What is it that makes everyone so eager for another Beverly Hills Cop movie? The first one was pretty great, and the second one has a lot of fans, but the third is one of the great nadirs of cinematic storytelling from the whole of the 1990s. Since then we’ve been Beverly Hills Cop-less, and it’s not like audiences haven’t known what to do with themselves. The best rule of thumb has been to avoid most of Eddie Murphy’s movies altogether, especially his family films and unfunny, boring junk like Tower Heist.
But fans are still interested – and Eddie Murphy could sure use another hit by now – so we’re finally getting another Beverly Hills Cop movie, from… the director of Tower Heist. Yikes.
Yes, Eddie Murphy will reteam with director Brett Ratner for the fourth Beverly Hills Cop, apparently titled Beverly Hills Cop. The film will be written by Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles scribes Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, but with Murphy in the lead, we imagine most of their work will consist of “Axel Foley walks into the room and ad libs for five minutes.”
The new Beverly Hills Cop is being described as a “reboot,” which is a bit of a novelty since Eddie Murphy is returning in the title role. Usually reboots actually “reboot” things like the principle cast, but perhaps after the failure of the “Beverly Hills Cop” pilot, producer Jerry Bruckheimer decided that if it wasn’t broke, there was no need to fix it. Even though Beverly Hills Cop III clearly broke it, but whatever.
We’ll find out if all this build-up was really worth it when the new Beverly Hills Cop hits theaters on March 25, 2016.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
