Yes, I know that sounds a bit hyperbole, but the opening jewel robbery, seguing directly into Eddie Murphy dressing for work with Bob Seger's "Shakedown" in the background is one of the best film openings I have ever seen.Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is just average, and is nowhere near as good as the original. If you don't want to sit though the whole movie, at least try to catch the opening few minutes on YouTube, if you can.

When Detroit cop Axel Foley learns that his friend Captain Andrew Bogomil of the Beverly Hills Police Department has been shot while investigating the so-called 'Alphabet Thieves' he tells his own boss that he is going deep, deep undercover on a local case before flying out to Los Angeles to help find those responsible. Once there he discovers that Rosewood and Taggart have been relegated to traffic duty by the officious new Chief of Police… inevitably this doesn't stop them investigating the thieves. It isn't too long before he figures out that Maxwell Dent is behind the crimes but it won't be easy to prove as he doesn't get personally involved; instead he leaves the dirty work to his assistant; the six foot blonde Karla Fry.After the success of the original 'Beverly Hills Cop' it was inevitable that there would be a sequel. I don't think this is quite as good as the first but it is still pretty good and has plenty of laughs. Eddie Murphy once again impresses as Axel Foley and Judge Reinhold and John Ashton make a welcome return as Rosewood and Taggart… there has been some amusing character development for Rosewood since we last saw him; he seems to have an unhealthy interest in weaponry which disturbs his partner. The criminals aren't quite as interesting as the original film; it is hard to believe that witnesses wouldn't have been able to help identify Brigitte Nielsen's Karla Fry. Some of the gags feel like rehashes of ones from the original film but that doesn't mean they don't work. Once again we have a gratuitous visit to a strip club and if that wasn't enough they have to gate-crash the Playboy Mansion where lots of bikini clad beauties are dancing around… as well as a cameo from Hugh Hefner himself. Given that Tony Scott took over the direction it isn't surprising that there is more action and that action is pretty impressive. Overall a decent enough sequel that fans of the original are likely to enjoy.

I've noticed these movies are starting to follow a simple routine: a friend of Axel Foley's is attacked; Axel goes to Beverly Hills where he doesn't belong; Axel puts his job AND his life on the line as he searches for whoever's responsible; Axel gets into numerous spats with the Beverly Hills cops as he tries to prove to them that his suspects are indeed guilty; Axel is sent back home, but instead recruits someone (Taggert and Rosewood) into helping him prove his point; Axel turns out to be right, and bam, final showdown.While this formula has its limitations, there are many ways to pull it off, but only a few of them actually work. Luckily Tony Scott picked one of the ones that DO work.Here we have Axel drawn back to Beverly Hills after his friend Bogomil has been near-fatally shot by a group of 'alphabet thieves', who send the cops the first letter of the name of their next target. Fast- talking Axel eventually winds up in an arms smuggling operation with Rosewood and Taggert behind him every step of the way. Another threat to them is a cop--in fact, he's Chief Harold Lutz, an abusive moron who will look for the slightest excuse to fire someone. Axel is up to his usual antics, even going so far as to concoct a method of tricking the chief into thinking he's there on a 'multi-jurisdictional case'.While not as smart as the original, it's still a very entertaining movie that even provides a bit more development on Foley, Rosewood, and Taggert, with a few hilarious surprises from Rosewood.Tony Scott's sequel is more violent, grander in scale, and arguably funnier than the first. Even before his flashy, hyper-active camera style days with films like Domino and Man on Fire, you' know a Tony Scott movie when you saw it.Give it a watch. It's definitely a lot of fun, and only inferior to the first movie by a small margin.

The original was one of the biggest films of 1984, and Simpson and Bruckheimer had a massive hit the year before with Scott's Top Gun, so this was fool proof, and only an idiot wouldn't green light the sequel, so it's more of the same, but bigger in every sense, but it's lost a little bit of the first films soul.Ronny Cox only comes back for a cameo, so he gets shot at the beginning, and this prompts Foley to return to Beverly Hills. He re-teams with Taggart and Rosewood, who isn't as timid as he was in the first film, and has a penchant for weapons, because this would make his character funnier, right?Obviously there is a sub plot involving gun running, Jurgen Prochnow, Bridgitte Nielsen and alphabets, so it's down to Foley to wisecrack his way to solving the crimes.This film could have just been Murphy running along the beach, swearing every few minutes and laughing, and it still would have been a huge hit, because every once in a while, the planets align, and Hollywood could make a critic and crowd proof movie.This was in instance of that. Scott was huge, he made Cruise a star. Simpson and Bruckhiemer did the same, Murphy was the biggest thing in Hollywood, and the original was massive.Nothing could go wrong.It's not brilliant by any means, in fact, sometimes the film seems downright lazy, more or less copying set pieces from the original, like the final act and the set piece where Foley pretends to be someone else in order to gain access to somewhere.But its flashy, sometimes funny, and it's always sunny in Beverly Hills, and you cannot help but love the infectious laugh.You realise after an hour just how bland it is compared to the original, but you'll enjoy it never the less.