Beverly Hills Cop III
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| Beverly Hills Cop III | |
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| Directed by | John Landis |
| Produced by | Mace Neufeld Robert Rehme |
| Written by | Steven E. de Souza (story) |
| Starring | Eddie Murphy Judge Reinhold Hector Elizondo Theresa Randle |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 1994 |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50 Million |
| Preceded by | Beverly Hills Cop II |
| Followed by | Beverly Hills Cop IV |
| IMDb profile | |
Beverly Hills Cop III is a 1994 Eddie Murphy motion picture that was directed by John Landis, who had previously worked with Murphy on Trading Places and Coming to America. It was released on Wednesday, May 25 of that year, grossed a disappointing $44 million in the U.S. and is the final chapter (so far) in the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy. Judge Reinhold reprises his role as Det. William Rosewood.
Production was temporarily shut down to allow the Paramount top brass the chance to get to grips with the film's spiraling budget. Originally estimated at $55 million, it was soon in excess of $70 million. Of that budget, $15 million was Eddie Murphy's paycheck.
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[edit] Plot
Eddie Murphy's character, Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills once again. This time it's personal: During an assignment, his boss, Inspector Todd gets killed, and certain evidence points towards an amusement park called "Wonderworld". Upon arriving in Beverly Hills, Axel looks up his old friend, Billy Rosewood who is now a bigwig in the LAPD. Taggart had retired and a new detective called Jon Flint (played by Hector Elizondo) is Rosewood's new partner.
[edit] Criticism
The film was criticized for many reasons. For one, fans of the series missed John Ashton, Ronny Cox and Paul Reiser, who didn't reprise their roles. Secondly, original producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson were not involved in the production as they were previously. Many critics felt the movie was a generic, formulaic action-comedy film. Also critics felt Eddie Murphy gave a somewhat routine performance as Axel Foley.
When Eddie Murphy appeared on the television show Inside the Actor's Studio (first airing on December 19, 2006), he claimed that he felt the third film was "atrocious" and such a disgrace that "the character was kind of banished for a while [from Hollywood]." He said he felt the third film didn't reveal enough of the "edginess" of Axel that was present in the first two films. He also said he hopes to return the edgy qualities to the character for the fourth film, and is going to pay more attention to the development of the project and its quality.
[edit] A fourth film
Beverly Hills Cop III was stated to be the last sequel of the trilogy, but Steve Wilson on KOMO-TV's First News at 4 Gossip section "The Buzz" mentioned that Eddie Murphy will return for Beverly Hills Cop IV. Murphy hopes it does better than Beverly Hills Cop III and continues the success of the first two films. It is slated to release in 2009 and is in the script process.
[edit] Music
Even though Harold Faltermeyer did not return to scoring duties on Beverly Hills Cop III (instead, the task was handled by Nile Rodgers), his song co-producer from the previous franchise entries, Keith Forsey, did produce and co-write a new song. "Keep The Peace", performed by INXS was supposed to be in the vein of previous Faltermeyer/Forsey Beverly Hills Cop techno-pop stadium anthems such as "The Heat Is On" (performed by Glenn Frey) and "Shakedown" (performed by Bob Seger).
[edit] Trivia
- Writer Steven E. de Souza originally wrote the story as more “Die Hard in a theme park”. He was told that each of the rides he had designed would cost about $10 million to build and the whole film would cost about $70 million. When box office results for The Distinguished Gentleman came in, Paramount ordered the budget to be cut to $55 million. Consequently the film became more about the investigation and less about the action.
- The theme park featured in the movie was Paramount's Great America, however some modifications were made to the Columbia Carousel and Vortex roller coaster.
- The ride featured in the rescue scene at the park was Triple Wheel (formerly known as Sky Whirl). Since the movie was made the ride has been demolished and scrapped, saddening many amusement park enthusiasts.
- The film's director John Landis hired the Sherman Brothers to write the "Wonderworld Song" which appears throughout the second half of the movie. The song is a comedic take on their own signature song, "It's A Small World". Robert B. Sherman also makes a cameo in the film. In the film, he sits next to Arthur Hiller and Ray Harryhausen in a bar when they hear that "Uncle Dave" is shot. "Uncle Dave" is the owner of "Wonderworld" which is like Disneyland. Uncle Dave is a character modelled loosely after Walt Disney, the Sherman Brothers' mentor.
- The film featured a number of cameos by well known film directors including Robert B. Sherman, Arthur Hiller, John Singleton, Joe Dante, special effects legend Ray Harryhausen and George Lucas as a ride patron.
- Inspector Todd's widow refers to her husband as "Douglas," however, in Beverly Hills Cop II, Todd's office door reads G. TODD ("G" possibly standing for "Gilbert" as Todd was portrayed by Gilbert R. Hill).
[edit] External link
| The Beverly Hills Cop series |
| Beverly Hills Cop | Beverly Hills Cop II | Beverly Hills Cop III | Beverly Hills Cop IV |
