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Review of Beverly Hills Cop II (Harold Faltermeyer)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have a soft spot for the Harold Faltermeyer's
score for Beverly Hills Cop and desire a faithful continuation of
that same sound.
Avoid it... if you expect any significant evolution in the composer's stylistic personality for the franchise, though two new themes of increasing coolness are introduced to lend more credible action tones.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Beverly Hills Cop II: (Harold Faltermeyer) After
the immense success of Eddie Murphy's humor in the buddy cop flick
Beverly Hills Cop, the studio desired to spin off the concept
into a television series. Murphy balked at the idea, however, and the
production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer was summoned to
create Beverly Hills Cop II instead. The sequel struggled from
the start to balance its humor and action, new director Tony Scott
naturally inclined towards the latter, and post-production re-shoots
aimed to infuse the movie with more of the Murphy wisecracking and other
antics in an effort to salvage the franchise. Unfortunately, the end
result remains a standard action genre entry, the lead detectives from
the first film essentially forced into a remake in which there are
flashier international villains. The team of protagonists must repel
their own leadership while pursuing the truth behind a string of
robberies and killings that is inevitably linked to a massive criminal
scheme. On the upside, the addition of Jürgen Prochnow as the prime
villain and Brigitte Nielsen as his assassin infuses some class into the
enterprise. Still, Beverly Hills Cop II just wasn't funny enough
to justify the massive grosses enticed at the theaters by the 1987
movie, and this mediocrity did stunt the franchise moving forward.
Simpson and Bruckheimer were quick to request the return of German
musician and synthesist Harold Faltermeyer to the production team, both
to provide the score and pen at least one song to headline the
soundtrack. The 1984 film's soundtrack was a monumental, Grammy-winning
hit, landing several songs and an instrumental score track on the
Billboard charts internationally. Particularly remarkable was the
triumph of Faltermeyer's main theme from the score, "Axel F," inspiring
endless covers and heard everywhere in the mid-1980's. For the composer,
the sequel was an opportunity to revisit the same general mould while
layering new synthetic capabilities on top of the familiar and favorite
core material. At this point in his career, he was still recording day
and night in Giorgio Moroder's studio and had access to all of the
newest sampled options from the vast array of equipment.
The primary groups of equipment, from synthesizers to drum machines, were revisited in the score for Beverly Hills Cop II, though advancements in the samples available for the eight Yamaha DX7 synthesizers involved allowed Faltermeyer to add some new sounds to the mix. Many of these stylistic additions are explored in the grungy new villain material, but across the score, the most interesting, fresh instrumental accents include cowbell and grunting effects, the latter the result of the composer's own voice manipulated. Casual listeners won't notice any major stylistic differences between the two scores, especially with the legacy themes performed in almost identical fashion in the sequel. The four themes that comprise the "Axel F" thematic suite all return extensively. The Roland Jupiter 8 tones for the main melody are littered throughout, its iconic bassline always in tow. That main melody for Axel opens "Warehouse" alone, follows the bassline in "Mansion," presents at 1:07 into "Drive to Shooting Club" with a little more zest, and interrupts the new buddy cop theme at 0:31 into "Boys Car Talk." It persists at 0:42 into "Drive to Bogomil's" with some swagger, follows a burst of drums at 0:24 into "Splash/Drive to 385," enjoys a harder appeal in "Fingerprint," and interjects a few times in "Drive to Bernstein's." For the climax scenes, the Axel theme bursts out of the first film's chase/pursuit theme at 1:51 into "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic" and reprises its original form in "Wrap Up." The first score didn't adequately adopt the theme into a unique performance at its end, so the narrative for the melody is improved here. The associated bassline joins the main idea in "Warehouse," starts "Mansion" by itself, and begins "Drive to Shooting Club" and accompanies the other parts of the main theme in that cue. It backs up those other parts in "Boys Car Talk" as well, starts "Drive to Bogomil's," "Splash/Drive to 385," and "Boys at Rosewood's" alone again, and is adopted by bass marimba effects early in "Fingerprint" and "Drive to Bernstein's." The bassline then joins the main melody in "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic" and opens "Wrap Up" alone, leading to the other parts of the theme. As before, the bassline is used by Faltermeyer to extend out the main theme's presence as needed for extended periods at the ends of cues. Also reprised from Beverly Hills Cop in the sequel is Faltermeyer's original buddy cop theme, the unyieldingly staccato figure that often serves as an interlude to the main Axel melody. (The theme never did achieve a less prickly performance inflection in these scores.) It is employed at 0:16 into "Warehouse" and the same timestamp within "Mansion" in usual form, and that identical tact continues at 0:33 and 1:16 into "Drive to Shooting Club" and at 0:47 into "Boys Car Talk." The buddy cop theme then rides on top of the bassline motif in "Drive to Bogomil's," "Splash/Drive to 385," and "Boys at Rosewood's," briefly factors near the end of "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic" in different harmonics, and offers a couple of performances in "Wrap Up." The final part of the "Axel F" thematic suite is the banana comedy theme, and Faltermeyer applies it here in quicker references than in the previous score. The same marimba personality is reprised for this identity at 0:45 into "Drive to Shooting Club," and it remains upbeat at 0:24 into "Drive to Bogomil's." In shorter form, it cameos at the end of 2:16 into "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic" and receives a quick reminder in the middle of "Wrap Up." The comedy theme does transition, though, into a new, more romantic identity on the marimba tones in the pretty "Goodbye," and a less refined, colder synth string version exists in "Goodbye [Alternate Version]." The three core themes of conflict from the prior score also recur here, starting with the villain chase/pursuit theme, which returns in full glory in "Shootout," louder and with an abrupt end. It lightly prances through "Jeffrey Calls Todd" and is less comfortable at 1:31 into "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic." The villain confrontation motif receives one of its loudest renditions yet at the start of "Shoot Screens," merges with the new villain material during all of "Sneak to Shack/Alarm," and explores a variant early in "Oil Field Shootout/Kill Dent and Karla." More extensively referenced in the sequel is Faltermeyer's suspense motif, a repetition on key, usually in the high ranges. It drones for a minute in "Axel Gets the News," is joined by the new loyalty motif in "Hospital Visit," plays against the new villain theme in "Meet Dent and Cain," and joins the chase/pursuit theme in "Shootout." The idea occupies much of "City Deposit" alongside electric guitar force, defines "Tire Tread to Hef's," runs for a few minutes in "Racetrack," and uses a new, annoyingly squishy sound in "Kill Dent and Karla." Faltermeyer's new themes for Beverly Hills Cop II include one for the story's villains, a revised and cooler buddy cop theme, and a vague loyalty motif. The fresh villain identity doesn't completely replace the old one, but it is distinctive in its stabbing motions and cowbell effects. It builds throughout "Adrianos," finally revealing that its bassline motif is the actual theme, and it gains more aggressive electric guitar muscle in "Bogomil Oil Well Jog/Bogomil Gets Shot." The idea takes a confident posture in "Meet Dent and Cain" against the suspense rhythm, slowly emerges early in "I'll Be Sure to Duck," is barely teased in "Axel Shoes," and accelerates with menace at 2:07 into "City Deposit" against the suspense rhythm again, offering its most powerful performance at the end of this cue. The villain theme eventually fully reveals itself in "Racetrack" over rock drum kit prowess and darker synths but it's barely touched upon early in "Drive to Oil/Hit Vic." It opens "Sneak to Shack/Alarm" in a flurry of layers to the drums and synths and has one last hurrah in the middle of "Oil Field Shootout/Kill Dent and Karla." Faltermeyer later created a song version of this theme ("Bad Guys") for a solo album. The new buddy cop motif uses the composer's manipulated grunt effects with a Synclavier, and the melody itself is a descending bass motif of coolness in "Boys Car Talk." Fragmented early in "Axel Shoes/Boys at Mansion," this theme gains its full form thereafter, and it is twisted to a variant in "Axel Calls Jeffrey" and provides confident tones in "Sneak to Shooting Club." Finally, a new loyalty motif is a cyclical bass phrase against the droning suspense motif in "Hospital Visit," reprised at the outset of "Loyalty" in softer tones and more tonal shades. The bass-heavy nature of these three new ideas clearly suggests the influence of the director on the music. The score for Beverly Hills Cop II achieves its aim of balancing increasing coolness in action with the upbeat humor of the prior score, but only to a point. The narrative is spread a bit too thin with all the themes involved, and the composer still doesn't manipulate or overlap them to any meaningful degree. Everything about the score and its songs is proficient, but the appeal of the original film's soundtrack was somewhat reduced by this point. The score was never released until La-La Land Records provided a full treatment on CD in 2016, appending two alternate takes in addition to the most pertinent songs, including "Bad Guys." Faltermeyer did not return for the third film, Nile Rodgers taking the same themes orchestral for the first time and closing the door on the 1980's sound in the franchise. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 79:08
* Contains material not used in film
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert contains extensive information about the score and film.
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