Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who reunites with Beverly Hills detectives Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to stop a criminal organization after Captain Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is shot and seriously wounded.

Additionally, the film was nominated for an Oscar, as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, for Bob Seger's "Shakedown".

Two years after the events of the first film, Beverly Hills Police Department Captain Andrew Bogomil, Detective Billy Rosewood, and Sergeant John Taggart are investigating a series of high-value robberies called the Alphabet Crimes.

Complicating matters is the new political state of the Beverly Hills PD led by the egotistical, incompetent and verbally abusive new police chief Harold Lutz, who suspends Bogomil in retaliation for Rosewood contacting the FBI for assistance, using Mayor Ted Egan's political ambitions as an excuse.

On his way home, Bogomil is lured into a trap by ruthless henchwoman Karla Fry, the chief enforcer of mastermind Maxwell Dent and left with near-fatal gunshot wounds and a letter marked "B".

They successfully foil the robbery, and pursue the perpetrators' armored car through Beverly Hills in a cement mixer truck, causing large amounts of collateral damage.

Though they lose the truck, Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart trace the escape vehicle to the Playboy Mansion and infiltrate it, confronting Karla and Dent.

Lutz publicly announces that the Alphabet Crimes have been solved, but Axel notices red mud at the stables, identical to traces he found on Bogomil's running shoes.

[5] Producers Simpson and Bruckheimer hired Tony Scott to direct due to his success with the 1986 blockbuster film Top Gun.

"[7]The song "Hold On" as sung by Keta Bill plays during the scene wherein Axel, Rosewood and Taggart confront Dent at the Playboy Mansion.

However, the film's soundtrack album, released by MCA Records, includes only a different version sung by Corey Hart, with different lyrics.

The film introduced George Michael's controversial song "I Want Your Sex", a number 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

It also includes "Cross My Broken Heart" by The Jets (a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Shakedown" by Bob Seger (which became a No.

[10][11] Beverly Hills Cop II grossed $153,665,036 in the United States and Canada, becoming the third biggest hit domestically at the box office that year, after Fatal Attraction and Three Men and a Baby, and grossed $276.6 million worldwide, the second highest-grossing film worldwide that year, behind Fatal Attraction.

The website's consensus reads: "Eddie Murphy remains appealing as the wisecracking Axel Foley, but Beverly Hills Cop II doesn't take him – or the viewer – anywhere new enough to justify a sequel.