The “half-assed” movie Eddie Murphy will always regret: “The most successful mediocre picture in history”
Only an actor hellbent on self-sabotage would be brave enough to criticise their latest movie before it was released because any star willing to savage their own work before audiences had the chance to make their minds up wouldn’t be making any new friends at the boardroom level. Eddie Murphy wasn’t quite so brazen, although he didn’t wait too long before unloading both barrels.
Then again, Murphy was confident enough in his position as Paramount’s biggest draw that he rarely waited until the dust had settled before tearing into his filmography. The Golden Child? It made money, but the leading man still referred to it as a “piece of shit” shortly after its theatrical run had ended.
After immediately establishing himself as one of his era’s biggest and most bankable stars, everything Murphy touched was guaranteed to turn into box office gold. That may have been a negative in the long run, considering his career was almost completely ruined by the sheer volume of high-paying gigs that made him incredibly wealthy and a regular source of scorn at the Razzies, but he’s always been honest about the worst entries in his filmography.
From the outside looking in, there was no chance Beverly Hills Cop II was going to be anything other than a smash hit. After all, the original had cemented Murphy’s spot on the A-list, became the highest-grossing release in the United States in 1984, and earned the star a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor – Musical or Comedy’.
Expectations were raised even higher when Tony Scott was drafted in to direct his first film since Top Gun elevated his name to a whole new level in the industry and turned him into one of action cinema’s leading lights. Put the two together, and there was only going to be one outcome.
That’s exactly what happened, with Murphy’s second outing as Axel Foley comfortably sailing past a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office. The downside is that it was a reheated version of its predecessor, with neither the actor nor director bringing anything fresh, inventive, or even particularly exciting to the table.
Murphy was presented with an $8 million offer to reprise the role, which nobody in their right mind would turn down. He knew that with his stock at an all-time high, the film would do massive business regardless of how good it was, something he admitted to a year and a half after it hit cinemas when decrying it as a pale shadow of its predecessor.
“Do you know what’s scary? Beverly Hills Cop II was probably the most successful mediocre picture in history,” he told Rolling Stone. “It made $250 million 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. But my pictures make their money back.”
He knew the sequel wasn’t up to scratch, but the riches on offer meant that he didn’t really care. He was confident enough that people would pay for a ticket anyway, and he was right, even if he grew to regret both the second and third entries in the franchise with the benefit of hindsight.
