Jerry Bruckheimer’s Ballsy Confession About the Much-hated ‘Beverly Hills Cop III’ May Shake Fans’ Faith on Eddie Murphy’s Upcoming Sequel
Beverly Hills Cop is a buddy-cop action comedy film franchise starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley. There have been three films under the franchise till now: 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop, 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop II, and 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III. The fourth film titled Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, is set to release in July on Netflix. Jerry Bruckheimer, along with Eddie Murphy and Chad Oman, is producing the upcoming sequel.
Eddie Murphy will be joined by Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot, who will all be reprising their roles from earlier entries in the franchise. Even though the upcoming release is a sequel to 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III which was a box office bomb, producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently admitted that he has never seen the movie.
Jerry Bruckheimer admits to not watching Eddie Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cop III
Beverly Hills Cop is one of the most loved film franchises amongst viewers, especially with comedian-actor Eddie Murphy portraying the character of Axel Foley in the franchise. The fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise is one of the highly anticipated movies of the summer, with Murphy returning as the fan favorite character. A familiar face is also returning to the franchise; Jerry Bruckheimer, who serves as the producer of the movie.
In an interview with Business Insider, director Mark Molloy went on to confess that before he got on board with the project, he admitted something to the returning producer, and his reply calmed him down. He said,
I said to him, ‘Jerry, I’ve never seen the third one’. Jerry told me, ‘You don’t need to watch that one. I didn’t make the third one. I’ve never watched it.’
Beverly Hills Cop III was directed by John Landis, and upon its release, it received negative reviews from critics and the audience. The critics also mentioned at the time that the leading actor was the weakest link in the series. The third installment currently holds an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards under the categories of worst director and worst remake or sequel.
Eddie Murphy spoke about the failure of the movie in an episode of Insider the Actors Studio in 2006, where he said that the character was kind of banished for a while from the industry. He described the movie as ‘atrocious’.
Now the problem that comes with the producer and the director not watching the third installment is very simple yet very significant. Since the upcoming movie is a sequel to the third installment, the makers should have watched the movie to point out the mistakes made in it and make sure that those are not repeated in the upcoming sequel. Ardent fans mentioned that the confession doesn’t seem like a good sign or news from the makers and mentioned that they should have at least taken some notes from the box office bomb movie to make sure that the highly awaited sequel does not include those.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F marks Mark Molloy’s feature debut after years of commercial work, and he said to the publication that he is not going to comment on the third installment. He added that he has loved the first two movies, and he has grabbed them with both hands with a lot of love.
Eddie Murphy reveals the reason for the delay in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Ahead of the premiere of the fourth installment, the lead actor spoke to ScreenRant, where he revealed the reason why it took them such a long time for the fourth installment. He said,
The real reason why the movie didn’t come together for years and years and years is because, in all the scripts that I read, there was no evolution. It was just, ‘Axel’s coming back now, and he’s on a new mission.’ It was like, ‘Okay, now this has happened.’ It was just generic things. And nothing worked.
Murphy explained that they once added that Axel was no longer living with his wife and child, whom he’s estranged from, and he’s still working despite his contemporaries leaving. The actor mentioned that the script narrated that all Axel got was his job and that they had a terrible relationship. The reason Axel’s back in Beverly Hills is to reconcile with his daughter while, on the surface, he is doing his job.
Eddie Murphy noted that once they had all these elements, they had a movie, which is now set to release on Netflix. In the interview, Murphy called Judge Reinhold and John Ashton, the heart of the movie, and pointed out that Beverly Hills Cop 3 was soft because Taggart (Ashton) was not in the movie and the villain wasn’t villainous enough.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F premieres on July 3, 2024, on Netflix.
