Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F star Eddie Murphy weighs in on criticisms leveled at 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III. Despite the strong box office reception of the original and its 1987 sequel, Murphy’s third outing as Axel Foley would be widely panned by critics and only recoup $119.2 million against an original budget of $70 million. Plagued by spiraling budgetary concerns and script issues, many commentators, including Murphy, consider it the weakest entry in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise.

With many hoping to see the franchise’s legacy restored with the upcoming Netflix sequel, Screen Rant spoke with Murphy about the issues with Axel’s previous outing. Explaining that Beverly Hills Cop III suffered from having a weak villain and the absence of Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton), the iconic comedian points out the key sign of the movie’s impending failure was its use of an overly used line. Check out his comments below:

The reason Beverly Hills Cop 3 was soft was because Taggart’s not in the movie, and the villain isn’t villainous enough, and Axel didn’t have any skin in the game.

The first movie, Axel’s best friend is killed. And the second one, his boss, the Chief, gets killed. And then in the third one, Uncle Dave is in trouble. That’s what the movie’s about.

This is when you can tell a movie’s not going to work: when you have one of those lines that you’ve seen millions [of times] and hundreds of thousands of movies have said this line. There was one scene where I had Uncle Dave in the back, and he was dying. I was driving, and I said, “Don’t you die on me, man!” How many times have you seen that in a movie? When somebody’s dying, “Don’t you die on me!” If you in a movie, and you scream, “Don’t you die on me,” that means the movie’s not going to work. [Laughs]

Beverly Hills Cop 3 Missed Far More Than Taggart

Eddie Murphy’s Maligned Threequel Didn’t Live Up To The First Two Movies

Axel Foley in a car staring incredulously at something in Beverly Hills Cop 3

Sitting at a disappointing 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III is by far the lowest-rated entry in the franchise that helped turn Murphy into a Hollywood star. By comparison, the original Beverly Hills Cop boasts an impressive Certified Fresh 83% rating on the aggregator site. While the silver-tongued comedian may be quick to point out that many of the threequel’s issues revolved around its weak villain and Taggart’s absence, several other notable components are also missing from Axel’s previous big-screen adventure.

Movie
RT Critics Score
RT Audience Score
Box Office Gross

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
83%
82%
$316.3 million

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
46%
58%
$299.9 million

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
11%
35%
$119.2 million

While the first two movies were produced by the powerhouse production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the pair would later part ways with Paramount during the threequel’s protracted development process. Meanwhile, the movie’s new producers, Mace Neufeld & Robert Rehme, would also come to inherit a budget that was quickly exceeding the studio’s initial estimates and necessitated several changes to the script, including a reduction in action sequences.

Moreover, Beverly Hills Cop III would also notably break with a tradition established by the first two movies and fail to include a soundtrack contribution from R&B group The Pointer Sisters, whose song Neutron Dance is now synonymous with the franchise’s original film. However, with Bruckheimer back co-producing the franchise’s newest sequel, and Neutron Dance even featured in the official Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F trailer, all signs seem to point to the franchise making a triumphant return to the kinds of success enjoyed by its earliest entries.