I Watch Films: Beverly Hills Cop II

 

Beverly Hills Cop II

In Beverly Hills Captain Bogomil is trying to solve the Alphabet Crimes, in which an envelope with a single letter and an encrypted message is left. Rosewood contacts the FBI to the fury of the police chief. He suspends Bogomil and reassigns Rosewood and Taggart to traffic duty. On his way home Bogomil is lured into a trap, shot, and an envelope with a B on is left with him.

Learning of the attack, Axel Foley, Detroit police detective, travels to Beverly Hills to assist his friends. He cons some workmen at an empty house and takes it over as his place to stay. Looking at the casings from the attack he realises that they have been modified. Rosewood and Taggert explain the most expert gunsmith is at the Beverly Hills Gun Club so he goes there.

Foley finds a lot of suspicious figures and the expertise to make the rounds; as we know from earlier this is in fact the gang, the most prominent member being Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen) a six foot blonde who has previously been mentioned (though as the locals note, this is Beverly Hills, six foot blondes are not uncommon). They also see Foley and attempt to kill him. He survives the attack and finds a matchbook with a fingerprint from Cain (Dean Stockwell), the gun club manager. With this confirmation he breaks into the gun club and gets some co-ordinates from which they realise the sight of the next alphabet crime.

It's the city deposit; they manage to partially foil the attack, chasing the gang in a cement truck for the series trademark high-collateral damage chase. This leads them to the Playboy Mansion and a celebrity cameo from Hugh Hefner, who is holding a charity event. They are all ordered to leave though not before Axel meets Maxwell Dent (Jurgen Prochnow), the gang’s boss.

They link all this to Dent’s accountant and Axel talks his way in and snoops at the files. It becomes clear that Dent’s businesses are failing; he’s allowed insurances to lapse on all of them except his racetrack Empyrean Fields. E is the next letter so they head there. They also figure out that they’re planning to put all the blame on Cain, use the money to buy weapons and then leave the country for Costa Rica. Obviously after the robbery at the racetrack the finale is at the warehouse with the weapons to allow for a lot of explosions.

So what to make of this second entry? The high energy, fast talking Foley is as charismatic as ever. Taggart and Bogomil get a bit of characterisation, and Rosewood emerges as a guy who loves guns. The whole Alphabet Crimes thing seems contrived, also it looks like the police are getting really into it after just the A. And why did they shoot Bogomil after he was off the case? A gang of high end gun nuts operating out of a gun club is pretty good, this is a key part of the series, it’s violent crime concealed by very respectable organisations.

Watch This: Fun 80s cop film, the charm of the cast making up for a lot of nonsense
Don’t Watch This: Lawless cops, violence, a sheen of cheap comedy