Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills to help Taggart and Rosewood investigate Chief Bogomil’s near-fatal shooting and the series of “alphabet crimes” associated with it.
Tony Scott directed “Beverly Hills Cop II” after directing Tom Cruise in the worldwide smash “Top Gun,” which sent Cruise’s career into the stratosphere where it has pretty much stayed, and he brought the same level of excitement and emotion to Axel Foley’s return to Beverly Hills. The action ante was upped, as was the humor, and the interplay between our four central protagonists is still on full display, if not more so. The ’80s go-to-bad-guy Jürgen Prochnow plays, you guessed it, the film’s villain, as does Brigitte Nielsen, the Danish 6′ 1″ blonde who made a name for herself starring in “Red Sonja” alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone (they would marry for two years) in “Rocky IV” and “Cobra.”
As the movie opens, Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) stumbles on something illegal, but before he can bring it to light, he is shot and left for dead. When Axel receives word back in Detroit of the shooting, he quickly gets back out to Beverly Hills. The political state of the Los Angeles Police Department has changed drastically as there is a new police chief, Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield), a man who is verbally abusive to almost everyone around him. When he discovers Foley with Rosewood and Taggart, Foley disguises himself as an undercover FBI agent to thwart any suspicion. A series of high-end-store robberies have recently gotten the public’s attention and the police. As Foley, Rosewood, and Taggart dig deeper into Bogomil’s shooting, they connect to wealthy local businessman Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow), a man they discover is in debt and owes a lot of people a lot of money.
They receive word that a big robbery is about to go down at Dent’s racetrack, but they arrive too late. While investigating the crime scene, Foley discovers red mud on the bottom of one of the dead henchman’s shoes, the same red dirt that he found on Bogomil’s running shoes earlier. A local informs them that it came from Dent’s oil field on the other side of town. They race to the location and discover Dent making an arms deal with terrorists and open fire, killing Dent and his crew.
“Beverly Hills Cop II” is much more furious than the straightforward and intimate narrative of the first film. With “Beverly Hills Cop,” we were being introduced to a slew of new characters, and much of the fun was watching them interact with each other and discovering their character traits and quirks, but with Part 2, we already know the central protagonists and what makes them tick so some of the fun is lost there. Mr. Prochnow plays a good villain, and Ms. Nielsen plays his chief enforcer with relish, but sadly, they have nothing much to do except look angry and disgruntled when called for. Director Tony Scott was starting out with his action career here, so many of his visual trademarks, such as his frenetic camera style and excessive editing, were still in the very early stages, but it’s clear that “Beverly Hills Cop II” paved the way to his movies that would incorporate these trademarks.
Available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™ May 17th
