The Eddie Murphy comedy that forgot to be funny: “More jokes were shot and added in”
Before 1982, Eddie Murphy was mostly known as the only reason to watch Saturday Night Live during one of its poorest eras. Over two years, though, the scintillating young comedian vaulted to the upper echelon in Hollywood with roles in the hit movies 48 Hrs, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop, the highest-grossing film of 1984. Suddenly, Murphy was a bona fide movie star, and his next few years continued on an upswing – although he did hit a potential stumbling block when he made a comedy whose first cut baffled studio executives. Why? Well, because it was a comedy that had completely forgotten to be funny.
After the rib-tickling adventures of Axel Foley busted so many blocks, Paramount Pictures was understandably keen on getting a Beverly Hills Cop sequel into production as soon as possible. The first movie was released on December 5th, 1984, and the sequel began shooting less than two years later on November 10th, 1986. This was an extremely quick turnaround, considering Murphy shot The Golden Child in between stints as Foley, a compelling script had to be written, and a new director had to be found after Martin Brest passed on the sequel.
Luckily, the iconic producing team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer knew just who to approach to direct the movie. After all, he had just made them the biggest hit of 1986 – a little picture about US Navy fighter pilots that you may have heard of called Top Gun. When Tony Scott came on board the movie, the team knew the action side of the film would take care of itself, and Scott delivered arguably the best action sequences of the whole franchise. Unfortunately, though, Beverly Hills Cop is as much a comedy as it is an action series – and that’s not exactly Scott’s wheelhouse.
“Tony was available, but he wasn’t a comedy guy,” Beverly Hills Cops II editor Billy Weber told We Are Cult in 2020. “So, after we ran the first cut, Don and Jerry just looked around and shrugged and said, ‘Huh.’ It wasn’t a comedy – it played like a straight action movie, which made sense because Tony was an action guy, and that’s what he knew how to do best.”
In truth, Scott being a natural action director wasn’t the only thing that made this first cut of Beverly Hills Cop II a bit wonky. You see, that uber-quick turnaround between films had come back to bite everyone in the ass because everyone quickly realised the screenplay was nowhere near where it needed to be. “We just never had a great script,” Weber claimed, “and it never had a chance of being as good as the first movie because the script never got there.”
After this disastrous screening, a salvage job was launched on the movie, with the primary directive being “Make it funny.” Weber admitted, “They rewrote the script after the first screening and more jokes were shot and added in, and it brought it up a little bit.” It helped that Murphy got along famously with Scott, so he was open to collaborating and reshooting the film to give it better balance.
In the end, the rescue act worked, and Beverly Hills Cop II was another massive success, grossing $299million worldwide. Scott’s signature style was all over the picture, and the added jokes brought it closer to the first film in terms of laughs, although few people would ever claim it’s as funny as the first movie with a straight face. It seemed like a case of “job well done” for everyone involved – until Murphy revealed his real opinion on the sequel a couple of years later.
“Beverly Hills Cop II was probably the most successful mediocre picture in history,” Murphy told Rolling Stone in 1989. “It made $250million worldwide, and it was a half-assed movie. Cop II was basically a rehash of Cop I, but it wasn’t as spontaneous and funny.” Ouch.
