I have always been a big Eddie Murphy fan. I published my Top 10 Eddie Murphy Movies list and sadly, if you do not count his supporting role in Dreamgirls (2006), the most recent film on the list was from 2003. (If you have not read that Top 10 list, click on the link and be sure to check that out.)

I loved the original Beverly Hills Cop and the first sequel was very good as well. I did not feel that Beverly Hills Cop 3 was horrible like many do, but I will admit it was nowhere near the quality of the first two. As curious as I am to see what "Axel Foley" is up to now, I am also a little hesitant that #4 could be closer to #3 than it would be to #1 or #2. When Indiana Jones came back for #4 after a long break, it was met with mixed reviews. Hopefully Murphy will keep that in mind before joining "Taggart" and "Rosewood" for another romp through Beverly Hills.

The Latino Review somehow managed to get a draft of the Beverly Hills Cop 4 and here is the article that Kellvin Chavez published in that regard:

Exclusive: Beverly Hills Cop IV Story Details!!
By Kellvin Chavez on December 1, 2008

With everything 1980's being either made, remade, or re-imagined, one of our favorite readers and insiders who we haven't heard from in a hot minute, EL CHAVO has the goods on Eddie Murphy's 80's update of Beverly Hills Cop 4. Written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, to be directed by Brett Ratner and produced by Lorenzo "Action Man" DiBonaventura (taking over for Jerry Bruckheimer), Beverly Hills Cop IV is slated to be released in 2010.

Here is the scoop: The studio loves the draft but Eddie Murphy is not too keen on it.

Released in 1984, the original "Beverly Hills Cop" grossed $316 million worldwide and spawned two sequels. All told, the three pics grossed $712.9 million worldwide. The last was released in 1994.

We are working on scoring details for other 1980's sequels and remakes. In the meantime, El Chavo chimes in with his thoughts below...

It's been 15 years since Axel Foley was last in Beverly Hills, and screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas needed a good reason to bring him back. That reason comes just a couple of pages into the latest script for Beverly Hills Cop IV (which calls itself Beverly Hills Cop 2009) - Judge Reinhold's Billy Rosewood takes a leap out the 20th story of the Los Angeles Police HQ. When Axel hears that his former partner and best buddy became sidewalk salad he knows it wasn't a suicide and he flies to Beverly Hills to get all the facts for himself.

I thought that Beverly Hills Cop 2009 would be a Bad Boys II style movie with all endless car chases and explosions. Brandt and Haas keep it all old school for the most part though, with a small shoot out and chase in the opening and then no more action for like 50 pages until Axel gets into a small fistfight with some East LA gangbangers. Unfortunately, a lot of the shit in the middle is way boring. The whole problem with another Beverly Hills Cop movie is that the basic idea that Axel Foley is this rough and tumble Detroit cop who is a fish out water in upscale Beverly Hills is played out. He's done a lot of time in Beverly Hills. In this movie they mention that they teach his cases at the police academy and that a restaurant had an Axel Foley sandwich on the menu! (It's been renamed the Timbaland) Axel Foley knows his way around LA better than his new partner on the case who was born there.

That new partner is Goodwin, a fat rookie with low self-esteem who has a crush on a lady cop in the facial recognition department. When he's not solving the mystery of who tossed Billy out the window, Axel is playing matchmaker with these two. He's also teaching Goodwin how to be a better cop. It's like the Axel Foley Finishing School.

Along with Goodwin, Axel teams up with a limo driver named Elliot, who is the wise cracking comic relief. You wouldn't think you would need comic relief in an Eddie Murphy movie, but Axel Foley has no funny lines. I don't know if Brandt and Haas wrote the character unfunny to give Eddie room to ad lib or if they just think having him drop f-bombs every third line is the height of laughs, but Axel Foley is pretty much a Terminator in this movie. He just keeps moving forward no matter what like a shark in the water trying to find out who killed Billy.

It turns out that Billy was learning about a group of corrupt LAPD officers who were involved with gun running with a Beverly Hills rich kid who has ties to the military. The mystery isn't that big a deal, and Axel mostly gets from place to place by half-assedly conning people. He makes up a fake story about who he is and then doesn't follow through on it. It's like Brandt and Haas saw the first BHC and just didn't have the energy to write anything that matched up to it.

The really weird thing is that Axel Foley just isn't a character in this movie. In the opening he's followed a suspect into Canada and is illegally extraditing him, and from there he never takes a breather to be anything but a supercop. It's almost like the writers took an Arnold Schwarzenneger script they had lying around and changed the details to make it a Beverly Hills Cop movie. There's no fun in it.

The basic story of Beverly Hills Cop 2009 isn't terrible. It's a pretty standard police corruption story that has a personal edge for Axel Foley, and Brandt and Haas make it feel like an 80s action film by keeping the action more grounded, even though the final fight does include RPGs. But there's no fun in the movie and it feels like it needs another draft to make the film an Axel Foley adventure and not a generic cop getting revenge picture. Overall C+

Sounds like the script will need some work before Murphy fully commits. I am glad to see he is being a little particular regarding this project (since many of his more recent choices have left a lot to be desired). Either way, we will chalk this one up to another attempt of remaking 80's successes. As an obsessive fan of the 80's, I have mixed emotions about this. One part of me enjoys getting to see my favorite characters again, but another part of me wants to remember them the way I adore them. I guess in the end, I will see the sequel no matter what.

There are many reasons why I love the original Beverly Hills Cop movie and one of those reasons are the great lines. I thought I would end this issue with a quick top 10 list of my favorites. So here is OLD SCHOOL'S TOP 10 LINES FROM THE ORIGINAL BEVERLY HILLS COP:

10. "Yeah, Jenny, don't worry about me. We got cocaine and coffee here. We're gonna get wired and have a big party."

9. "What's this man doing here?" "Bleeding, sir."

8. "Do you want it with a lemon twist?"

7. "Is this your car?" "Oh, no. In Beverly Hills, we just take whichever car is closest."

6. "You do that again, I'll shoot you myself!"

5. "Get the f**k outta here!" "No, I cannot. It's serious."

4. "The Chief ain't chew it all out. You still got a little ass there."

3. "Yeah, and we're not gonna fall for a banana in the tailpipe."

2. "and I think Victor should go check himself out with his physician to make sure everything is fine before things start falling off on the man."

1. "Disturbing the peace? I got thrown out of a window! What's the f****n' charge for getting pushed out of a moving car, huh? Jaywalking?"

That will wrap up another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading. If you are interested in reading more of my 80's related issues, please click there for a summary. You can always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. While you are up there in the upper right hand column, please take a moment to rate/vote for Kickin' it (I appreciate it). Peace and much love.

Check this out: With the holiday shopping season upon us, I thought I would share an interesting article on The 12 Days of Christmas from my friends over at Pop Culture Madness. Based on calculations, to buy all of the gifts listed in the holiday classic song it would cost $86,609 this year which is a 10% increase over last year. Check out the short article for more details.

Quote of the day: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." -George Orwell from 1984

Download this: I have made the decision to temporarily suspend this feature. I have received less and less feedback regarding the song recommendations made here, so I am going to go without it for a while and see how that goes. Let me know if you miss it. You can find a link to the summary of all past recommendations in the LINKS section in the left hand column.