Why Beverly Hills Cop III Is Ranked As The Worst Film Of The Franchise

Summary

• Beverly Hills Cop III bombed at the box office, being considered the weakest due to a lack of key elements like a strong villain.
• Eddie Murphy's dissatisfaction with Beverly Hills Cop III led to a 30-year delay in making a sequel that felt right to him.
• Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F attempts to redeem the franchise with a lukewarm reception, paving the way for a potential fifth Beverly Hills Cop movie.

2024's Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F makes a jab about Beverly Hills Cop III, but where did the third film in the Eddie Murphy trilogy go wrong? The third Beverly Hills film, released in 1994, is generally considered the weakest of the series, with Eddie himself calling it "garbage."

Beverly Hills Cop III originally wanted to take the cop franchise overseas, adding something new to the series of films. Paramount didn't have the budget to go to London or Japan, instead sending Eddie's Axel to a Beverly Hills theme back to target a counterfeiting ring.

Beverly Hills Cop III was already released during a low point in Eddie Murphy's career, receiving terrible reviews and grossing less than half of the second movie, which came out seven years prior. So, why is Beverly Hills Cop III considered the least popular in the trilogy, even by its own lead star?

What Went Wrong With Beverly Hills Cop III?

Earning a disappointing 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III is the lowest-rated entry in the franchise. In comparison, the original Beverly Hills Cop earned an impressive Certified Fresh 83% rating.

While the first two Beverly Hills Cop were produced by the powerhouse production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the pair would later part ways with Paramount during the threequel’s long and tiring development process.

Meanwhile, the third film's new producers, Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme, inherited a bloated budget that forced them to make changes to the script. These changes included a reduction in action sequences and locations.

Eddie Murphy has admitted that Beverly Hills Cop III was missing some key elements that made the first two movies so well-loved. The Coming to America star thinks that the absence of Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) and the weak villain are key to the film's failure.

"The reason Beverly Hills Cop III was soft was because Taggart's not in the movie, and the villain isn't villainous enough, and Axel didn't have any skin in the game. The first movie, Axel's best friend is killed. And the second one, his boss, the Chief, gets killed. And then in the third one, Uncle Dave is in trouble. That's what the movie's about."

While John Ashton's Sgt. Taggert was only a supporting character in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Eddie thinks his absence was why it all went so wrong. In Beverly Hills Cop III, Taggert is revealed to have retired.

Eddie Murphy even knew the film wasn't working when he was making the third installment, noticing the script was filled with tired clichés.

"This is when you can tell a movie's not going to work: when you have one of those lines that you've seen millions [of times] and hundreds of thousands of movies have said this line. There was one scene where I had Uncle Dave in the back, and he was dying. I was driving, and I said, ‘Don't you die on me, man!’ How many times have you seen that in a movie? When somebody's dying, ‘Don't you die on me!’ If you in a movie, and you scream, "Don't you die on me," that means the movie's not going to work. [Laughs]"

Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II are both in Eddie Murphy's top 10 box office performances, with Beverly Hills Cop being his highest on-screen box office performance.

The Reason Eddie Murphy Didn't Want A Beverly Hills Cop III

In a candid 1989 Rolling Stone interview, Eddie Murphy dubbed Beverly Hills Cop II "mediocre" and claimed the only reason he made Beverly Hills Cop III was the money.

Eddie Murphy admits that “the third movie was soft," and declared he would never make another Beverly Hills Cop film unless it felt right to the iconic actor.

“So after we did the third one, I was like, ‘I’m not doing another one unless it’s right. Unless everything is on paper and it feels good.’ And I’m always open to doing a sequel to any movie if you can make it make sense to me. So I was open to it, but then the scripts just kept not being right, just not having everything that was supposed to be, and I didn’t want to make another mediocre one. So we just waited and waited. And it took 30 years to get it right.”

Did Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Make Up For Beverly Hills Cop III?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F's as Detective Abbott, who is in a relationship with Alex Foley's daughter Jane (Taylour Paige). When they first meet, Abbott mentions Axel's previous visits to Beverly Hills and declares his Wonder World misadventure as "Not your finest hour."

The film has earned a middling 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, and while nostalgic, marks a welcome return for Axel Foley. Although Robert Daniels wrote in The New York Times, "While this installment isn't nearly as woeful as Beverly Hills Cop III, it doesn't have the charm or energy of the first two films either. It's a limp, desperate action comedy with few memorable moments.

Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the first two films, has never seen the much-disliked Beverly Hills Cop III. The director of Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F also admits he has never seen the threeequel, but neither feel they have missed out on it.

"There’s been so much history with this franchise, but I never actually saw Beverly Hills Cop III," Molloy said. "I’ve never seen it, and Jerry hasn’t either. When I came in, I said to Jerry, 'I haven’t seen Beverly Hills Cop III.' And he was like, 'I didn’t do it, so you don’t need to see it.' And I was like, 'OK, cool, Jerry. I’m going to let it go then.'"

Since Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Shrek star Eddie Murphy has revealed that work has already started on making Beverly Hills Cop 5 and, if the fourth installment does well, the actor will gladly return for the fifth film in the franchise.

"I think I will keep being a creative person ‘til the day I die...I hope so because this movie turned out so good..."

"Especially if you grew up watching the movie, then you’ll really, really love this new picture."