth film in the popular comedy franchise starring Eddie Murphy. Murphy returns as Axel Foley in the Netflix film alongside returning cast Judge Reinhold and John Ashton and Bronson Pinchot as Serge. Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also star in the sequel as new characters.

Writers
Will Beall
Franchise(s)
Beverly Hills Cop
Studio(s)
Paramount Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Eddie Murphy Productions
Distributor(s)
Netflix