Beverly Hills Cop to be ruined by Brett Ratner

[dangerdog]

www.moviehole.net/200816797-theyre-killing-billy-rosewood

1) Killing Billy Rosewood at begginning of film

2) Routine action flick

3) Brett Ratner

4) Brett Ratner

5) Brett fucking Ratner.

[Wildey]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Killing off Todd was just about acceptable. Killing off Cox or Reiser or Pinchot's character I suppose I could live with. But Taggart or Rosewood? Fuck off! Hopefully BHC4 will stay in development forever. To be honest, I find it difficult to imagine it being anywhere near the first two with or without the slaughter of great characters, but that would make it even worse.

[Kimble]

Here's the script review:

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+

www.latinoreview.com/news/exclusive-beverly-hills-cop-iv-story-details-5787

I don't like the idea of killing Billy. He's easily one of the series best characters. Axel playing matchmaker for his fat partner with low self esteem sounds dumb too as well as the wisecracking limo driver.

If it's true about them keeping the action "old school," then I'm all for that.

Also if Murphy isn't keen on it, then I'm pretty sure there will be some changes since...well he's Eddie Murphy.

[Colonel John Matrix]

If the screenwriters write in some more scenes where Eddie Murphy gets to play multiple characters, each requiring a fat suit, then I'm sure Eddie will be well up for BH4.

What is next from the 80's to get a re-make, or a unnecessary sequel? Back to the Future? Blade Runner? Short Circuit?

[Jeff Goldblum]

Well at least they have Axel back to pulling various cons (unlike BH3), but the rest sounds pretty weak. You don't need to kill off anyone to justify bringing the character back. Just bring him back. The fact that we're catching up with him so many years later would be interesting enough.

I'm not really sure this is a surefire thing anymore, though. The first two movies were really powered by Murphy's persona, and that's certainly changed over the years. Kids today are more familiar with him through bad movies or kid's movies. And sometimes bad kid's movies. He no longer has the same comedic edge that he did in the 1980's.

But making him a serious character isn't the answer. He still needs to be a witty cop who gets the best lines. They tried making a standard action flick with BH3, and it didn't work at all.

[dangerdog]

Dec 2, 2008 15:44:34 GMT -5 Colonel John Matrix said:

What is next from the 80's to get a re-make, or a unnecessary sequel? Back to the Future? Blade Runner? Short Circuit?

They're rapi.... umm, remaking Robocop.

[MacReady]

Well if Murphy doesn`t like the script then it`s definitely for the best, I mean the guy thought Norbit and Meet Dave were worth making.

[milo]

I'm certain,that this movie will suck. Eddie Murhpy isn't funny anymore,Brett Ratner is medicore and killing Rosewood is just fucking stupid! I wonder,will this movie be even worse than Beverly Hills Cop 3? That movie is pretty fucking awful

[deathscythe]

Sylvester Stallone went from Spy Kids 3 -> Rocky Balboa. I think Murphy can pull it off.

But with Ratner directing...I don't know what will hapen.

[bodieci5]

Dec 2, 2008 18:05:29 GMT -5 dangerdog said:

Dec 2, 2008 15:44:34 GMT -5 Colonel John Matrix said:

What is next from the 80's to get a re-make, or a unnecessary sequel? Back to the Future? Blade Runner? Short Circuit?

They're rapi.... umm, remaking Robocop.

Like the last line . Darren Aaronofsky has claimed that it is going to be a sequel rather than a re-hash, which is good news. If the script is as strong as the first film and they keep their promise of making it R-rated, then I'll be happy.

As for BHC4, get Shane Black to write it, with Eddie Murphy helping him out. That'd be great.

[Wildey]

Shane Black would be a good idea, though he does seem to mostly write burnt out characters, which I don't think would really suit Foley.

[dangerdog]

Dec 6, 2008 8:26:41 GMT -5 bodieci5 said:

Dec 2, 2008 18:05:29 GMT -5 dangerdog said:

They're rapi.... umm, remaking Robocop.

Like the last line . Darren Aaronofsky has claimed that it is going to be a sequel rather than a re-hash, which is good news. If the script is as strong as the first film and they keep their promise of making it R-rated, then I'll be happy.

As for BHC4, get Shane Black to write it, with Eddie Murphy helping him out. That'd be great.

Got a link for Robocop being a sequel?