About 7 months ago I wrote that Beverly Hills Cop 4 was coming on the horizon… the only sticking point at that time was if Eddie Murphy would actually do it. I also said I would have lost all hope in Murphy if he actually did… well… I’ve lost all hope, because Eddie Murphy has reportedly signed up for Beverly Hills Cop 4.
This is a horrible idea. Both the quality of the films and the public interest in the franchise shrank more and more as the series progressed (The first one was the best by far… the third one was the worst and made less than half of the first one). The good folks at M&C give us the following:
Eddie Murphy has signed with Paramount to reprise his role as in the action-comedy Beverly Hills Cop franchise. ‘Beverly Hills Cop IV’ will have Lorenzo di Bonaventura return as producer working closely with Murphy to update the property. di Bonaventura has a production deal with Paramount.
To me, this looks like the desperate move of a sad performer who is nothing but a shell of his former brilliant self with a last gasp attempt to reach back and hold just a little bit of his younger glory. Let it go Eddie… let it go.
Don’t get me wrong… I like Eddie Murphy a lot and would love to see him make a glorious comeback… but not at the expense of going back to a franchise that played itself out and wore out it’s public welcome decades ago (BHC 4 would come out 24 years after the original).
Going back to BHC4 at this point is an admission of “I’m desperate, this is the last resort and I’ve got nothing left to try”, and personally, I don’t think Eddie Murphy is at that point yet. I still think that despite the recent failures, that Murphy still has some creative original juices flowing around in that brain of his and going back to BHC4 is beneath him. To me, this is sad.
I loved the first BHC. I enjoyed the second. The third one was terrible and the franchise had played itself out. It’s done. Let it go. Move on. But this is Hollywood… and I guess this is Eddie Murphy.
