By 'MAXX22.' Positive/Major Spoilers

Before I get into the screenplay (which is the third or fourth draft from last year, written by Dan Gordon who also wrote a scriptment for another Bruckheimer sequel currently in development, BAD BOYS 2). I first found out about this project right after BHC 3 hit the screens, as Eddie said he would like to do another one. Despite that Cop 3 sucked and tanked at theaters big time (during his career slump), he went to producer Jerry Bruckheimer to tell him he was eager to reprise the role of Axel Foley because "everyone around the world sees me as Axel." (as Cinescape Online reported last November). It should be a big hit because Cops 1 & 2 were major money munchers at the box office in the 80s. There's one problem, though: are audiences still interested in Axel after six years (since COP 3) when they have new characters like Double-O-Soul to look forward to? That's a big problem. But I think Eddie's box office draw and Bruckheimer's household name will lure audiences back to a BHC sequel.

Regardless, BHC4's development has been very complex, maybe too complex to explain, but I'll try to break it down: (1) scripts for Cop 3---where Axel went to London---were trashed, but have resurfaced as the plot for Cop 4, (2) You know how the Cop series has been reminiscent of the Lethal Weapon films (COP I had to do with drugs, so did Lethal 1; COP II had to do with illegal weapons, so did Lethal 3; COP 3 had to do with counterfeit money, so did Lethal 4)? Well COP 4 follows the same tradition, only this time the story is from an early draft of Lethal 4 (in which Jeff Boam penned and probably got sold to Bruckheimer's film company), (3) Readers at Bruckheimer films informed me of the third draft that was written last november, that I'm about to review now. Most likely there's gonna be one or two more drafts, but they claim the same storyline will be kept through every draft:

The story for COP 4 is darker than the previous COPs and sounds much more race-against-time tension, and some dramatic moments but no little comedy. Please. This aint no METRO. But of course there's gonna be outlandish humor...there's several downright hilarious scenes I don't want to spoil. COP 4 has Axel Foley's closest cop partner getting viciously murdered in London. So as always, without the permission of Detriot (and some looting of airplane tickest from beverly hils), Foley heads to London to mix it up with Scotland Yard (the original idea for Cop 3), talking himself into places where he doesn't belong (a high point from COP 1 that's been missing ever since).

What Foley uncovers is a deadly political assination plot, that is being headed by the French supremacists who are out to assasinate a candidate of a secret service (the villains have already been convicted for their unlawful entries and vicious acts against humanity and are set for execution the day the candidate gets re-elected). Their plan for the assasination is ingenius and i wouldn't really want to give it away, but what I will say is that they don't use the 'shoot the candidate in the head' device. These villains are friggin' masterminds, and they use Enemy of the State technology and james bond like gadgets...they're like the Mission impossible team gone bad.

Fearing that this may be Axel's deadliest---and potentially final assignment of his life, the oh-so caring Beverly Hills sidekick Billy Rosewood persuades the Beverly Hils police force to send an exact foil to Axel down there---someone who can talk just as fast, if not faster than Foley, who can skulk, swagger and fire a gun just as well, also with smarts and guess what the partner is black (his name was "Johnny" In the draft). Johnny is a well-written character who's the perfect foil to Axel, and is just downright hilarious (too bad he starts out as a jerk, so he's not really likable until the end). So Johnny heads down to London and follows Axel's every move. Eventually they team up once Axel finds him out, but they're far from friends. They do bond, but throughout the story they fall in and out of friendship. The core of this film is how Axel must deal with a partner and how their buddy cop friendship blossoms (like how Riggs and Murtaugh did in Lethal 1; i'm sure the screenwriters are going for taht). I liked how the two worked together between relentless fast talking comic banter.

Eddie shouild get to flex more dramatic muscles beacuse near the middle the script gets a bit dramatic and has some emotional moments, as a great scene (I hope will get kept in the next draft) in the middle, where Axel and Johnny are sititng in their car late at night and Axel starts reflecting on the past couple of years, talking about all his friends that got killed in Beverly Hills, and why he still feels very empty inside, becasue even though hes avenged their deaths, he still can't see his friends. He even thinks of retiring. It's a nicely written and emotional scene that Eddie can handle well (seen LIFE?). But along comes Johnny's smart ass "I'm-so-cool-attitude". He makse an ugly comment that gets himself into a fistfight with Axel: "If your friends never got killed in Beverly Hills, you would still be sitting on your lazy asshole in Detroit." Thankfully, Axel kicks the shit out of Johnny. As the two near the assasination date they must learn to work together to get the case completed.

The tense climax has Axel and Johnny racing against time to save the candidate in Scotland Yard, where there is an obligatory crows and secuirty guards Axel and Johny must fast talk their way through. There's a lot of jumping, running and screaming and dodging of bullets. All Axel knows how to do is kick the shit out of bad guys. Luckily, Johnny is a technical expert who helps out by defusing some of the technology the supremacists use. Let's not talk about the candidate. We all know the candidate will be saved. But it aint' over yet: The supremacists are still alive, as Axel and Johnny get into a rockin' car chase around the city night of London, causing epxlosions, mayhem and destruction including where everyone takes part in a high-speed chase up a closing bridge by the harbor (uber-friggin cool scene where you find out what happens if you try to drive your car up a closing bridge). The survivors of the chase end up at the Eifel Tower (deja vu). Johnny finishes off most of the villains with Die-Hard booby traps and says some funny quips. The screenwriters seem to take the most original turn for an action film set in London--this fight DOESN'T END ON TOP OF THE EIFEL TOWER. THANK GOD!!! So They get to like the fifth or sixth floor, where Axel must deal with the main baddie in a viciously violent fight with spinning knives, and twisted metal from the Tower are used to kill. The bad guy is described as "a very scary, pised off and very strong who will kill you cannibal-style". SO it's only right that the villain goes after everyone with a carved knive to cut off everyone's heads/arms/legs (no, he doesn't really cut off anyones head but intends to..him and his henchmen cut off people's arms/leg/any other limbs and send them away). After a surprisingly intense fist fight Axel is beaten within an inch out of his life, as Johnny comes in to make axel hold on and not die. Axel doesn't care wheteher he dies or not because thats when he'll finally reunite with all his friends. You may actually feel Axel may die, but hey, this is a BHC film and he doesn't die. So at the end, Axel doesn't decide to retire, Johnny gets promoted, and the two head back to Beverly hills as 'partners', but play one more outrageously funny prank on Beverly hills before the script wraps.

This installment really wraps up the whole Beverly Hills Cop movies, one problem though: The script doesn't really focus on Billy Rosewood and Serge sidekicks. They're just sidekicks with small comedic parts. If they can get a better script in ASAP, this is the one that's the the best in story and action right next to the first Beverly Hills Cop, and can be Eddie's finest moment (in his career and of course Jerry's finest at the box office).

----Hope to see BHC4 really soon, MAXX232