15 minutes into the movie, I almost thought Tony Scott, of all people, had managed to make a more restrained take on Beverly Hills Cop. But I was so mistaken.
A constant exhausting barrage of Eddie Murphy conning people with silly backstories for no reason. The theme song starts playing every 8 minutes and doesn’t let up. The plot devolves into complete nonsense.
About an hour in, the movie finally gives us a break. The cinematography is more beautiful than a Beverly Hills Cop sequel should merit. We get to see Eddie Murphy just be great and charming without the manic, pathological lying. We get some great “show, don’t tell” moments about how strange Judge Reinholdt’s character is. We get to see the two of them bounce off each other, each clearly having a blast, in what feels like a rough draft of a premise that the excellent 21 Jump Street movies would later perfect.
It doesn’t quite make up for the intolerable opening hour, though.
I don’t know what to think about the fact that Rosewood straight up kills 6-12 people who were running away and/or surrendering.
Also, this makes me wish Paul Reiser had never blown up with Mad About You and just kept popping up in odd supporting roles.
