Beverly Hills Cop III

Infobox_Film
name =Beverly Hills Cop III


imdb_id =0109254
writer =Danilo Bach and
Daniel Petrie, Jr. (characters)
Steven E. de Souza (written by)
starring =Eddie Murphy
Judge Reinhold
Hector Elizondo
Timothy Carhart
John Saxon
Theresa Randle
Alan Young
Stephen McHattie
Bronson Pinchot
as 'Serge'
director =John Landis
producer = Mace Neufeld
Robert Rehme
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released =May 25, 1994
runtime = 104 min
country = USA
language = English
budget =US$70 Million| preceded_by = "Beverly Hills Cop II"
followed_by = "Beverly Hills Cop IV"

"Beverly Hills Cop III", or "Cop III" as it was promotionally known, is a 1994 action-comedy film starring Eddie Murphy returning as Detroit cop Axel Foley. The film was directed by John Landis, who had previously worked with Murphy on "Trading Places" and "Coming to America". Judge Reinhold reprises his role as Det. William "Billy" Rosewood.

It was released on 25 May 1994 and grossed US$44 million in the United States and over $75 million in the foreign box office.

"Taglines"
In for the ride of his life.

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 has attained the title of DDOJSIOC (Deputy Director of Joint Special Inter Operational Command). Sergeant Taggart and Chief Bogomil (promoted from Captain at the end of the last movie) retired and a new detective called Jon Flint (played by Hector Elizondo) is Rosewood's new partner.

Criticism

The film was criticized for many reasons. For one, fans of the series missed John Ashton, Ronny Cox and Paul Reiser, who did not 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 did not 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.

A fourth film

"Beverly Hills Cop III" was stated to be the last sequel of the series, but Andrea Miralia 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. In the DVD's special features of "Beverly Hills Cop II", John Ashton says in an interview that he would like to reprise his character in "Beverly Hills Cop IV", which strengthens the theory that he did not participate in "Beverly Hills Cop III" due to scheduling conflicts with another project.

Production

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.

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 US$70 million. Of that budget, $15 million was Eddie Murphy's paycheck.

The film featured a number of cameos 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.

Wonderworld

The theme park featured in the movie was California's Great America, however some modifications were made to the Columbia Carousel and Vortex roller coaster. The park is in Santa Clara, California and not Beverly Hills as portrayed in the movie. The Sky Whirl Scene was filmed in a studio and no tunnels run under the park as many thought after this was released. Many rides that were seen in the movie including Triple Play, the Sky Whirl (now a roller coaster) have since been removed. Also, the carousel at the back of the park (a single story one, not the Columbia Carousel) was altered. The single story one was removed for Drop Zone. 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.

The Alien Attack ride featured in the Wonderworld theme park was in fact the attraction of the Studio Tour at Universal Studios in Hollywood. The "aliens" featured in the ride are suited actors (and not animatronic as suggested in the film) which closely resembled the Cylons from the original "Battlestar Galactica".

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.

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). Also, Rodgers honored Faltermeyer's theme including it in the film only with an orchestral arrangement. Eazy-E released a single called "Luv 4 Dem Gangsta'z" in 1994.

External links

*imdb title|id=0109254|title=Beverly Hills Cop III