The ranking covers only comedies, excluding horror and science-fiction versions such as Face/Off, Freaky (called actually really liked), Nine Lives with Kevin Spacey trapped in a cat, and The Cobbler with Adam Sandler. — Bill Simmons
Asked for thoughts, the reply places it in the latter days of Meg Ryan's arc, a film that felt like a favor but was enjoyable; it made the playoffs but is not a round-two movie. — Juliet Litman
The cast is largely considered untouchable; Sharon Stone and The performer transcribed as DeMorne (identity unresolved) are proposed for Lynette, with continued admiration for Lisa Blount. — Bill Simmons
A later-era Denzel Washington is proposed as an especially strong Foley, explicitly outside the original casting period. — Bill Simmons
Denzel's military filmography is recalled in support of the hypothetical Foley casting; A Soldier's Story and Adolph Caesar's sergeant are praised. — Bill Simmons
A case is made for Rosewood and Taggart, and for Tony Scott because the film is so distinctively his, yet it is hard to name anyone other than Murphy. — Chris Ryan
The answer is affirmed as Eddie Murphy while agreeing that others have credible claims. — Chris Ryan
Eddie Murphy is not at Apex despite Cop 2 and Raw in the same year; the first Beverly Hills Cop was his apex, though the film’s success shows his star power. — Bill Simmons
Paramount wanted a TV series, which Eddie turned down. — Bill Simmons
The film’s license plate is reportedly a recurring placeholder plate, like 555 phone numbers, seen in L.A. Story, Go, Pay It Forward, Traffic, Drive, and Two and a Half Men. — Bill Simmons
Axel’s gun-club alias Richard James is linked to Rick James. — Bill Simmons
Taggart swears at Rambo while firing a rocket launcher and Rosewood has a Cobra poster, while Tony Scott reportedly had an affair with Stallone’s wife. — Bill Simmons
Axel never keeps money, handing $20 to Billy, $50 to Chris Rock’s valet, and $200 to the mayor’s charity dinner. — Bill Simmons
Taggart and Rosewood are named first, with a wish that Beverly Hills Cop movies had kept coming every two years, seven in all, to add more of them. — Bill Simmons
Brigitte Nielsen is raised next, and this is judged the best part she ever had, better than her earlier Schwarzenegger film and definitely better than Cobra. — Bill Simmons
An opening song thematically drawn from the movie is praised as something no longer done. — Chris Ryan
Shakedown was reportedly meant for Glenn Frey until his voice gave out, so Bob Seger sang it; Harold Faltermeyer’s score is compared to 48 Hours, Escape from New York, Miami Vice, and Fletch. — Bill Simmons
Shakedown is called Bob Seger’s only number-one hit, a late peak after Springsteen pulled ahead of him around 1981. — Bill Simmons
George Michael’s I Want Your Sex is called an amazing ‘80s song used perfectly. — Bill Simmons
A scene at the villains’ apartment revealing their strange relationship is wished for, and the debt-driven alphabet scheme is called too cute by half. — Bill Simmons
Simpson and Bruckheimer have aged best; Simpson reportedly had Paramount pull writer Larry Ferguson off The Presidio to work on this film. — Bill Simmons
A deleted gun-club scene where Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart sneak past lasers should have been kept. — Bill Simmons
It was reportedly the first movie filmed at the Playboy Mansion after Hugh Hefner had long refused. — Bill Simmons
The Alphabet Crimes concept could be a Fincher-style limited Netflix series with one letter per episode; the crimes ran through the jewelry store, Bogomil, City Deposit, and the racetrack, and should have reached J. — Bill Simmons
Paul Reiser appears to be reading a Playboy’s Sisters magazine in several scenes, possibly a payoff for mansion access. — Chris Ryan
The short scene of Bogomil being gunned down after Brigitte Nielsen’s car cuts him off opens the category, including the wig removal and Mercedes convertible getaway. — Chris Ryan
Axel commandeering the Andersons’ house under construction is nominated, with the foreman’s exasperated no-right-angles reaction and the flow into Johnny Wishbone as highlights.
The gun club scene is praised for the Monique and Unique bit and Nielsen’s introduction, though shooting the screen with a real gun seems odd and the villain lineup feels overcrowded, including Dean Stockwell’s character.
The 385 North strip-club bit presenting a man as former President Gerald Ford remains funny, helped by the outfit and the crowd’s applause.
The fish-tank fingerprint visit to Rosewood’s apartment, with its Cobra poster, could have lasted twenty minutes. — Bill Simmons
The City Deposit armored-truck robbery is Tony Scott flexing, ending with a cement truck and Chris Rock as a valet; the whole Playboy Mansion sequence is called one of the most ‘80s scenes of the ‘80s. — Bill Simmons
The racetrack robbery is chosen for Tony Scott’s cross-cutting with running horses and Brigitte turning on her partner. — Chris Ryan
The Detroit scenes with the returning cigarette salesman and Paul Reiser’s strung-out Ferrari payphone calls are also named. — Chris Ryan
The final choice splits by genre: City Deposit through the Playboy Mansion for action, and the Andersons house scene for comedy, which the other host matches with the gun-club bag bit as an alternative. — Bill Simmons
An early flag for this category asks whether Rosewood and Taggart could have been spun off into a TV series or limited series about bumbling LA cops solving rich people’s crimes. — Bill Simmons
The added-character and spinoff ideas are carried over, and Wesley’s question from the first film about whether Axel Foley was gay is revisited; this sequel ignores it. — Bill Simmons
A belated question asks whether the franchise had more legs; the sequels should have added new stars as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard did instead of running the same nucleus back. — Bill Simmons
The third film, the Disneyland one, is called an abomination that is not even fun-bad. — Bill Simmons
Adding characters is called the missed answer, and a Detroit-set sequel, perhaps with Rosewood undercover there, is endorsed. — Bill Simmons
An alternative sequel premise has a newly famous Axel hired as a consultant on a Hollywood cop movie that turns out to be laundering drug money. — Bill Simmons
The breakup setup, John Candy, Judge Reinhold, throwaway jokes, the women, poker running gag, score, deleted scene, Murray–Ramis friendship, and Warren Oates
Lines such as the furs answer, the drug answer, and Ramis’s strip-search head movement reward repeated viewing. — Brian Koppelman
Sean Young and the other actress playing a military-police character are praised as charismatic women with agency; the latter’s strong late-1970s run is recalled. — Bill Simmons
Candy repeatedly exploiting the character Cruiser in poker remains an effective running gag. — Bill Simmons
Elmer Bernstein’s score is praised for shifting between jaunty and lower-register military themes. — Brian Koppelman
A deleted South American subplot has LSD, an unauthorized paratrooper mission, guerrilla capture, and escape; cutting it is judged correct because it derailed the film. — Bill Simmons
Whether Cop 2 is better: it is a better story and a flat-out good, more fun movie with good music, the Taggart and Rosewood thing and Brigitte Nilsson (as transcribed), with Eddie still great; the fondness for Cop 1 comes from everything it meant for the Eddie arc.
Was Axel Foley gay gets a yes, but the answer first returns to the period reviews, which were also upset about how the movie made white people look.
Pauline Kale (as transcribed) did not believe in Eddie Murphy's stardom and found it offensive because he used it as a joke on how dumb white people could be made to look by a smart black person, a sort of pro-minstrel argument against an anti-minstrel work; LA Times letters in 1985 characterized Murphy's swagger with a racial slur and worried that black confidence would replace white comedians.
One host as a kid felt the opposite, that it was the greatest thing that ever happened; Kale was about 65, not a racist, but had an interesting take on how black audiences responded to The French Connection, and old guard critics felt that way, so the rewatch was done aware that people were nervous Eddie was someone white people should fear.
To one host it is a movie about a gay black man in the Detroit police whose former best friend, probably lover or hookup buddy, gets killed, sending him on a mission; not having sex with a woman does not make you gay, but a near two-hour movie whose protagonist on the verge of major stardom never gets a moment with the girl is striking, even allowing that Eddie arrived two weeks before filming and nothing was rewritten.
Evidence: Jenny looks completely enamored, goes to the big three-room suite and immediately lies on the bed batting her eyelashes, and the only thing on Axel's mind is ordering room service for Taggart and Rosewood.
The Mikey scenes are weird to watch: at the bar they look like they are about to make out, they exchange 'I love you', and when Axel gets home after the chewing-out by Inspector Todd to find Mikey broken in with the fridge open he is elated; the counter is that a friend out of prison eating a mayo sandwich in your kitchen would get 'get out of my house, you felon'.
Gay characters are sprinkled throughout; it is an unintended consequence of a movie made with a ton of cocaine by the seat of its pants; at the strip joint he only tells Rosewood to give the dancer a dollar and does not partake, and his pretending is for plot rather than character; the movie is all pairs of men with emotional energy who could be on the verge of kissing, so subtext becomes text; 'is Axel gay' is a long-running Reddit conspiracy theory; James Russo brings a wild method energy to a two-minute part, a reckless guy out of prison who almost cries seeing his friend, which feels very real.
Eddie is drawn into Russo rather than watching a method performance, they are on the same page; the original ending reportedly had Eddie back in his Detroit apartment opening the closet to find Mikey's shirt and sniffing it, prompting the joke that Martin Brest was robbed of an Oscar; the movie probably intended none of it.
Intent does not matter because those things are in the movie we got; one host noticed it independently and wrote about it in a 2010 mailbag because the Jenny Summers scene jumped out, and may have inspired the theory; no other 80s action or genre movie lacks some nod to the hero's romantic life.
Even in 48 Hours Nick Nolte's girlfriend calls to complain and Eddie gets laid by Olivia Brown, his primary obsession in that film; Eilbacher is a beautiful blonde, not a character actress like Joan Cusack, whose function in any other movie of the period, see Stripes, is to give a straight hero somewhere to put his sexuality; perhaps it was a black-white thing, since the sex scene was cut from The Golden Child and they were not ready for Eddie to do that in a mainstream movie.
The conspiracy theory is compared to early Will Smith, who had Vivica A. Fox to get back to but few romantic leads for someone in his position, and did not help himself by skipping the kiss in Six Degrees of Separation, after which he always has a girlfriend, wife or dead spouse; the wish is that movies would acknowledge gay people exist and have sex lives instead of flicking at it.
Damon Wayans giving him the fruit plate with the banana for the tailpipe is text, not subtext, and Eddie turns around on his way out to say thank you, perfectly comfortable with the man; the movie's own setup is the you-killed-my-lover revenge premise of other action movies, taken as a vacation; one host watched it for 26 years without noticing until the other wrote about it.
The passion for Jenny Summers is the giveaway, how could a man not kiss her; the wish for one line where she hits on him and he insinuates he does not do that anymore is answered with 'that makes it worse'; it makes her character more interesting and hornier, and Eddie's complicated history with homophobia in his comedy makes the whole thing more frictive.
A tangent on Eddie's homophobia turns into a bit about one host's bullies now being gay married with three kids: bully someone and your sexuality will come for you.
During the scene discussion, 'before he dies, they're doing it' was raised about Axel and Mikey and saved for later.
During what aged best, Jenny is said to be a love interest for neither man, though she really tried with Eddie, and the subject is parked until later.
