Review of Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) by Stuart M — 29 Jul 2014

Wow, this is one of the most atrociously dumb sequels I've ever seen. Axel sees villains shoot and kill a whole squad of cops, including his chief. In pursuit he is stopped by the Feds. Apparently the baddie's been counterfeiting money and that's more important than a dozen dead cops! Then Axel goes to LA. He immediately spots the guy. Instead of arresting the accused copkiller on the spot after an active police witness has positively ID'd him they tell him they have no evidence and don't even take him in for questioning. That's right, they really think the law is that dumb. And it only gets worse. The bad guy works for a Disneyland knockoff as security chief (how ominous!) and Axel is repeatedly chased through an active theme park by security guards. Yup, right past dozens of witnesses including George Lucas in an oddly placed cameo. Axel escapes the badguys by getting onto a ferris wheel at which point the badguys, still wearing their identification as official theme park security, smash the controls and nearly kill a pair of kids. In front of an entire theme park full of people. Again, no response or consequences for anybody. There's suspension of disbelief and then there's just being insulting.

The worst part is that Eddie Murphy doesn't seem to care. He's playing it all serious for some reason and has none of Axel's previous spark. We don't even get to see him lie his way into places, which was the most fun part of these fairly stereotyped films. In short: boooooring!