Beverly Hills Cop III [John Landis, 1994]:
In the same way that Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) was unmistakably "a film by Tony Scott," Beverly Hills Cop III is unmistakably "a film by John Landis." Cars smashing into each other, Motown music numbers, vaudeville-level skits, directors’ cameos and a flat, presentational filming style, which resembles early Hollywood slapstick, are characteristics here. The plot is thin, but if anything lets the film down it's Murphy. He's the weak link here, delivering a performance that’s less the detective Axel Foley we know and love from Beverly Hills Cop and more a bored version of himself. Murphy told Landis he wanted to play the role as more sensible and subdued, as if the character had mellowed with age, but this translates into a performance that's mostly on auto-pilot.
Nonetheless, I don’t think this is as bad as most people consider it. It’s certainly not the worst film Landis directed during this period, and despite his shortcomings as a person, he nevertheless remains a talented action director who shoots gunfights like he’s directing a 1930s western (a compliment.) A filmmaker like Joe Dante or Tim Burton probably would’ve done more with the Disneyland-like setting, using it to satirize the generic escapism and rollercoaster-ride nature of franchise cinema, but for Landis it’s just an opportunity for spectacle and broad visual humor. Bronson Pinchot returns briefly as Serge (the gallery manager from the first film) and practically steals the show.
