#259. 'Beverly Hills Cop' (Netflix, P+)
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This week the hosts revisit the original 1984 Beverly Hills Cop on the occasion of its new Netflix sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, and all three land on real affection for the original. Sonny, rewatching for the first time in roughly 25 years, is most struck by the matching Detroit-then-Beverly Hills opening montages in both films and how strikingly the sociology has shifted between 1984 and now — Detroit reads far less blighted and Beverly Hills far more ridiculous in the new version — while still marveling at how thin the plot is and how much the movie simply rides on watching Eddie Murphy work; he calls it a perfect specimen of the 1980s high-concept star vehicle, alongside things like Top Gun and Die Hard. JVL, seeing it again for the first time since a forbidden childhood sleepover viewing, declares it possibly the funniest movie ever made and raves about the deep bench of character actors (Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser, Damon Wayans, Jonathan Banks) and the iconic soundtrack, and flags it as a pre-cell-phone-camera-era cop movie whose copaganda leanings still work because the film actually shows Axel Foley being a gifted investigator rather than just asserting it. Mike, watching for the very first time ever, is charmed by the bearer-bonds MacGuffin, the slow-burn coffee-grounds subplot, and Eddie Murphy at his star-making peak. The first third of the episode is pure banter: Mike's return from a road trip through the summer-heat hellscape of the South, JVL's still-unroofed shed and a listener email about the tree-house-building "Garnier limb" bolt, and an extended Sonny saga about a professional bee-removal guy extracting roughly 10,000 bees and multiple giant honeycombs from his sprinkler valve box, plus box office chat covering Despicable Me 4, Warner pulling Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 from its release date, and skepticism toward the Gladiator II trailer. They close by noting the resurfaced Eddie Murphy/David Spade feud story making the celebrity-news rounds again.
From the show notes
Do do do-dodo-do-do, do do etc. Also, a visual aid for dudes chatting:
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Now I'll offer you something to drink, a wine, a cocktail, an espresso. No, I'm fine. Thank you. I'll make it myself right back there with a little lemon twist. It's good. Try it.
JVL00:00:11No, I'm fine.
Guest00:00:13I see you look at this piece. Yeah, I was wondering how much something like this went for. $130,000. Get the fuck out of here. No, I cannot. It's serious because it's a very important piece. Have you ever sold one of these? Sold it yesterday to a collector.
JVL00:00:27Get the fuck out of here. It's serious. I said it myself.
Mike00:00:41Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I am your co-host Mike Warren. I'm joined as always by my two co-hosts who keep thinking about the end of Butch Cassidy. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at subbeacon.com. Become a patron. Get new episodes every Friday morning. Tell your friends and family. Comment. Join the conversation only at subbeacon.com. We're going to be talking about Beverly Hills Cop later in the show. But first, welcome back to me, I guess, guys, right? How have you been, Mikey? I've been great. It's been a minute. You guys did a fantastic job with the show without me. I really feel... kind of superfluous after listening to last week's show.
JVL00:01:31Kidding. The entire show, I was just thinking, man, I wish Mike was here to talk about construction stuff.
Mike00:01:36You kept saying that. No, it was great. It was I think I think we all learned a lesson. And that much was clear from the shed talk. And it was it was terrific to hear about the learning experience JVL that you had. And I think if you could just look at really all of life as sort of one continuous learning experience, then, you know, you had a big one there. So congratulations. How is the shed, by the way?
JVL00:02:07Well, it's it's the exact same condition as when we wrapped it last time. I have not roofed it. I have not put the doors on. I have not installed the windows or trim or caulked anything. But that's OK, because I got a membrane on the roof and it's it's going to be all right.
Sonny00:02:23It's going to be all right. It's going to be all right.
JVL00:02:27Just if you keep saying it over and over again, it manifests. I'm not looking forward to getting on the roof for the roofing. It's so steep. The pitch of the roof is so steep.
Sonny00:02:38You know, you know, I like how when you when you when you get a cut and it scabs over and eventually it just it takes. That's what a roof is like is my understanding. Eventually the the roof just spontaneously appears like like a little scab.
JVL00:02:51You know, I got to I'm sorry. I got to wait for it to not be 100 degrees outside and for me to have an entire day. Yeah.
Mike00:02:57That's not this is this weather. I mean, talking about the weather is sort of the lowest common denominator of of dudes chatting on podcasts, but it's so bad. It's it's like everywhere I go because I've been on the road. I've been in South Carolina. I've been in Georgia. I've been in very briefly in Dallas. It's awful everywhere. And I want it to stop.
Sonny00:03:21I'll say it's nicer in Dallas this year than it was last. Last year was brutal in Dallas. It was like 107 degrees for like two straight months. Oh, yeah. And I guess we could still get that because I mean, it's it's only July, but like it's been pretty consistently like mid 90s here, which is like a little warmer than usual, but not not outrageously so.
Mike00:03:44All right. So enough heat talk. Sonny, what is going on with you?
Sonny00:03:50So fun, fun story from my house this week last actually last week. It's been it's been a couple of weeks now. I my my wife came back from a run and was like, hey, can you come look at something in the front yard? And I was like, sure, that's never a good this never a good start to any conversation. I was like, yeah, sure, let's go. Let's go take a look. What's going on? And she's like, you see that? And I was like, oh, there's some bees. There's some bees and the little, you know, like the water shut off valve for the sprinklers. There's it's like a little box that's underground, a little little water shut off. There were there were some bees around the hole, you know. There's like a hole that you like. Bees?
JVL00:04:28Didn't this just happen to Mike two weeks ago? No, this was Sonny.
Sonny00:04:32No, this was me.
JVL00:04:33Oh, this was you.
Sonny00:04:33OK, so I I was like, oh, yeah, that's a lot of bees. That's a lot of bees. We should get a bee person. So I called the city and the city was like, no, that's on you. You got to take care of that. So I was like, all right, fine. So I called up I called up a bee removal. First, I called our like normal pest guys. I was like, hey, can you can you come get rid of these bees? And they were like, yes, we can do that. But we kill the bees. And my wife is very anti killing honeybees, you know, because I remember there was that big honeybee panic a few years ago. Everyone was like, I'm the honeybees are disappearing. They're they're all gone. But the bees are back. There was a story a couple of months ago. It was like there are more bees than ever. So bees, the bees are fine.
JVL00:05:13I'm sorry, Sonny. By Texas law, aren't you required to shoot the bees yourself?
Sonny00:05:18You well, from a helicopter. Yes, but you have to have the proper napalm fire gun. OK, I just do it with like you just do it with your pistol. You can't just shoot your six shooter because think about it. I mean, this is a safety thing, because if you start shooting at bees and you've only got six bullets in your gun, there's thousands of bees. They're going to you're you're you're outnumbered.
JVL00:05:42So you go right up to the hole and start firing. I mean, you'll get so many. You're not just going to get one beeper per round still.
Sonny00:05:49But still, there's there's still too many bees. I mean, you know, you have to you have to do it with a straight up. Straight up like napalm fire gun.
JVL00:05:58If you think about it, that's really a perfect analogy to the Alamo.
Sonny00:06:03I'm going to ignore that. The slander of the Alamo. So the so I call up the first bee, the first pest coming in. They're like, yeah, we kill the bees. My wife's like, we can't kill the bees. And I'm like, I don't know, man, I don't want the bees, but whatever. We'll call somebody to remove the bees. So we call a bee removal person and he comes out. And this is again, this is like from. From the moment she first saw the bees to the moment this guy showed up. It's like four hours, not, not a long time. And we had never seen bee one before. We'd never seen bee one, never seen a bee there before. These are, these are new bees.
JVL00:06:39How do you find a bee removal person? This seems like such an incredibly niche thing that there'd be like two people in the state and that they'd have to, there'd be scheduled out months in advance.
Sonny00:06:49No, no, it was, there's bee removal people everywhere. That's easy. It's easy to find. Yeah. It's a part of it.
JVL00:06:55You Google, you Google it.
Sonny00:06:58Somebody comes to your house. It's like, it's the future, man. It's the internet. You just push a button and somebody shows up and you give them money and they take care of your problem. Uh, so we, we call the bee removal guy. He shows up again. From, from sighting of bee number one to this guy showing up is like four hours. Okay. And so I'm thinking to myself, we got on this problem early. This isn't one of these things I let go on. I didn't see bees hanging around and just like, maybe it'll fix itself. And then, and then the problem got worse. This was like, we were on the ball on this. I was like, there won't be that many bees here. This guy'll just, you know, he'll open up the thing and it'll, he'll like put down some spray or something. They'll go away, whatever. Uh, and the guy was like, oh yeah, that's a lot of bees. I was like, how'd they get here? He's like, yeah, they, what happens is you get one or two and then you have 10,000. Like that's, that's how it ha they just show up. I was like, ah, there can't be that many under there. And you guys saw the videos and the photos I sent you. He pulled that, he pulled the lid up. He pulls the lid off the, the thing. And I think, thank God I didn't move it. Cause I, my initial thought was just like, I'll take care of these bees. I'll take this lid off and spray it with bee poison. But again, there was a, there's a prohibition on bee killing.
Mike00:08:10That would be your shed Sonny.
Sonny00:08:12And I was like, I was like, all right, well we call it. So, so he takes, he takes off the lid and I swear to God, there are like four honeycombs on this thing that are, uh, I would say between six and eight inches long, maybe long, maybe bigger, maybe. But like going like from the top of this thing down to the bottom of where the, the little crevice enormous bee. And there's thousands of bees just flying around this guy. Who's got his beekeeper suit on. I mean, it's like Jason Statham has showed up to my house. He's got his beekeeper suit on. He's, he's, he's taken out all these bees and I'm like, what the fuck is happening? How did this happen? And he was like, yeah, man, like I said, like, if you see the bees, it's already too late. It's already, it's like, if you, if you see the bees, you've got it, you've got a, you got a whole thing going on in there. And I was like, Ooh, what do you do? It's like, well, what we, and I just watched him. I like took, I like took video. Cause I found it. I find it fascinating.
JVL00:09:05Did you get your own bee gear on to protect you?
Sonny00:09:07No, I, I just sat back. I just sat back by the, uh, by like, not, not even that far away. Like maybe 20 feet. I was, I wasn't that far away, but the bees, the bees, the bees weren't interested. Bees weren't interested in me because the queen, the queen is in the, in the honeycomb. So he's like, yeah, so you lift up the, you lift up the lid and all of the bees immediately like cover the queen. They like, they hide her. They all go on top of her and they all stay there. So you just cut the comb off, put it in a box. You, you put the box in the hole on the, all the rest of the bees come in. And then you tape up the box and you poke holes in it so they can breathe. And you put it in the back of your truck. I was like, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
JVL00:09:49But I, but like, I, what happens if the queen is producing bad offspring?
Sonny00:09:54Well, then somebody has to save the hive. You got to equilibri, equilibri, equilibralize the hive. Uh, so anyway, the, but like the, the, the, the whole thing was just totally fascinating to me. And I was like, how did this happen? He's like, eh, what you're going to want to do. I'm going to put down some, some chemicals. I'm gonna put down a spray that'll keep the bees away. But what you're going to want to do is, uh, get some paper bags or get some plastic bags and get some newspaper and crunch them up, you know, crunch it up to, to the, the plastic bags are roughly the size of this hole. And then you put it in there and the bees won't build any more nets. Cause there won't be space for them. They won't be able to do the, they won't, the honeycombs won't be able to come down and fill the, fill the cavity there with their delicious, delicious honey. And I was just like, man, okay. So I did that no more bees since, but like I, I, the, the, I, I was just, I was flabbergasted by the whole thing. I was like, where did they come from? They're like, yeah, they just fly out. They fly all around. And then when they find a good spot again, you get like one or two and then they send their message back to wherever they are and they show up with like an invading force. They just like, they roll in and take the place over. And it was, it was really something else. It was, so anyway, long story short, if you, if you see, if you see like, and I'm not talking about like, you see a bee on a flower. Or what, if you see like four or five or a dozen bees congregating in one spot, call a guy. You got yourself a nest.
JVL00:11:31You got yourself a nest.
Sonny00:11:32Two questions. Don't, don't open that up.
JVL00:11:34Call a guy. Yeah. Two questions. JVL. JVL. First question is, what did this gentleman say to you that he was going to do with these bees?
Sonny00:11:43They, they, he.
JVL00:11:44Or we're just going to take them out to a very, out to the countryside, to a better home where they can, then he just lights it on fire.
Sonny00:11:51Here's, here's why there are so many bee removal operations is because what they do is they take the beehive and they start their own colonies and then they rent out the bees to farms and stuff like there's a whole industry, there's a whole bee industry. So this guy gets paid twice. I pay him to remove the bees and then other people pay the company to rent the bees to pollinate their fields or whatever. It's, it's a, it's a racket. There's a whole bee racket in this country. And this is why I was never on board with the, we have to save the bees nonsense. The, the bees are our enemies. I, oh, they pollinate the food, whatever.
JVL00:12:25We got to cut out the middleman and we need an app called Bieber where you can rent your own bees out a bee sharing app, if you will, so that we cut out the middleman and the people who need their fields pollinated go right to you and you capture that money,
Sonny00:12:41Sonny. I think this is an interesting idea. I'm going to look into it.
JVL00:12:45Uh, but question number two, question number two, how much did he charge?
Sonny00:12:50It was like 400 bucks, like 400, 400 bucks to get rid of the bees. There's probably cheaper options, a hundred dollars. I assume there are cheaper options. I assume that there's a, if I call, if I had like shopped around and found like my local neighborhood bee guy, instead of whoever was best Google SEO optimized.
JVL00:13:11Have you ever seen a garden torch?
Sonny00:13:13What?
JVL00:13:14Have you ever seen a garden torch?
Sonny00:13:16Again, I could have killed the bees. That's not, that's not the issue here.
JVL00:13:20That's a, it's a weed remover, which takes a small propane bottle and just sprays fire. So you could use it to spray. If you have, for instance, uh, lots of sidewalk with crack, like you could go out there and just burn away the weeds. I think you go over there to that bee hole. You just torch those bitches up. Those are $39 on Amazon.
Sonny00:13:43I probably could have done that. Although also, again, you have to remember there is like, uh, there, there is important water equipment in this area that the bees have, I can't just, I can't just melt it to nothing. Like I have a water shutoff valve there that I do kind of need to work.
Mike00:14:01So am I going to be the one here to defend the bees?
Sonny00:14:05You can defend the bees if you want invasive fucking species colonizing my yard.
Mike00:14:11But they're, they're great because they make honey and honey is, is delicious.
Sonny00:14:16Honey is the most overrated of the sweet. Give me corn. Corn syrup. Any day of the week, give me hard, give me hard, give me high fructose corn syrup that I can just pour over anything I want. And then that's the same thing.
JVL00:14:30Come on.
Mike00:14:31Disagree. But here's the thing you need to do next time, Sonny, there should be people in your town, in your neighborhood who will do this for free there had, we had, uh, I knew they were not honeybees, but my, uh, my wife thought they might be honeybees. We had some, you know, flying, uh, cousin of the Apis genus, uh, in our backyard a couple of years ago. And I thought, and so we called somebody in the neighborhood who is a bee enthusiast and who brought over his, his daughter and, uh, they checked them out and they were like, oh wait, no, those are not bees. Those are yellow jackets. Uh, and you know, got the hell outta there quickly. They were like, people will take them because again, as you say, you can sell the bees, you can create the colony and then sell the colony.
JVL00:15:25Traffic the bees, if you will.
Mike00:15:26Yeah. But bees, bees are amazing creatures actually. They, they, it's like they're, I'm endlessly fascinated by the like you social aspects of, of ants, but mo more bees. I mean, they, they, they're these kind of, they are these individual creatures, but they're also kind of. They're, they're like appendages on a actual big, you know, the hive itself is kind of an organism in and of itself as well. And I just find the whole way that they work is so foreign and alien to the way, like, you know mammals operate for instance. So I just find that they're, they're, they're fascinating and like you get like the queen, they'll follow the queen. And so like there's a account on Instagram, I'm sure it's on TikTok, but I'm not on TikTok, uh, of this woman in Texas who goes the bee woman and she's great. And I love watching the bee woman, um, and something about the way she says things, right. She has this like, like idiosyncratic weird way. She goes, you know, at the end of every video, she says, uh, you know, uh, and that's another day of saving the bees and it's very soothing and it's very nice to watch.
JVL00:16:40She's like the crazy murderer lady from tiger King. I never saw that. The tiger lady.
Mike00:16:45I never saw that. But she's, she's the bee lady. And the bee girl. I don't know. And, um, you know, she always finds the queen and she's like, she goes in there with a little smoke, but like she picks them up and she like, she has no, I I'm, I'm really fascinated by the people who have no fear about going in and just like grabbing the hive and transporting it into the truck and all this stuff. And like, maybe they get stung a couple of times, but they don't seem to be afraid of it. It's they, they do, they do the things that I wish I could.
Sonny00:17:17Yeah. No, I look, I, I agree that there is probably somebody I could have got to come to my house for free and do this. If I wanted to spend multiple hours on the internet, figuring out who, and who knows how long it would have taken them to get there. But like I got kids walking around, I wanted, I wanted my problem gone and I wanted it gone immediately. And I got that. And again, this, this is, this was taken care of within like a business day. I was, I was, I was impressed by the speed with which this occurred. Um, but again, like it. Um, you know, uh, it was, it's annoying. It's an annoying $400 random expense, but, uh, such are, such are the joys of home ownership.
JVL00:17:58Well, I got something good for us. Tell us JVL. I have a followup on last week's movie. You remember that we talked about how to rob a bank and what we really talked about was the tree house that Hollywood built and our amazement at it and the construction of it. And I got an email from my buddy, friend of the pod, Ed Condon, who himself has dabbled in actual tree house engineering. And he says that he was not surprised at all because in the early 1990s, there was a thing invented called the TAB, the tree house attachment bolt, otherwise known as a Garnier limb. And that the Garnier limb. Absolutely changed the game in terms of tree house construction. And further that while the TAB, the Garnier limb was not, uh, available to the wider public until the late 1990s, it was invented in the Pacific Northwest. And the guy who invented it was doing a bunch of these off the books, off no, no building code compliant projects all through Oregon. Washington state as he refined and developed it. So throughout the early to mid nineties. And so Ed says that he would not be surprised at all if the, this guy didn't help Hollywood build that place, uh, or that wasn't the Hollywood's place. Wasn't inspired by the creation of this Garnier bolt.
Mike00:19:37So, so this bolt, I'm, I'm looking it up now, uh, an image of it.
Sonny00:19:40So it's got immediately went to look it up totally.
Mike00:19:43So it's got like a, on one end it's threaded. Right. And then there's some kind of, um, sort of larger cylinder. Some of them, some of them are shorter, some of them are longer, but that like separates the threaded part from, from the longer unthreaded part of the bolt. And so, so this, so this like goes what into the side of the tree into the tree. Right. And it, and it's like, it, it offers what superior support I'm, I'm guessing. I'm guessing.
JVL00:20:16At regular law at regularized angles. Right. Right. So the, the key being you can put it anywhere and get a true and level for real strong attachment point to then build on top of.
Mike00:20:30It's slightly different than a lag bolt cuz the lag bolt does not have this added cylinder in the middle. Correct. Um, which I guess gives it, I'm just guessing here, it gives it some extra, um, hold onto the tree. You know, it's harder, what harder to, to, to kind of pull off. I don't know. That's, that's fascinating. It, it seems like a simple, a simple innovation and yet, um, I guess it had to be innovated.
JVL00:20:58It had to be. Yeah. And they're big. Yes. These things are not, we were talking about bolts that are, uh, I'm looking at like two to three inches in diameter.
Sonny00:21:07Yeah.
JVL00:21:08Yeah. So these are, these are large things.
?00:21:10Interesting.
JVL00:21:11Yeah. There you go. That's what I brought to the table today. Look at that. That's your content.
Mike00:21:16That's your post shed project JVL is to, is now you gotta get, get a couple of, uh, of
JVL00:21:21Garnier limbs and, uh, and was like, if you want to do a weekend build in the, in the tree on your, your property, like I'll come down and we'll do it. And I was like, oh man, oh, that sounds so tempting because we've got one tree that would really, really would be awesome.
Mike00:21:41It's an Oak speaking, speaking of fascination. Swiss family Robinson always was like that. It was this like total fantasy of mine that like, oh yeah.
JVL00:21:51Have you ever gone to the Airbnb tree house section? Because there are tree houses all over Airbnb and, uh, I mean, it just looks amazing.
Mike00:22:00Yeah. It's, it's the kind of thing that you go to for a guy's trip though. It's something about it. It feels like I could not convince my wife to go stay up guys trip.
JVL00:22:11No, thank you. I think, uh. I'm just saying I can't convince, I could not convince, uh. I think it's more of a husband wife trip.
Sonny00:22:19Yeah. I'm not, I'm not going with you into a fucking tree house.
Mike00:22:22I'm just saying it would be, it would be easier to convince. It would be easier to convince.
Sonny00:22:27Let's go, let's go hang out in the tree house.
Mike00:22:29Look at the, look at the foliage. Okay. Let's, uh, let's move on here. Um, uh, excellent. Well, uh, should we talk, should we talk box office here?
JVL00:22:39Yeah.
Mike00:22:41Despicable me for number one at the box office. Uh, for the, uh, gosh, it's already grossed over $120 million, uh, total. Um, just ahead of inside out two at number two and a quiet place. Day one at number three, despicable me for, uh, is the, the kids movies. Like this is, this is what will save theaters. This is what will save Hollywood, right?
JVL00:23:07Family animation is the new budget horror.
Mike00:23:10Yep.
Sonny00:23:11Yep. Uh, yeah. Well, I mean, it's, I mean, look, these are, these are two, you know, I, the despicable me franchise is fascinatingly successful, just like every, everything that they do is, is huge. The minions movies, the despicable me movies, uh, enormous, huge success
JVL00:23:28because they've reinvented the three Stooges.
Sonny00:23:30Right. Right. We talked about this a bit with the minions movie that came out last time. So people, people love these. Um, no, I mean the, the, I think the biggest box office news, uh, did you guys see that they, uh, Warner brothers and new line have pulled horizon and American saga chapter two from, uh, it's August release date. So originally chapter one, chapter one was coming out in June and then chapter two is going to come out six weeks later in August. The idea was you capitalize on the popularity and success of the first one. And yeah, there was the, that, that did not work out because there was no popularity and success for the first one. So, uh, what, and, and this is actually the right thing to do because what you do now is you take it and you put it on DVD and it goes to Walmart and people watch it there. And you put it on HBO max and people watch it there.
JVL00:24:18Yeah.
Sonny00:24:18You build the interest on VOD people, people watch it there. And so like you, you have to build the audience in a more traditional way. Um, but it, uh, it's, uh, you know, it's, uh, everyone, everyone's very, very disappointed.
JVL00:24:31And August is a dead zone anyway. Like I, I, this just makes all the sense in the world to me. Totally.
Sonny00:24:36Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, look, it, it, again, it's the sort of thing where like, it's a big swing. You're taking a big swing. You're two part six hour project that you're releasing both in theaters back to, and like, it didn't, it didn't work. So we're going to, uh, we'll see, we'll see if child part two comes out in theaters. We'll see how it does on, um, on home video and, and, and all that. But that's, uh, that was disappointing. Yeah. Some folks disappointed by that.
Mike00:25:05So, so in terms of the rest of the summer, um, we've got what twisters is coming out and a week from the day, this, this episode, uh, already tugging up to that thing. Thank you. We'll, we'll TMI there, but no, it's gotta be, it's, it should be fantastic. Uh, Deadpool and Wolverine, uh, the following weekend. Um, and, uh, no, I, I heard you guys talking about that.
Sonny00:25:32Um, and then her trap, the new M night Shyamalan movie trap, you're not excited for trap starring Josh Hartnett. Oh, you guys are crazy. I didn't even know. I haven't, I haven't, I haven't seen that.
JVL00:25:45I have no idea. Tell me, what is the elevator pitch?
Sonny00:25:48Elevator pitch is guy takes his daughter to a Taylor Swift style concert. Uh, and it turns out that the reason this concert is being put on is because it's a trap to catch a serial killer. And the, in the, in the trailers, it's being hinted that Josh Hartnett himself is the serial killer. So he's got to get it. He's got to escape.
JVL00:26:07What a twist.
Sonny00:26:08No, but that's, I don't think that's the twist because that's what they're putting in the trailer in the trailer. He's like looking at the app. Is the serial somebody else is the serial killer. And we got to figure out who the serial killer is. It's his daughter.
JVL00:26:19It's it's, it's his daughter.
Sonny00:26:22It's either his daughter or it's the singer or it's, I don't know, the cop who's orchestrated this whole thing to pin it on somebody else. Who knows? It's it's some, there's some twist coming. We, we all know there's a twist.
Mike00:26:33I think the twist is that it's takes place in the future and that the serial killer will die if it touches water. I think remember, remember old, remember?
Sonny00:26:44Old, the M and I trauma on moving old about the beach that makes you old.
JVL00:26:48I mean, it's a beach, but wouldn't it be interesting if he just did like a, an interesting movie with an interesting premise that didn't lie in a twist. Like just like it had a strong story and told it from beginning to middle to end. I mean, that'd be kind of cool. Sure. Sure. Like signs.
Sonny00:27:09You don't like signs. Signs a good movie.
JVL00:27:12I don't like any M night. Movies. You don't like unbreakable except for unbreakable.
Sonny00:27:16Unbreakable is great. Unbreakable is the only movie I like.
Mike00:27:19You don't like the six cents.
JVL00:27:21I mean, I don't dislike it, but I, it didn't like blow me away.
?00:27:25Okay. All right. All right.
Mike00:27:26Well then, but, but the same weekend, I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be sort of, it'll be like Barbenheimer. It's trap and Harold and the purple crayon. I mean, that's, that's, this is, this is going to be. Yeah.
JVL00:27:38So give me Axel F and then borderlands.
Sonny00:27:42Borderlands. August 9th.
Mike00:27:44What the hell is that?
JVL00:27:45It's the, it's like the, the, the Leppin version of guardians of the galaxy. Yeah.
Sonny00:27:49That's exactly what, that's exactly what it is. It's like, is it, is it, is it from a comic book? No, it's from a video game. It's based on a video game. They shot this like three years ago. This was Eli Roth directed this. He shot it like two or three years ago and it's been on the shelf ever since because it's so good. They've been waiting for a perfect August release date. Right.
JVL00:28:09Just like, just like horizon two. They, they waited on Top Gun Maverick. For a long time too. Exactly. So maybe this will also, cause they just believed in it so much.
Sonny00:28:19Exactly. You don't want to just dump this anytime. You want to wait for August 9th of 2024.
Mike00:28:25Question. I know JVL wants to get to the main, main meat here, but question about gladiator two.
Sonny00:28:32Yes.
Mike00:28:33Because I watched the trailer and I think it looks like hot garbage and I want you guys to tell me why I'm, why I'm wrong. Fuck you. Okay. That's a, that's a, that's an argument.
Sonny00:28:46No, I, the, I don't understand what you, what you're saying. It looks like here, here's what it looks like. It looks like gladiator. You know, what was a good movie? Gladiator. So I'm excited for it.
Mike00:28:56Yeah. But my question was why make it gladiator two? Why not just make a new, why not?
Sonny00:29:03Why make it a new movie? Why, why would you, here's, there's all sorts of things they can do with this. For instance, in gladiator, it ends with the restoration of the Roman Republic. So you can tell the story of the restoration. Restoration of the Roman Republic after the death of Maximus and how great it all went for everyone makes perfect sense. Makes, makes perfect. Makes it's a thing that happened. The restoration of the Republic and, uh, and don't remember that part of history, but, and you just follow that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Here's you watched the trailer where Denzel Washington is doing training day Denzel and, and they fill the Coliseum with water to have an actual naval battle. In the Coliseum and there's a guy riding a Rhino killing gladiators. And you're like, eh, pass, pass on this. I'm not interested. I'm not interested in this. I want to go to my tree house with my guy friends so I can look out at the, so I can look out at the sunset with them. Cause that's what beauty is. It's not Denzel getting guys to fight each other. And Rhino in a, in a pit for the, for a couple of guys doing a Joaquin Phoenix knockoff impression with their white face paint emperor nonsense. And you're, you're like, no, this isn't interesting to me. That's ridiculous. You're ridiculous. That's a ridiculous thing that you're saying.
Mike00:30:25If Denzel says King Kong ain't got shit on me.
Sonny00:30:29I'm not going to say that King Kong doesn't exist yet. That's, I'm going to be, Jupiter ain't got shit on me. See now, if he said that, that would rule. That should have been in the trailer. If that was, if that line is in the movie and it's not in the trailer, Jupiter, ain't got shit on me, then ain't got shit on me.
Mike00:30:48I would see that movie. Okay. Uh, all right, well, let's, uh, let's move on, uh, from that. We'll I'm sure we'll revisit gladiator two when it comes out and talk about the movie that we are talking about this week, which is Beverly Hills cop from 1984, Beverly Hills cop, 40 years ago. Because we're talking about this because Netflix, which has all of the Beverly Hills cops, the whole franchise of Beverly, the Beverly Hills cop universe is on Netflix. They also have the brand new, uh, fourth, third sequel, fourth, uh, well, fourth, the fourth movie, third sequel, uh, Beverly Hills cop axle F. So in, in, you know, pure sub beacon, uh, fashion, let's go back to the original and talk about Beverly Hills cops, Sonny, you want to give us a big boy review of this, uh, 40 year old movie,
Sonny00:31:43Beverly Hills cop. So here's, uh, all right. So the, the elevator pitch for Beverly Hills cop, which is really like, uh, it's like a P the purest example of paramount Bruckheimer Simpson, high concept elevator pitch energy, which is what if a cop from the streets of Detroit had to solve crimes in the ritzy neighborhood of Beverly Hills? I mean, that's it. That's literally the whole movie right there. And it's, and it's, but it, but it, uh, it works because it is a star driven vehicle. It has Eddie Murphy kind of at the early height of his powers. Like the moment where you're like, oh yeah, Eddie Murphy, that guy's a, that guy's a big star. Um, uh, so like, that's the movie. I mean, literally the movie, it's like Eddie Murphy is a street wise cop who is in a ritzy neighborhood solving crimes. And that's, that's it. And whatever I there's, there's no, there's no point in reviewing it beyond that. But I did find this, I found this movie fascinating to revisit. I haven't watched it. I haven't watched it from start to finish. Certainly in probably like 25 years, I like, I saw it when I was a teenager, um, and, and hadn't really actually sat down and rewatched it, but if you sit down and rewatch it now, especially in, in comparison with the first or the most recent one, Axel F um, it's fascinating that they both do kind of the same thing. Uh, at least in the beginning. So in the beginning of the original one, you get a montage of the streets of Detroit. And the montage of the streets in Detroit, I don't know if you guys, if this jumped out at you guys, but like the montage of the streets of Detroit in like 1984, I mean, I assume it was shot in 1983, but like 19, like early eighties, Reagan era. America.
Mike00:33:29It's like, here is blight grim exact same thought here is like the, this
Sonny00:33:37is like the industry, the flight of the industrial class, the loss of jobs, the white flight, you know, uh, crime, uh, crime, but also just like general sadness and poverty. Like there, the, the images in this montage are of like burnt out buildings, closed factories, uh, people drinking on corners.
Mike00:34:03Uh, what I assume is the prairie regrowing in one city scapes. Yeah.
Sonny00:34:08What I assume is like a homeless person with their head in their hands on the, on the sidewalk, you know, little. Little kids running through fire hydrants. Like it's like, here is, uh, here is, uh, a place that is not good and bad to live in. Right. This is like, this is a high crime, uh, blighted area. And then, uh, and then there's an opening action set piece, big truck driving through a city, destroying stuff, blah, blah, blah, and then he goes to Beverly Hills and there's a montage of Beverly Hills and it is like, here is, here is rich America here is, and it's like painted as vaguely ridiculous, but not ridiculous, ridiculous. It's like, here's like nice cars and attractive people. And it's, it's like sunny all the time, sunny and there's tree line streets and there's Gucci stores and there, you know, it's, it's like, okay. So like the contrast is very, is very obvious. And we didn't, we didn't watch, uh, you guys didn't watch Axel F I don't think, but, uh, I did and they do almost that exact same. Sequence. They do the, the Detroit montage, big action set piece in the streets of Detroit with a truck, destroying a bunch of stuff, and then montage of Beverly Hills and the difference is really striking between these two and in part because it's because Detroit has changed somewhat. It's it's Detroit's an interesting city still. It's very, it's still like you have the kind of like, it's a, it's a city that has kind of collapsed in on itself. Right? Like the, the inner part of Detroit is, has gotten better, has revitalized some what. Um, but the, the ex, the, the circles around that are all still very blighted and like abandoned and whatever. Um, but what, what the montage of Detroit in, in the sequel that's out now is like, look at Detroit. It's kind of kooky. You got, you got interesting people and you got like guys and pimp hats and you got like guys talking to axle and you know, shooting him, shooting him shit. And he's, he's talking and they're driving in the streets are nicer and the buildings are bigger and cleaner. And there's still a little bit of the, there's, you still get a little bit of the blight, you still get, but it's like, it's nicer. It's just nicer. It's like a nice community. And then there's, again, there's the action set piece and the car smashing through stuff, blah, blah, blah. And then he goes to LA and LA is portrayed as this time still, you know, rich and like glitzy, whatever, but ridiculous, but like old people putting on TV makeup and like influencers with their selfie stick. And, you know, women pushing the dogs and prams and that sort of thing. And it is, it's just a very, it's a very, like you could teach an entire film history course or like film sociology course by comparing and contrasting what the filmmakers want to portray about each of these two cities, uh, back to back with one another. I think it is, I think it is like, I, I, we can talk about all the reasons for this, but I do think there is like, uh, what would you call it? There's a hesitance to otherize Detroit, right? You don't want to portray Detroit as like the bad place from which people are escaping and you don't want to portray Beverly Hills as like, you know, bright and sunny and it's just really interesting. It's really interesting. That's my, that's honestly my biggest thought about these two movies. The, the original is amazing, uh, in, in one very real regard, which is like, look at Eddie Murphy, look at him doing things. He is so. Funny. He's so funny and everyone around him, he makes everyone around him funnier and every, the, the plot itself is so paper thin and like held together with the, the, the thinnest of threads. And the only reason the movie works at all is because you enjoy watching Eddie Murphy do things. Um, and that's all I really have to say about that. I like the, the movie is fine. We've all seen them. Everyone has seen Beverly Hills cop. It's one of the most successful films of all time, like huge, enormous hit. Uh, there's a reason there's three sequels to it. Um, but yeah, I, uh, I, I like, I am, I have been like fixated on this, these two montages for the, or these, I guess, four montages for the last week or so. I like, can't get it out of my head. It's, it's, it's, it's, it is like, it's fascinating to me. You should just watch the first 10 minutes of Axel F and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Mike00:38:36Uh, JVL thoughts on Beverly Hills cop.
JVL00:38:40So, uh, I likewise have not. I've not seen it since I was 11 or 12 when I saw it on video. So I saw it on video after, uh, the sequel came out and I'm certain I wasn't supposed to, it has to have been R rated, right? Oh yeah. It was like the highest R rated. I saw it at a friend's, I saw it at a friend's house on a sleepover when I was not supposed to have seen it. And I, and my friends and I all thought it was the best and funniest movie ever made. And, uh, I, I still think it might be the best and funniest movie ever. I mean, I just, it's great. Eddie Murphy is, this is the moment where he went from really funny guy on TV to just movie star. Uh, but it's not just him making it work. So it is the casting on this is unbelievable. I mean, so judge Reinhold, who was at the time, I think an unknown does amazing character.
Mike00:39:38He had been in fast, fast times and yeah, I've been fast.
JVL00:39:42Right. Uh, John Ashton, who's a character actor. Everybody knows Ronnie Cox, um, Steven Elliott, Jonathan Banks, who plays like the heavy bad guys, all of these Damon Wayans is in it. Bronson Pinchot is in this movie for 45 seconds and he's amazing for all
Sonny00:40:0045 seconds, like the next 10 years of his career, Paul Reiser gets one scene.
JVL00:40:07And he's sensational, right? He's just, he's funny. He's in the. What all of these character actors do and what the script does is it allows Eddie Murphy to be a fast talking guy who skates right up to the line of like, uh, Ryan Reynolds, smarmy jerk, but is never over it. He's never over that line. And you know, like the script where, uh, there's a moment where they're in a strip club. And Eddie Murphy realizes there's about to be a robbery and they foil it. And then when they are back at the police station, Eddie Murphy tries to cover for the two cops who were tailing him by, by making up a lie that they were the ones who, who did it. And they, you know, they don't go along with it. It's just little beats like that, that make you love the Axel Foley character and want to spend time with him, you know, and the music, the soundtrack in this from, from the iconic, right. That to the pointer sisters with neutron dance and, uh, nasty girl, nasty. The heat is on.
Sonny00:41:24The H is O.
JVL00:41:26I mean, everything about this, this is now a 40 year old movie. And to me, John is throwing his, his phone across the room, listening to this. Uh, it felt absolutely as vital and live. And funny as it was the first time I watched it at, I think, Walter Geblein's house on a sleepover on a Saturday morning. I mean, I just, everything about it works. It has enough police work in it to make it sort of work as a police procedural. It has enough gunfighting in it to make it sort of interesting as action. Um, I, I don't know, like it and every single act. Or who comes across the screen is interesting. There is, there is not a single bad actor and whoever's, you know, Martin breasts decision to go out and just find a whole bunch of really great character actors to fill this in, like, that's not necessary. This is just a star vehicle. And, uh, and yet all of that pays off. I don't know. Am I crazy?
Mike00:42:32It all, it all works. No, you're, you're not crazy. So I, I will, um, make an admission here. This was my first time ever seeing Beverly Hills cop. Um, so. I'm, I'm coming in to it cold. Um, and, and I, I basically agree with everything you guys have said. Um, I, I was, I felt like, you know, like I've always lived in a world where Eddie Murphy was a thing. So it was interesting to see, like, see him at the moment where it's like, oh, this is the, this is an explosion moment for him. This is like, so wait, this is after trading. This is after 48 hours after, uh, trading places and before coming to America and all that stuff. So it's like, right. So he's like, this is like, this is the ultimate eighties, uh, Eddie Murphy. And he's just, he's just per like, he, like all the, the laptop, like all of that over and over again, it's so infectious, um, you know, from the moment when he is like, when he goes into this fancy hotel and he's just spins up this tale about being a Rolling Stone writer, who Michael Jackson cover Michael Jackson, like all that, it's just like, you, like he sells it so well. So you're just like, you want to believe like you even as the viewer know, it's bullshit and you're like, yeah, like he's, he's totally sold me on it. Um, but there's also like some, there's some good actors. Acting from Eddie Murphy, um, like at the beginning with the, when the buddy comes to visit and he's like, so happy to see his old friend and a little concerned when he sees those bearer bonds, which by the way, bearer bonds, love bearer bonds.
JVL00:44:25So 80s, we have a cop movie and bearer bonds are the MacGuffin.
Mike00:44:28It's the best. It's so good. Um, and, uh, and there's also like interesting writing going on. Like the whole thing with the, um, the coffee grounds, like it leaves you with this idea that the coffee grounds are important and actually even says like, you know what the coffee grounds are for, but like, you actually don't find out about it for like a couple of scenes about like in the characters, the other characters don't understand it. And which I think is just, that was, I thought that was great. Um, uh, I don't know. I loved it. It's a couple of interesting thoughts. I thought it was interesting. This just shows you, because my idea of Beverly Hills is what Sonny you're describing is shown in the, uh, in the montage. At the beginning of the new film, but this, this movie's idea of Beverly Hills is all of that glamor and all of those nice cars and all this stuff. But also like everybody in the police department is like, it's like, it's like orange county more than, more than LA, you know, it's very like, everyone's very conservative and buttoned up and by the book. And I just thought that was, and that was maybe, yes, weirdly, weirdly polite.
Sonny00:45:40No. But I, yeah, I mean, again, it's like, it's trying to draw the contrast between the kind of dysfunction of the Detroit police department and the, the Beverly Hills. Again, it's, it's money, but it's more than money.
Mike00:45:54It's it's money, but it's more than money. Yes. Aspirational is a good way to put it. Right. It's like it's it, but, but he also, so one of the other things, again, I had not seen this movie. So my guess as I'm watching this, which I'm like notoriously terrible at guessing. Uh, but my guess is. Once the Ronnie Cox character is introduced, who's the, uh, who's the Lieutenant, um, of that, that, that runs things in this precinct is like, oh, he's in on it with, with Victor Maitland and the, and the guy that, that was where my mind went. Um, and so it was, which I was actually pleased to see that they didn't go that way. Um, but it, it was so interesting. Yes, Beverly Hills is aspirational, but like Axel Foley comes in to like, what he does is he like brings everybody a little bit out of their. Comfort zone to make them better. Like they all become better cops and better, you know, uh, more well-rounded. Well, I just thought it was like,
Sonny00:46:57so this is, this is very funny though, right? Because like, what's, what's the actual lesson that all the cops learn in this movie, the lesson that the cops learn in this movie, the lesson that the cops learn in this movie is that it's, oh, you, if you want, if you want to get away with killing a bunch of people and they're bad, you know, they're all the bad guys you just lie about, you just tell a really good lie, just tell the cop, the cops all learn, like, we just have to get our stories straight and it's gotta be a good one and it will be, everything will be fine. And everyone's like, yeah, it's, it's actually, it's so, it's like,
JVL00:47:30this is, this is an old world. This is a pre cell phone camera movie. Totally. Once people start America's vision of cops is permanently changed. By the invention of the cell phone camera and once getting video of cops in the wild becomes something that happens all the time and not just on the TV show cops or on police procedurals that just changes for all time, how we have to view how we have to view them in popular culture and one of the things I really appreciate about the writing of this is we are told that Eddie Murphy is a really good and gifted cop, but we are also shown it like over and over again. Eddie Murphy does like I'm not gonna say Sherlock Holmes level but like really perceptive bits of police work which lead us to trust that like oh it's okay for him to go you know not go by the book and to play by his own rules because he he is a very good cop right he is a gifted investigator and observer
Sonny00:48:32of ways around getting a warrant you don't have to worry about that yeah it's
JVL00:48:37a it's great it's really really great it's
Mike00:48:41so fun it's so fun Bronson Pinchot and that accent oh it's so fun Damon Wayans
JVL00:48:46trying out a character who would wind up I'm certain that's in living color that is in living color right the guy with the little middle hat yeah the men on film that's his he's doing that character right here in this movie yes
Mike00:48:59with the and which he's by the way he's credited for what is he banana guy yeah
JVL00:49:04I think is his banana guy judge Reinhold never again as funny as he is in this movie when he's sitting in the car and he and his sergeant are sitting in the car and talking and he's like you know the average man by the time he reaches
Mike00:49:22your age is five pounds of undigested meat in his cold and then it's like why would you think I would want to hear that it's like well you eat a lot of
JVL00:49:32meat I honestly would so I don't think you were on this this text Michael but I sat down to watch that movie the other day and I turned off because it was so terrible I couldn't believe how terrible it was and I I was just like Beverly Hills Cop what are you talking about this movie is amazing what is he talking I don't know I just I loved and maybe this is a problem maybe this is how like it hit me when I was at my most juvenile and now I am still at my most juvenile which is why I like it maybe that's what this is all is but I I like it I'd be
Sonny00:50:08I'm true yeah I know I think it's it's it again it's just like it is it's it's a perfect example of an entire style genre whatever of of movie which is the 1980s high concept star driven vehicle it's like it is that thing done as well as you can do it I mean it's like like this or Top Gun or die hard or whatever it just like this is it's it's just a thing that that you you you got you got we got a handful of these in the 1980s and they inspired so many terrible ones that we kind of dismissed the entire genre in in retrospect I thought I mean again this is not this is not a foundational film for me so my experience with Eddie Murphy is a little bit different from yours JBL which is that like by the time I start really getting into movies you know it's the early to mid 90s Eddie Murphy has already hit that like past his prime phase of his career where he's making movies like like Metro or whatever right like the the the the lesser versions of the movies he was making in the 1980s or the you know the Nutty Professor films or whatever right like he is like he is he is holy man holy crap he's he's like hit he's after that that prime era of Eddie Murphy for me so it's always like it ends with Boomerang
JVL00:51:33Boomerang is the last the last great Eddie Murphy movie yeah he does The Distinguished Gentleman the same the same year which is okay but not great and from there the rot I've never understood what happened is this all like when he started getting into like
Sonny00:51:50prostitute troubles I don't know well he I mean he tried to make a shift to
JVL00:51:55family stuff right so he goes to Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle and Mulan and Dr. Doolittle and like there's
Sonny00:52:01there's something to be said for that because there's a lot of money in that sort of thing and you know but I don't know I mean it just he definitely like he just stopped making grown-up movies he was just he's just a different just a different sort of sort of actor Eddie Murphy is kind of a to me he's kind of a
Mike00:52:20he's an odd person like I've seen you know interviews with him and first of all he's he's very quiet as a as a sort of his actual persona I think he's he's sort of not shy but he's he's so different from the character he plays yes he's he's reserved and he's I just think he's a little I think he's a little weird I think he's yeah I mean that seems to be underselling it who am
JVL00:52:53I you know what else he was great the last thing I saw him in it was the Dolomite movie yeah and he plays just an agent I think in that it was just fantastic like it was so good and I were like man where has Eddie I need more non Shrek Eddie Murphy content because the guy can still bring it didn't he
Mike00:53:16play he played Dolomite didn't he yeah no he played he played though he played the guy who made you yeah he played the guy yeah he played Rudy Ray Moore
JVL00:53:26right exactly oh did he play Rudy Ray Moore yeah yeah yes well he's fucking
Sonny00:53:30great he's great in that he's great that yeah that movies that movies great that's a that's a fun movie too no I like I mean it's it's just interesting again it's just interesting to go back and watch I kind of want to go back and rewatch Beverly Hills Cop 2 now which I I've seen a like people have been circulating clips on Twitter because you know Beverly Hills cops in the in the news obviously but it it's the only one of these movies that actually looks like something so like Martin Brest great director but like not I would say not a visual stylist and then John Landis makes a third one and it's well we won't talk about that and then the fourth one looks very much like a TV movie looks like a Netflix TV movie but the second one was directed by Tony Scott yeah and it looks
JVL00:54:15like a Tony Scott I was dying to watch it and I just didn't have time yeah
Sonny00:54:19because I remember loving it yeah I I kind of want I do want to go back and rewatch that but you know who has the time no all right any other thoughts on
Mike00:54:29Eddie Murphy or Beverly Hills Cop there was one other thought I had which oh well I was I was thinking about about what's his name who played the sergeant Rushton mm-hmm because we watched midnight run not long ago for this show and he's yeah he's the other bounty hunter correct he's the other bounty hunter and it's just like it's funny that like guys like that had these careers because he kind of apparently he's in the new one right Sonny he he has a part in in the new Beverly Hills
Sonny00:55:10cop right no I forget who are we talking about I'll effort that John Ashton Ashton John Ashton yeah yeah yeah he's the he's the he's the same guy right he's the same sergeant he's like the head of the Beverly Hills Police Department
Mike00:55:24he's just I just you know like he's he he does not look like I mean he's a character actor I guess but just you know I love when people like that he's
JVL00:55:34got a Dick Butkus thing going on you know when Dick Butkus was a was a movie
Mike00:55:40presence no I was too young but all right all that is all the time we are gonna give to this episode go check us out at sub beacon comm and we'll talk to you next time yeah he's by the way the apparently the whole Eddie Murphy David Spade feud is back in is back in
JVL00:56:21the news but it was basically it's like there was a so all David Spade Murphy
Mike00:56:25feud well it was like very stupid it was like on on Saturday Night Live David
Sonny00:56:30Spade made one of his you know he made a joke about yeah he's like yeah it was
Mike00:56:36like it was like look kids a falling star and it was like a picture of Eddie Murphy's latest like bomb movie and Eddie Murphy like was so mad and he like refused to come back to set and he was sort of like I basically know David Spade and nobody else would have a job on that show if it weren't for me saving that show and this is how I'm treated all this I don't blame him that's that's fair yeah totally agree and but anyway but then like they made up and then it's like come back in the news because apparently the it's like the way that celebrity internet media works is you like find old things that everybody's like forgotten and gotten over and then like bring it up again and like somebody asked him about it and Eddie Murphy was like yeah like we're past it and but like it then it generates like a thousand articles anyway so all AI written problems yeah the dead internet it's great sure
Sonny00:57:40That's fine.
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