Ronny Cox Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

Our marathon of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise continues with the second entry released in 1987, directed by Tony Scott. Beverly Hills Police Department Captain Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is shot and gravely injured by assassin Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), while investigating a series of high-value robberies called the Alphabet Crimes. When he finds out about the shooting, Detroit detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) makes the trip down to Beverly Hills, instructing his fellow detective Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser) to distract Inspector Todd (Gil Hill). Reuniting with Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton), Axel begins investigating the Alphabet Crimes, leading him to a gun club run by Charles Cain (Dean Stockwell), who turns out to be in the employ of the Alphabet Crimes' mastermind Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow). Beverly Hills Cop II Synopsis Arriving three years after the original, Beverly Hills Cops II brings back most of the core cast and expands the roles of Paul Reiser, fresh off his antagonistic turn in James Cameron's Aliens, and Gil Hill as Jeffrey Friedman and Inspector Todd respectively. The biggest change from the original was Tony Scott, one year after directing Top Gun for producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, being brought on board to replace original director Martin Brest. Beverly Hills Cop II cast German actor Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot, David Lynch's Dune) as the film's main antagonist Maxwell Dent. However, Dent remains a figure in the film's background, leaving most of the dirty work to his enforcer Karla Fry, played by model-turned-actor Brigitte Nielsen (Rocky IV). The film also features Dean Stockwell (Blue Velvet) as secondary antagonist Charles Cain and Alice Adair as Captain Andrew Bogomil's concerned daughter Jan. My Thoughts on Beverly Hills Cop II Beverly Hills Cop II is one of those sequels that seems intent on delivering more of the same, right down to Axel Foley doing a first-act undercover job with the same criminal he interacted with in the previous film. Axel's reasoning for travelling from Detroit to Beverly Hills is slightly more convoluted this time. However, it does set the stage for a comic subplot, where Paul Reiser's Jeffrey Friedman is asked to covertly takeover Axel's Ferrari-driving undercover assignment, which ends pretty much in the way you expect. Following the success of Top Gun the year prior, Beverly Hills Cop II marks the second big blockbuster from director Tony Scott. However, as Scott's career is still in its infancy, I'm not sure if I can view his work on the film as more than a work-for-hire job, due to his previous relationship with Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Reported Tony Scott wanted to hire a then-unknown Hans Zimmer to do the score, but the studio insisted on bringing back Harold Faltermeyer. While Jürgen Prochnow's Maxwell Dent is arguably a more memorable antagonist than Victor Maitland in the original, he ends up having more limited screen time in the film when compared to Brigitte Nielsen's Karla Fry. At the time, Brigitte Nielsen was in the midst of a brief period as a mainstream star, debuting in 1985's Red Sonja and appearing in then-husband Sylvester Stallone's films Rocky IV and Cobra, the latter of which was based upon a rewrite Stallone did of Beverly Hills Cop when he was once attached to star. It is probably no coincidence that Brigitte Nielsen frequently posed for Playboy, including a centrefold a few months after the film's release, and Beverly Hills Cop II ended up being the first film to shoot a scene at the Playboy Mansion, complete with a cameo by Hugh Hefner. Arguably the most memorable scene of Beverly Hills Cop II is a single scene cameo by Gilbert Gottfried as Maxwell Dent's loudmouth accountant Sidney Bernstein. Reportedly, much of this scene was improvised by Gottfried and Eddie Murphy on the spot. Beverly Hills Cop II was one of Gilbert Gottfried's first notable film appearances, though he would become best known for his role in the Problem Child films and voicing Iago in Disney's Alladin. Since he died only two years ago, this appearance made me realize how much I miss Gilbert Gottfried and his nasally line delivery. I would ultimately say that Beverly Hills Cop II ends up being a solid sequel, even if it is mostly more of the same. We will be back tomorrow with a review of 1994's Beverly Hills Cop III. Then on Thursday, it will be time for the main event, as we review the new film Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

Ronny Cox

Beverly Hills Cop II – Premium Classics

Beverly Hills Cop – Premium Classics

Being the Ricardos

RoboCop (2014)