JoeLumb's Movie Review Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

 It's been nearly 2 and a half years since the first Beverly Hills COP movie and today I review "Beverly Hills Cop II the sequel. Now originally Paramount Pictures had planned a television series based on the first film. Eddie Murphy turned down the series however he was open to do a sequel. Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer hired Tony Scott on as director following the success of the previous film the three did together with "Top Gun" Originally the film was to be shot in London and Paris,but the script was re-written after Murphy expressed a reluctance to film outside The United States. 

Eddie Murphy's salary at that time was at the time he starred in the film was at $8 million The movie's budget was at $27 million. Ronny Cox was to have some more screen time however due to his commitment with another film (Robocop) that didn't happen. Filming began on November 10,1986 and concluded on March 25,1987. 

The plot of this story follows Captain Andrew Bogomil (Cox),Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) and Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) are trying to figure out who is behind a string of "Alphabet Crimes" Although in this movie the political change had happened. You got this HARD ASS Police Chief named Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield) who is incompetant,egotistical and verbally abusive who is doing all he can to stay on the good side of Mayor Ted Egan (Robert Ridgely). Well Lutz got pissed off at Rosewood for calling the FBI to help solve the case this lead to Lutz suspending Bogomil and demoting Rosewood and Taggart to do traffic duty. Well later in the day Bogomil gets shot by Karla Fry (Brigette Nielsen) she is a chief enforcer to Maxwell Dent (Jurgen Pronchnow) the secret mastermind of The Alphabet Crimes.  When Axel Foley (Murphy) learns of this on television he abandon's the case he's working on in Detroit and flies out to Beverly Hills to reunite with Taggart and Rosewood and assist them into tracking down the ones responsible for wounding Bogomil. Posing as an FBI Agent to get past Lutz with the aid of Axel's pal and fellow cop from Detroit Jefferey Friedman (Paul Reiser) Axel makes the connection between the robberies and Dent. The first trail was one of the ammunition used in one of the robberies traced to a gunsmith named Charles Cain (Dean Stockwell) a manager of a gun club owned by Dent. Axel has Bogomil's daughter use her connections as an insurance agent to find out about Dent's financial dealings. As it rurns out Dent is robbing his own businesses intentionally in order to finance firearms transactions with an arms dealer named Nikos Thomopolis and is discreetly using Cain as the frontman for his operations. That was one reason why Bogomil got shot because he was on the right track.

Having foiled a robbery at a bank depot Foley trick's Dent's accountant by the name of Sidney Bernstein into letting him use his computer,discovering that Karla and Max are planning to leave the country. Axel also learns from Jan(Bogomil's daughter) that all of Dent's business have had their insurance coverage cancelled and are about to go bankrupt except for a racetrack. Wasting no time heading to the racetrack,Axel solves the latest riddle sent to the police and is convinced that this riddle was made easily solvable in order to throw Cain under the bus. Implicating him as The Alphabet Bandit,throwing the authorities off Dent's trail.  Well the trio got there too late as they find Cain dead (he was executed by Karla). While Lutz announces that the alphabet crimes have been solved,Axel discovers some red mud at the stables which lead him,Rosewood and Taggart to Dent's oil field. There Dent is making his transaction deal with Thomopolis. The three end up in a shoot out with everyone involved. Rosewood destroys one shipment trying to escape using a rocket launcher grenade,Axel destroys another shipment by tossing a hand grenade in there. BOOM!!!! Axel manages to find Dent and kill him,Karla was about to shoot Axel until Taggart shot her and killing her.  Just as the last of the criminals try to escape the police arrive and they soon surrender,arresting most of Den't goons and Thomopolis. Mayor Egan and Lutz showed up and Lutz is furious over Taggart and Rosewood's insubordination and wants Foley arrested,however Taggart and Rosewood are sick of Lutz abusive attitude tells him off as does Mayor Egan who fires Lutz as police chief. At the end of the film Bogomil is chosen as the new police chief and Mayor Egan calls Foley's boss Inspector Todd and Todd was none to pleased with what Foley had been doing out there anyway. 

The Film was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and Directed by Tony Scott. Released in theatres on May 20,1987 and did $276.6 million in the box office making it the third highest grossing film of 1987 behind Fatal Attraction and Three Men and a Baby.  I ranked this movie #2 on my favorite movies of 1987 behind Robocop. Overall Rating of this movie is a 90/100

JoeLumb's Movie Review Black Moon Rising (1986)

 This is one of those movies from the 1980's known for alot of cheesy bullshit and it's neo-noir themes. However this movie peaked my interest because this was the movie Linda Hamilton was a co star in following her performance in "The Terminator" movie in 1984. 

"Black Moon Rising" is a science fiction action thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones,Linda Hamilton,Lee Ving,Robert Vaughn,Keenan Wynn,Richard Jaecklel and Bubba Smith.  The plot of this movie revolves around the theft of a prototype vehicle known as The Black Moon. 

The plot of the story has Sam Quint(played by Tommy Lee Jones) a thief hired by the FBI to steal a computer disk that contains incriminating evidence against The Lucky Dollar Corporation out in Las Vegas. After stealing the disk,Quint is pursued by Marvin Ringer (Lee Ving)  a former thief who works for the Lucky Dollar Corporation.  At the same time a prototype machine called "The Black Moon" is being tested out in the desert by Earl Windom (Richard Jaeckel) Now could you picture a vehicle that reaches the speed of 325 miles per hour. That's Fast. But what was also cool is that it runs on tap water and not regular fuel. Then we meet Nina (Linda Hamilton) who lead a band of auto thieves in stealing the cars including The Black Moon at a restaurant in L.A. Quint tracks down the thieves at a parking garage however there was no sight of the them. He then gets his ass reemed by FBI Agent Johnson (Bubba Smith) he's not gonna get paid and the government's case against The Lucky Dollar will be tossed out of court unless the computer disk is returned within the next 3 days. After getting blueprints to Ryland Towers from city hall,Quint heads over there. Now Ryland Towers are a pair of office building built by Ed Ryland (Robert Vaughn). Ryland is also the head of a car theft syndicate. The basement of the two towers is a large chop shop,but Ryland keeps the best cars for himself and sells the others. Ryland berates Nina for stealing a car he does not want (probably The Black Moon) but refused to allow her to keep it for herself. Once Nina left the towers Quint follows her to a nightclub where they meet and next thing you know they're back at her apartment where they have sex. Remember Windom he and his team were in the towers searching for evidence to give to the police until Ryland's goons ambush and kill one of the men. So they go to Quint to offer assistance and that's when Ringer and his henchmen show up to ambush him,only got Quint to slay the henchmen while Ringer got away. The next day Ryland confronted Nina about a tape of her and Quint getting it on,calling her a traitor and locked her in a closet,meanwhile Quint manages to get into one of the towers,he soon discovers Nina is trapped in a closet and gets her out,she then agrees to help Quint steal the Black Moon. Next thing you know they get the Black Moon managed to escape after killing Ryland and retrieving the disk,but then Ringer shows up and a brutal fight between Quint and Ringer happens as FBI Johnson arrived. Ringer got knocked out. Quint gives the disk to Johnson allowing himself to retire. Windom shows up and is thankful that The Black Moon is still in one piece but wonders how he will get the vehicle down? The movie ends up back at Nina's apartment where Quint asks if she's glad to steal the Black Moon and she replies that she is and in return Quint was glad too. 

"Black Moon Rising" was directed by Henry Cockliss who would go on to direct episodes of the 90's TV series Xena:Warrior Princess. The Screenplay was done by of all people John Carpenter and he wrote the screenplay around the time he was directing Escape from New York back in 1981. William Gray and Desmond Nakano added on to Carpenter's script. The movie was released via New World Pictures of January 10,1986 and did $6.5 million in the box office.

My overall rating for this film is a 65/100 truthfully Jones and Hamilton would go on to have much better films other than this one. It's in the in between good and bad films of 1986 in my book.

JoeLumb's Movie Review Rambo First Blood II (1985)

 This movie is the sequel to "First Blood" which was released in 1982.  See the plot of this movie was inspired by the Vietnam War/POW/MIA issue,but in this movie Rambo(Sylvester Stallone) gets released from prison 3 years after the chaos he caused in Hope,Washington (from First Blood) in a deal with the U.S. Government to document the possible existence of missing POW's in Vietnam,but is given strict orders not to rescue any. Now here is where the mission is a sabotage. Apparently after Rambo sees a POW tied to a cross shaped post he sets him free. This lead to this asshole Major Marshall Roger T. Murdoch (Charles Napier) ordering to abort the rescue and in turn pissed off Rambo's commanding officer Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) who confronts him and then Murdoch reveals to Trautman that he never intended to save any POWs as Congress expected Rambo to find nothing,if he did Murdoch himself would dispose any photographic evidence or even leave Rambo to die.

Well Rambo was held captive by Soviet and Vietnamese forces and is interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky(Steven Berkoff) and his right hand man Sergeant Yushin (don't know the actor's name so don't ask) they torture him to the point where Podovsky demands that Rambo broadcast a message to Murdoch not to have anymore rescue missions. Rambo refused but after being tortured with electric shocks he relents,only to use that as a threat to Murdoch that he's coming for him overpowering his captors and escaped the camp. Which lead to a killing spree on many of the Soviet and Vietnamese soldiers sent to stop Rambo. He rescues the POW's and destroys the entire prison camp with rocket launchers while slaughtering more of the enemy. Towards the end Rambo throws Yushin off the chopper and used the rocket launcher to destroy Podovsky's helicopter and then returns to The Home Base When he returned Rambo knocked out one of Murdoch's stooges (Martin Kove) shoots up the basr pulls out his knife and demands that Murdoch find and rescue more POWs cause if he doesn't he will be dead. Towards the end of the film Rambo now being a free man,elected not to return home and he only wants his country to love it's soldiers.

"Rambo:First Blood II" was directed by George P. Cosmatos and the screenplay was done by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron(who at the time he was writing and directing The Terminator,while also writing and ready to direct Aliens) The Budget to make this film cost $25.5 million while it did $300 million globally at the box office. I rate this movie an 8.75/10 the only down part of the movie was why didn't Rambo and Trautman have disciplinary actions towards Murdoch. I think that was a political power play as the Government expected Rambo to fail the mission. Whatever it was it eventually worked out in the end Rambo is a free man having served time in prison and told the asshole Murdoch to rescue more POWs or hr will return and end him. That movie was ranked #1 in my favorite movies of 1985.

JoeLumb's Movie Review The Terminator (1984)

James Cameron made his directorial debut directing the 1982 horror film "Piranha II:The Spawning" during the film's release Cameron devised the premise of his next movie from a fever dream he experienced in Rome,Italy. Soon thereafter Cameron developed the concept in collaboration with William Wisher Jr. He then sold the rights to the project to Gale Anne Hurd who at the time was working for New World Pictures on the condition that she will produce the film if Cameron himself directed it. Hurd managed to secure a distribution deal with Orion Pictures while Executive Producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of the Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in setting up the film's financing and production. Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally approached by Orion for the role of Kyle Reese a human sent from the future to protect a woman from a cyborg assassin which is The Terminator,however he agreed to play The title character after he befriended James Cameron. Filming of the movie took place mostly at night time on location in Los Angeles (the third largest city in the United States of America) but most of the shooting was delayed due to Schwarzenegger's commitment to "Conan The Destroyer" during which Cameron found some time to work on scripts for Rambo:First Blood II (with Sylvester Stallone) and a future James Cameron directed film "Aliens" The Special Effects which includes miniatures and stop-motion animation were created by artists Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr. 

Here's the plot of the story two men arrive separately in the city of Los Angeles in the year 1984 having time traveled from the year 2029 one is the cyborg assassin The Terminator(Schwarzenegger) programmed to murder a woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). The other is a human soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who is assigned to prevent The Terminator from killing Sarah. They both end up stealing clothes and weapons as a result.  Now here's the part of the film that got explained see Reese informs Sarah that an artificially intelligent defense network known as Skynet created by Cyberdyne Systems will become self aware and trigger a global nuclear war to exterminate the human species. He then tells her that her son John will rise up and lead a gang of survivors in a resistance movement against Skynet and it's army of machines. On the verge of the resistance's victory Skynet sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah and prevent John from being born. The Terminator is a relentless killing machine with perfect voice-mimicking ability and a robust endoskeleton covered by living tissue that disguises it as a human.  There was a point in the film where Sarah and Kyle have sex which lead to her conceiving John.  Soon after the Terminator locates Sarah and Kyle and the chase was on again. Towards the end Reese got killed and Sarah managed to crush and destroy The Terminator with a hydraulic press. Months later A Pregnant Sarah travels through Mexico recording audio tapes to pass on to her soon to be born son John. At the gas station a boy takes a photo of Sarah and she bought it from him. It's the exact photograph that one day John will give to Reese.

With a Budget of 6.4 million to make,Defying low pre-release expectations "The Terminator" topped the American box office for two weeks eventually grossing $78.3 million at The Box Office. That film launched the careers of James Cameron as a Director and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a leading actor and action hero was solidified.

My Rating for this movie is a 90/100 Following the success of the movie we got a film franchise out of it along with a television series,comic books,novels and video games out of The Terminator. I ranked it #4 on my favorite movies of 1984.