Beverly Hills Cop

***Beverly Hills Cop*** is a series of American action comedy films and an unaired television pilot based on characters created by Daniel Petrie, Jr. and Danilo Bach. The films star Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop who travels to Beverly Hills, California to investigate crimes, even though it is out of his jurisdiction. There, he meets Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton), and Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox). Ashton and Cox do not appear in Beverly Hills Cop III. Murphy, Reinhold, and Gil Hill, who plays Axel's boss, Inspector Todd, are the only actors who appear in all three films. Harold Faltermeyer produced the now famous "Axel F" theme song heard throughout the series. The series as a whole have been distributed by Paramount Pictures. The films have made a total of $735,534,503 at the worldwide box office.

### Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

> *"He's been chased, thrown through a window and arrested. Eddie Murphy is a Detroit cop on vacation in Beverly Hills."*
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Released December 5, 1984 (US); January 25, 1985 (UK)

This first film in the Beverly Hills Cop series shot Murphy to international stardom, won the People's Choice Award for "Favourite Motion Picture" and was nominated for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1985. It earned $234 million at the North American domestic box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 1984 in the U.S.

#### Plot Summary

Axel Foley (Murphy) is introduced as a Detroit cop who, after the murder of his friend, travels to California to investigate and track down the killer(s), who he believes operate an arts dealership as a cover in Beverly Hills. He teams up with two reluctant detectives, Billy Rosewood (Reinhold) and John Taggart (Ashton), from the Beverly Hills police department who were supposed to keep a watch on him, especially after seeing Foley's different approach to tackling the situations which were considered unacceptable by the chief of police (Stephen Elliott).

#### Soundtrack

Released April 8, 1984, the film's soundtrack spent 32 weeks on the UK chart, peaking (twice) at #24. In the US it won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media in 1986. It hit #1 on the US Billboard 200 album chart in July 1985.

The soundtrack features various artists whose tracks were included in the movie plus some other tracks not included in the movie but are similar in electronic style.

A number of singles were released from the album. "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey peaked at #12 and "Neutron Dance" by the Poitner Sisters reached a modest #31 in the UK. The instrumental title tune, "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer, released March 18, 1984 (UK); December 5, 1984 (US), became a worldwide hit single (peaking at #2 for two weeks in the UK and achieving Silver certification) and has since been covered by numerous artists.

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### Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

> *"Axel Foley is back. Back where he doesn't belong."*
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Released May 20, 1987 (US); October 16, 1987 (UK)

Although it made less money than the first film and received mixed reviews from critics, the film was still a box office success, making $153.7 million domestically. Aside from box office success, the film was nominated for an Academy Award and for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, for Bob Seger's "Shakedown".

#### Plot Summary

Axel returns to Beverly Hills, after finding out that Captain Andrew Bogomil (Cox) was shot. He once again teams up with Detective Billy Rosewood and Sgt. John Taggart, who, reluctantly and against incompetent and verbally abusive Police Chief Harold Lutz's (Allen Garfield) orders, help Foley to find out the person responsible for Bogomil's shooting. Axel, Billy, and John soon discover that the alphabet crimes, a series of felonies (robberies and Bogomil's shooting) that have been going on in the area, are masterminded by weapons kingpin Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow). With this information, Axel, Billy, and Taggart try to find Dent and his lover, Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), who had shot Bogomil.

#### Soundtrack

The song "Hold On" as sung by Keta Bill plays during the scene wherein Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart confront Dent at the Playboy Mansion. However, the film's soundtrack CD released by MCA Records includes only a different song entitled "Hold On," sung by Corey Hart. This song has different music and slightly altered lyrics. The film introduced George Michael's controversial song "I Want Your Sex", which won the Razzie Award for Worst Song. It also includes "Shakedown" by Bob Seger (which became a #1 hit in the US, but only reached #88 in the UK). The Pointer Sisters scored a moderate hit with "Be There", their single from the soundtrack, which only managed #78 in the UK. Harold Faltermeyer's 1988 album, Harold F, includes a song called "Bad Guys", which is used as part of the film's score—an instrumental section of the song plays during the opening jewellery store robbery scene, and also during several other scenes throughout the film.

The soundtrack debuted at #8 on the Billboard charts and spent 26 weeks on the charts, a far cry compared to the 49 weeks spent by the first film's soundtrack. In the UK, the album peaked at #71. Despite this, "Shakedown", was nominated for an Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

### Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

> *"in for the ride of his life."*
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***Beverly Hills Cop III*** was released on May 25, 1994 in the US and grossed $42 million in the United States, and over $77 million in the foreign box office. In the UK the movie opened on July 1, 1984. The film was considered by critics and Murphy himself as the weakest film in the series.

The film features a number of cameo appearances by well-known film personalities, including Robert B. Sherman, Arthur Hiller, John Singleton, Joe Dante, special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, and George Lucas as a ride patron.

#### Plot Summary

Axel returns to Beverly Hills once again. During an assignment, his boss, Inspector Todd (Gil Hill) is 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 has attained the title of DDOJSIOC (Deputy Director of Joint Special Inter Operational Command). Bogomil and Taggart have retired and a new detective called Jon Flint (Hector Elizondo) is Rosewood's new partner.

#### Wonder World

The theme park featured is Paramount's Great America (now called California's Great America). The park is located in Santa Clara, California and not Encino as portrayed in the film. Most of the Sky Whirl stunts were filmed in a studio but some were actually filmed on the ride with the assistance of the park employees. The tunnels that supposedly ran under the park do not really exist, and the wood shed through which Axel exits the tunnel was just a shed. Many of the rides seen in the film, including Triple Play and the Sky Whirl, have since been removed. Also, the carousel at the back of the park (a single storey one, not the Columbia Carousel) was replaced by the Drop Tower.

The Alien Attack ride featured in fact the Earthquake: The Big One portion of the famous back lot tram tour at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. The "aliens" featured in the ride are suited actors (and not animatronic as suggested in the film), which closely resemble the Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica.

Director Landis hired the Sherman Brothers to write the "Wonder World Song" which appears throughout the film's second half. The song is a comedic take on their own signature song, "It's a Small World".

#### Soundtrack

The ***Beverly Hills Cop III*** soundtrack was released on May 10, 1994 and consisted mostly of R&B music with some rock and hip hop. Like the film, the soundtrack was not well received and only made it to 158 on the Billboard 200 and 66 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Three singles found minor success on the charts, "The Right Kinda Lover" by Patti LaBelle (UK #50), "Luv 4 Dem Gangsta'z" by Eazy-E and "The Place Where You Belong" by Shai. The track 4 song "Mood" which is performed by Chanté Moore also appears on her second album A Love Supreme. Nile Rodgers also covered Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" in a Breakbeat Hardcore version.

Listen to selected tracks on Deezer.