{"id":3807,"date":"2024-09-03T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3807"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T19:08:08","slug":"the-taking-of-beverly-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/03\/the-taking-of-beverly-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"The Taking of Beverly Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Taking of Beverly Hills <\/strong>(1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia Pictures\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, some sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney J. Furie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rick Natkin, David Fuller and David J. Burke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jan Hammer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank E. Johnson\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Release date: October 11, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ken Wahl, Matt Frewer, Harley Jane Kozak, Robert Davi, Lee Ving, Branscombe Richmond, Lyman Ward, George Wyner, William Prince, Michael Bowen, Tony Ganios, Michael Alldredge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $939,277 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yes, you are reading the box office figure correctly. No, it\u2019s not a misprint. The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> didn\u2019t even crack $1 million. Part of it is because the studio gave it a brief, limited release in the fall of \u201991. It\u2019s one of the last movies I remember playing for a single week before leaving theaters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The other part is because it\u2019s simply a bad movie and not the good kind of bad movie. It\u2019s like a really bad TV movie with R-rated language and violence. I guess I shouldn\u2019t be surprised that The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> is such a stinker; after all, it\u2019s directed by Sidney J. Furie. Get a load of this guy\u2019s resume- the ridiculous Hollywood biopic Gable and Lombard (1976), the boring war romance Purple Hearts (1984), the jingoistic Iron Eagle movies (1986-95), the slightly disturbing Rodney Dangerfield comedy Ladybugs (1992) and the abysmal, half-assed Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> is Furie\u2019s second worst movie after Superman IV. It\u2019s a flagrant case of (with apologies to Shakespeare) a whole lot of sound and Furie signifying nothing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Boomer Hayes (Wahl, The Soldier) is an aging football star with a bum knee. He\u2019s forced to make an appearance at a fundraiser for the homeless of Beverly Hills (?!) by team owner Bat Masterson (Davi, Licence to Kill). There\u2019s a mutual dislike between the two that\u2019s exacerbated by Boomer hooking up with Masterson\u2019s supposed girlfriend Laura (Kozak, Parenthood) at the gala affair. He takes her back to his place where they get to know each other a little before retiring to Boomer\u2019s hot tub.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In a case of really bad timing, a truck carrying hazardous chemicals crashes and releases chlorine gas, forcing the police and EPA officials to evacuate the wealthy citizens. Guess what? It\u2019s a hoax! The \u201cspill\u201d is really a cover for a major robbery. A bunch of ex-cops, led by Varney (Ving, Black Moon Rising), set out to rob all the houses and businesses in the space of 70 minutes (that\u2019s when the National Guard is expected). Laura gets ushered onto a bus out of the city while Boomer waits for her to come back, completely oblivious to the situation. He first becomes aware when a couple of \u201ccops\u201d try to kill him. He\u2019s rescued by Officer Ed Kelvin (Frewer, Max Headroom), a cop who backed out of the robbery scheme after witnessing the murder of the town mayor (Wyner, Spaceballs). All the real cops have been locked away, so it\u2019s up to Boomer and Ed to stop the robbery. In case you haven\u2019t already guessed, the mastermind behind the whole scenario is Masterson. Big surprise, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> has it all- shooting, explosions, chases, car crashes, stunts involving vehicles, slimy villains and two men against hundreds- and still manages to come up short. I don\u2019t mind that this movie is essentially a Die Hard knock-off. What I do mind is that it sucks. First of all, Wahl and Frewer aren\u2019t exactly an action dream team. I liked Wahl in The Soldier (a seriously underrated action flick), but he brings absolutely nothing to the table here. He\u2019s not even a pale imitation of Bruce Willis. Frewer isn\u2019t at all believable. Davi and Ving (two great character actors) do their best but even they can\u2019t elevate The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> to a watchable level.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The basic premise isn\u2019t bad; it\u2019s a decent idea executed very poorly. I saw it at a prerelease screening the night before it came out (so the bad reviews won\u2019t appear until Saturday) and the joint wasn\u2019t even a quarter filled. It was also the most sedate audience I\u2019ve ever seen at an action movie. Even with all the noise and mayhem, The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong> is boring. It\u2019s also very predictable. Even the soundtrack stinks. I\u2019m surprised that Furie didn\u2019t manage to work \u201cThe Power\u201d by Snap! into the proceedings. It seems like that tune shows up in a lot of 90s movies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the record, I don\u2019t hate all of the director\u2019s movies. I like his 1983 horror picture The Entity. As for The Taking of Beverly Hills<\/strong>, it\u2019s just a total waste. It has plot holes big enough to drive a tanker truck through. It\u2019s obviously aimed at idiots. The only reasons it rates a single star is Davi and Ving. If only they were surrounded by a better movie.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBITS: This movie was originally supposed to be released by Orion Pictures, but Columbia picked it up after the now-defunct studio ran into financial problems. In hindsight, this movie wouldn\u2019t have solved their money problems. If anything, it would have put them deeper in the red.<\/p>\n

Look for Pamela Anderson (pre-Baywatch) in an uncredited role as a cheerleader.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia Pictures\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, some sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney J. Furie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rick Natkin, David Fuller and David J. Burke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jan Hammer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank E. Johnson\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Release date: October 11, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ken Wahl, Matt Frewer, Harley Jane Kozak, Robert Davi, Lee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Taking-of-Beverly-Hills.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3807"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5588,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807\/revisions\/5588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}