When the time came to make a sequel to their smash hit Beverly Hills Cop, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer knew they’d have to step up their game. In the three short years between the two films, audiences had already been conditioned (by Simpson and Bruckheimer in particular) to expect a greater sense of spectacle from their blockbuster entertainment. The next adventure for smartass detective Axel Foley would need to be bigger and more exciting than the first, with more focus on the action side of the action-comedy formula. To pull that off, of course the first man the producers went to was their Top Gun director, Tony Scott.
Beverly Hills Cop II was another tremendous hit. In fact, the sequel made even more money than the first movie had. If not the highest-grossing film of 1987, it made the Top 3 in a neck-and-neck race with Fatal Attraction and Three Men and a Baby. However, critics were not nearly as kind to this entry, with most labeling it an inferior retread of the original. Even star Eddie Murphy himself would have dismissive things to say about it.
| Title: | Beverly Hills Cop II |
| Year of Release: | 1987 |
| Director: | Tony Scott |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Available On: | Blu-ray Netflix Paramount+ Various VOD purchase and rental platforms |
Despite the poor reviews, audiences ate up Beverly Hills Cop II, and I’ve always found fan sentiment to be on the movie’s side as a worthy sequel (certainly more so than the lamentable Beverly Hills Cop III). While it can’t be denied that the follow-up is, in many respects, a simple copy of the original (a Beverly Hills Copy, you might say), the characters are still appealing, their chemistry still clicks, and the formula still works.
In some of the early stages of development, sequel ideas were pitched having Detroit cop Axel Foley traveling overseas to Europe. When Eddie Murphy shot down those plans, the eventual screenplay that got cobbled together from work by at least six different writers (including some by Murphy himself) wound up largely acting as a replay of the first film. Starting from his home in Detroit, Foley once again defies his captain’s orders and travels back to Beverly Hills to investigate another crime involving one of his friends. This time, the victim is Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox), who’s been gunned down – though survives – after getting too close to the so-called “Alphabet Bandit” responsible for a series of high-end robberies. Working again with local detectives Taggart and Rosewood (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold), Foley traces the evidence to rich prick Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow) and his stunning henchwoman, Karla (Brigitte Nielsen). Plenty of stunts and shooting in what would eventually be recognized as typical Tony Scott hyperbolic fashion follow suit.
Also returning from the first film is Paul Reiser (who’d had a breakout role in the prior year’s Aliens) as a fellow Detroit cop, now given greatly expanded screen time for a comic relief side story. Dean Stockwell joins Prochnow’s side (making this a mini Dune reunion) as the villain’s business partner and patsy, and a young Chris Rock makes his first credited film role for a bit part as a valet at the Playboy Mansion – which, yes, also involves a cameo by Hugh Hefner playing himself.
The movie’s plot is pretty thin and barely serves to string together a series of flashy heists and action sequences. The gimmick premise of Dent leaving “alphabet” clues for the police to find doesn’t amount to anything, and another story thread about the new Beverly Hills police chief being an abusive and incompetent pain in the ass is a big cliché. Reportedly, rewrites and reshoots scrambled to add more humor to the movie after initial test screenings found it lacking on the comedy side. I suspect that’s where most of Paul Reiser’s storyline came from, as well as a completely unnecessary cameo from Gilbert Gottfried that achieves nothing at all.
Even all that being the case, Beverly Hills Cop II pulls itself together and delivers a satisfying blend of comedy and action. It may lean more heavily toward the action this time, and may lack the loose and laid-back vibe that was so appealing in the first film, but the sequel has enough strengths to hold up as a worthwhile successor I feel inclined to watch right after the original.
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Paramount released Beverly Hills Cop II on Blu-ray in 2020, followed by a 35th Anniversary Edition 4K Ultra HD in 2022. The latter was released either separately or as part of a 3 Movie Collection bundled with the original Beverly Hills Cop and the much-maligned Beverly Hills Cop III. I doubt that I find myself in much of a minority in choosing to buy the standalone copies of just the first two films so that I could skip the third.
Among the other changes he imposed, new director Tony Scott photographed the sequel in the Super 35 film format, composed for an intended projection aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 (much wider than the original film’s 1.85:1). At the time, the Super 35 format was known for being very grainy, a trait that Scott often leaned into for a particular aesthetic he liked. The 4K transfer for Beverly Hills Cop II is extremely grainy, distractingly so, especially in all the early scenes in Detroit. It calms down a bit once the action moves to California, but not by much.
On top of that, the picture has decidedly less than 4K worth of detail. Colors are also quite flat, to the point that the film almost looks faded. The transfer has no sense of HDR or Wide Color Gamut that I can discern.
I’ll concede that Beverly Hills Cop II may have difficult photography to transfer to home video due to some of Tony Scott’s decisions and affectations, and I don’t mean to sound like I’m asking for the studio to mess around with too much digital processing to wipe away the grain, digitally sharpen anything, or boost the colors. However, without clear information from the studio, I’m not certain what type of film element this transfer was sourced from, or how old the video master is, and I’m not convinced that this is really the best Beverly Hills Cop II could look if someone put more care and effort into it.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack has some nice throbbing bass in both the Harold Faltermeyer score and the numerous pop songs. Music sounds pretty great. Gunfire is also improved in this entry compared to the original, though it’s still a little weak. I’d be very surprised if this 5.1 mix had any true LFE in it.
The 4K disc has no bonus features at all. In this instance, Paramount couldn’t even be bothered to package a standard Blu-ray in the case, just a code for a Digital Copy.
Related
- Beverly Hills Cop franchise
- Eddie Murphy
- Tony Scott
- Jerry Bruckheimer (producer)
Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from the streaming edition of the film grabbed off a web browser and are used for illustration purposes only.
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