FIRST CAUGHT-ON-CABLE TRIO OF NUMBER TWOS: COPS & APES

1987 rating: ***

BEVERLY HILLS COP 2: First sequel to Martin Brest's popular BEVERLY HILLS COP has Axel Foley returning to the plush So Cal playground from his gritty Detroit mainline. DRIVE: Again it’s personal, although not as severe… Ronny Cox’s Beverly Hills police chief is shot and almost killed by a gang of ruthless thugs who, working from a private gun club, cause high stake havoc. HIGHS: Wherein the first movie relied on Murphy’s resilient wit to get him in and out of situations by pretending to be someone else (like Chevy Chase in the following year’s FLETCH, also scored by Harold Faltermeyer), this time Axel is, for the most part, an intense rogue. Teamed with director Tony Scott, BEVERLY HILLS COP GUN is really an action flick with explosions and gunfights over laughs. And the villains are worthy to be sought and killed, including an Amazon woman and two surly creeps. LOWS: Several parts attempt humor but they’re simply… not that funny. Axel’s ruses are too complicated and farfetched. Judge Reinhold’s transition from the naïve Billy Rosewood into a gun freak infatuated with Rambo... Stallone was original cast in the first movie... is  downright awkward. Older grouchy partner John Ashton doesn’t have much to do this time but react to an extremely dated joke about dressing like Gerald Ford. And Paul Reiser's sarcastic Detroit detective has way too much screen time. CLOSURE: This second of three Axel Foley flicks works pretty well thanks to Tony Scott’s edgy high octane makeover. Perhaps this is what the Stallone BEVERLY HILLS COP would have been more like.

1993 rating: **

ANOTHER STAKOUT: Follow-up to John Badham’s STAKEOUT where Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez played Seattle cops who specialize in… take a wild guess. Rosie O’Donnell is added to the cast, giving the boys a partner who views their quirks that the audience enjoyed the first time around, and now we get everything spoon fed through her eyes. DRIVE: Richard and Rosie pose as a married couple with a mustache-less Emilio as their son, holed up in a mountain home next door to marrieds Dennis Farina and Marcia Strassman, who might know something about an escaped witness. HIGHS: This witness, played by RAGING BULL starlet Cathy Moriarty, is part of a suspenseful prologue seeming part of something more… serious, like the first film. We're introduced to worthy villain Miguel Ferrer... both intense characters are shown sporadically, resulting in a standard chase at the end where Dreyfuss becomes action hero and Badham, returned as director, is more in his element. LOWS: Too many to count, but the trio actually has decent chemistry despite the forced humor, which is not altogether Rosie’s fault… Richard Dreyfuss seems like he’s playing silly for a kindergarten class at times, and Estevez often acts like he’s just learned how. Meanwhile, Rosie tries too hard to compete with the boys – this can be said for both the actress and character. And Madeline Stowe literally phones in her useless appearances. CLOSURE: Plays out like the TV Movie for a STAKEOUT series, which would have surely been cancelled after this "pilot episode."  

1970 rating: *1/2

BENEATH PLANET OF THE APES: The second of five of the original PLANET OF THE APES flicks. DRIVE: The restless gorillas are poised for war against a lurking danger in the Forbidden Zone, where a returning Chuck Heston rides with his sexy Jane in the form of Linda Harrison’s human hottie, Nova. HIGHS: Anytime we center on the restless army led by the nefarious General Urko played by Jeff Corey, and an intense James Franciscus is the new astronaut replacing Heston as new kid in town, and his mission is to find the missing American hero… But he hardly bonds with the friendly peace-seeking chimps (no Roddy McDowell, only Kim Hunter), and the ape’s story is merely peripheral to… LOWS: Possibly the worst antagonists in science-fiction history within an underground compound where a group of mutants worship an atomic bomb, a political agenda worn so brightly on the sleeve it becomes the entire costume, and this is no party. CLOSURE: Thankfully in the third and best outing, ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, the finale of this horrendous sequel is, ala time travel, completely abandoned.