Let’s be real. If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, Axel Foley was basically the blueprint for the "cool cop." Eddie Murphy had this untouchable lightning-in-a-bottle energy that made the first two films absolute juggernauts. Then 1994 happened. The Beverly Hills Cop III movie arrived in theaters, and honestly, the vibe was just... off. It wasn’t just that the mustache was gone or that the setting moved to a fictional theme park called Wonder World. It felt like a fundamental shift in who Axel Foley was supposed to be.
Critics absolutely shredded it. Even Eddie Murphy has spent the last three decades being pretty candid about his disappointment with the final product. But if you actually sit down and watch it today, away from the massive hype of the mid-90s, it’s a fascinating case study in how a franchise can lose its way while still trying desperately to please everyone. It’s weird. It’s clunky. Yet, it’s a crucial piece of Hollywood history that explains why we had to wait thirty years for a fourth installment.
Why Axel Foley Lost His Edge in the Third Outing
The biggest shock for fans walking into the theater in '94 was the tone. John Landis, the director behind Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London, was at the helm. You'd think that would be a match made in heaven for a comedy-action hybrid. Instead, the Beverly Hills Cop III movie felt weirdly sterilized. The R-rated grit of the Tony Scott-directed second film was replaced by a PG-13 sensibility, even though it kept the R rating.
Eddie Murphy made a conscious choice here. He wanted Axel to be more "mature." He was tired of the "wise-cracking" persona and wanted to transition into being a serious action lead. The problem? That "wise-cracking" was why people bought the ticket. Without the constant banter and the clever scams to get into high-end hotels, Axel Foley just felt like any other generic detective with a gun.
Think about the opening sequence. We go from a gritty chop-shop raid in Detroit—which actually feels like a classic Cop movie—to a theme park in California. The transition is jarring. When Inspector Douglas Todd, Axel’s long-suffering boss played by Gil Hill, gets killed early on, it sets a dark tone that the rest of the movie doesn't quite know how to handle. You have this heavy emotional weight of a mentor's death clashing with a scene where Axel has to rescue kids from a malfunctioning "Spider" ride. It’s tonally schizophrenic.
📖 Related: Big Brother 27 Morgan: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
The Wonder World Problem and Production Woes
The setting of Wonder World (filmed largely at California's Great America) was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it provided a colorful backdrop for set pieces. On the other, it felt like a giant commercial. The villain, Orrin Dewitt, played by Timothy Carhart, was a security chief using the park as a front for a massive counterfeiting ring. It’s a standard plot, but it lacks the personal stakes or the high-society friction that made the first two movies work. In the original, Axel was a fish out of water in the land of the ultra-rich. In the Beverly Hills Cop III movie, he’s just a guy at a carnival.
Production wasn't a smooth ride, either. The script went through several massive overhauls. At one point, there was a version floating around that was essentially Die Hard in a theme park, which sounds amazing, but the budget started ballooning. Paramount was getting nervous. They’d already spent a fortune on the rights and Murphy’s salary. By the time they started shooting, the script was being tinkered with constantly.
Steven E. de Souza, the legendary writer of Die Hard, did the screenplay, but even he couldn't save the shifting priorities of the studio and the star. There’s a famous story about the "Annihilator" 2000—that over-the-top multi-purpose weapon Axel uses. It was supposed to be a satire of action movie tropes, but in the final cut, the joke doesn't really land because the rest of the movie isn't sure if it's a parody or a straight-faced thriller.
The Missing Pieces: Taggart and the Theme Song
Where was Taggart? John Ashton’s absence was a massive blow to the chemistry. The dynamic between Axel, Taggart, and Rosewood was the engine of the franchise. While Judge Reinhold returned as Billy Rosewood—now promoted to a DDO (Deputy Director of Operations)—the balance was gone. Hector Elizondo stepped in as Jon Flint, a veteran Beverly Hills cop, and while Elizondo is a fantastic actor, he wasn't Taggart. The "three musketeers" vibe was replaced by a mentor-student relationship that didn't have the same comedic friction.
👉 See also: The Lil Wayne Tracklist for Tha Carter 3: What Most People Get Wrong
Then there’s the music. Nile Rodgers took over the score, and he tried to modernize the iconic "Axel F" theme by Harold Faltermeyer. It didn't work. The synth-pop magic of the 80s was replaced by early 90s orchestral flourishes that felt generic. It’s a small detail, but for a franchise built on a specific "cool" factor, the music change was the final nail in the coffin for the atmosphere.
A Massive Cameo Fest
If there is one reason to revisit the Beverly Hills Cop III movie, it’s the cameos. John Landis called in every favor he had. You’ve got:
- George Lucas standing in line for a ride.
- Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen.
- Director Arthur Hiller.
- Barneby Jones star Buddy Ebsen.
- Robert B. Sherman, the guy who actually wrote "It's a Small World."
It’s like a "Where’s Waldo" for cinephiles. These moments are fun, but they also highlight the movie's biggest flaw: it feels more like a collection of bits and Hollywood inside jokes than a cohesive narrative. It’s Landis having fun with his friends while Murphy is trying to be a serious actor, and the two styles never actually shake hands.
The Critical and Commercial Aftermath
When the film dropped in August 1994, the box office was lukewarm at best. It pulled in about $119 million worldwide against a budget that was rumored to be north of $50 million (huge for the time). It wasn't a "flop" in the sense that it lost everyone’s shirts, but compared to the cultural phenomenon of the first two, it was a disaster.
✨ Don't miss: Songs by Tyler Childers: What Most People Get Wrong
The critics were brutal. Roger Ebert gave it two stars, noting that the movie felt tired. It currently sits at a measly 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. For years, this was the "franchise killer." It’s why every time someone brought up a fourth movie in the early 2000s, it was met with a shrug. The brand was damaged. Murphy himself famously called the movie "atrocious" during an interview with Rolling Stone, though he later softened his stance to just saying it didn't work.
Honestly, though? It’s not the worst action movie of the 90s. Not by a long shot. There are some genuinely cool sequences, like the Oland-Chapman shootout and the final showdown in the "Land of the Dinosaurs" attraction. The practical effects of the theme park rides are actually pretty impressive for the pre-CGI-everything era. If you view it as a standalone 90s action flick rather than a Beverly Hills Cop sequel, it’s a perfectly serviceable Sunday afternoon watch.
What You Can Learn From the Third Chapter
The legacy of the Beverly Hills Cop III movie is mostly a cautionary tale about losing sight of a character's "North Star." When you take a character defined by his mouth and tell him to shut up and shoot things, you lose the audience. It took thirty years and a move to Netflix for the franchise to finally get back to its roots with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
If you're planning a rewatch or diving into this franchise for the first time, keep these things in mind:
- Adjust your expectations. Don't expect the high-energy banter of the 1984 original. This is a much slower, more methodical film.
- Watch the background. The cameos are genuinely the most entertaining part of the "Wonder World" sequences.
- Pay attention to Billy Rosewood. Judge Reinhold is the only person who seems to be having a blast, and his character’s obsession with high-tech surveillance is actually a funny evolution of his "gun nut" persona from the second film.
- Look at the Detroit scenes. The first ten minutes of the movie are arguably the best, offering a glimpse of the movie we could have had if they stayed in the Motor City longer.
The reality is that this movie exists in a weird limbo. It’s too polished to be a cult classic and too "off" to be a true blockbuster. It remains a strange, theme-park-flavored time capsule of 1994 Hollywood, capturing a moment when a megastar was trying to redefine himself and a studio was trying to keep a billion-dollar brand alive on life support.
To get the most out of the franchise today, the best move is to watch the first two back-to-back, use the third as a curiosity piece to see the 90s production aesthetic, and then jump straight into the 2024 sequel to see how they finally course-corrected. Understanding the failure of the third film makes the success of the most recent one feel a lot more earned.