It's been 2 years since the original Beverly Hills Cop (2 years movie time, 3 years real time), and Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is moving up in the world.
Instead of a streetwise punk selling cigarettes from the back of a semi trailer, he's now a streetwise punk buying credit cards from a Ferrari. But when he hears that his buddy Andrew Bogomil has been shot in Beverly Hills, he has to make a quick exit from Detroit, and head to California once again. There, he teams up with Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who are in danger of being demoted to traffic duty, to catch the Alphabet Criminal.
The first robbery took place at a fancy jewelery store, which naturally started with the letter "A", and the second crime was the attempted murder of Bogomil, which was "B". The third robbery is of a federal reserve location, which starts with "C", and the three amigos manage to mostly foil the robbery, but the criminals do get away, thanks to Rosewood's fancy driving of a cement truck. Make sure you keep your eyes out for Chris Rock, in his first movie role as a parking valet at the Playboy Mansion.
There doesn't appear to be a "D" crime, though one was planned, and the guys manage to figure out the "E" crime is going to be at the criminal's horse racing track - but by the time they get there, he's already gone with the money, leaving only a dead patsy to make it look like everything is done. That's when Axel notices some red clay runoff from one of the horses, which he also saw at Bogomil's house, and that's when the action really heats up, and the whole crime is, of course, solved, getting all the good guys out of the hot water they've been in along the way.
For once, a sequel outdoes the original. While there probably isn't as much comedy here, the action is stepped up a notch, and it's actually more enjoyable than the first one. Well worth a watch.
Rated R for some violence, pervasive language and nudity.
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