Beverly Hills Cop II

Tony Scott came to this straight off Top Gun and his first cut did not play as comedy. Editor Billy Weber said it played like a straight action movie rather than a comedy; the script was rewritten after the first screening and more jokes were shot and added. That shows on screen: the laughs sit between set pieces instead of growing out of them. The script originally sent Axel to London and Paris, but Eddie Murphy did not want to work abroad, so the story was rewritten to stay home. Murphy shares the story credit with Robert D. Wachs. The songs show both ends at once. Shakedown, sung by Bob Seger, was nominated for the original song Oscar and lost; I Want Your Sex, from the same film, won the Golden Raspberry for worst original song. Chris Rock appears as the valet outside the Playboy Mansion, his first screen role. Murphy later called it a half assed movie and a rehash, neither as spontaneous nor funny. It still passed 150 million dollars in North America, the third biggest release there in 1987. A good fit if you do not mind humour inserted between action beats and will take Axel making the same Detroit to Los Angeles trip twice. Not for anyone expecting the alphabet robberies to work as a puzzle.