Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Scott LeBrun Ken Wahl plays "Boomer" Hayes, a football star who must become the unlikely hero when the owner of his team, "Bat" Masterson (veteran screen villain Robert Davi), masterminds a false toxic spill in order to get Beverly Hills residents evacuated from their homes. Thus, the empty homes will be ripe for looting by Mastersons' many minions (consisting largely of disgruntled ex-cops). "Boomer" teams up with Kelvin (Matt Frewer), a uniformed BH Cop, who was in on the scheme but took a powder when things got violent. All night long they must dodge attempts on their lives while heading for a showdown with the ambitious criminal."The Taking of Beverly Hills" is an amusing credit for veteran Canadian-born filmmaker Sidney J. Furie ("The Ipcress File", "The Entity", "Iron Eagle"). It's WAY over the top in terms of destruction; get a load of all the damage that henchman Benitez (Branscombe Richmond) does while trying to dispose of our heroes. It takes stupidity, implausibility, and chaos to glorious levels, and will likely have its viewers grinning and shaking their heads in equal measure. Fortunately, this is one movie that knows damn well how ridiculous it is, and makes up for in pace and energy level what it lacks in brains.It begins appropriately enough, with Frewer doing voice-over for a credits sequence that is both a kind of love letter to, and critical assessment of, BH. It benefits the most from Davis' smooth performance as a bad guy who REALLY wants to be accepted by the elite of BH, including the fat-cat father (William Prince) of the sexy lady (Harley Jane Kozak) whom Davi covets. In another character detail, he also happens to be asthmatic.The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as punk rock star Lee Ving, Lyman Ward (Mr. Bueller in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), Tarantino favourite Michael Bowen, Wahls' "Wanderers" co-star Tony Ganios, Ken Swofford ('Fame'), Michael Alldredge ("The Incredible Melting Man"), and George Wyner ("Spaceballs") as the BH mayor. Pamela Anderson has an uncredited bit as a cheerleader.Richmond makes such a nuisance of himself in his efforts to eliminate Wahl and Frewer that it's an utter shame that his comeuppance isn't a lot more glorious.Ultimately, it's all a little too silly for its own good, but it's definitely not boring.Six out of 10.

Comeuppance Reviews Boomer Hayes (Wahl) is a big stupid meathead named Boomer Hayes. He happens to live in Beverly Hills, California, which, to his dismay, is being "taken" by Lee Ving and his gang of fraudulent cops. They organize a fake chemical spill in order to get the uber-rich out of their tony mansions so they can then steal all their expensive stuff. Seems like a great plan, right? Well, Boomer Hayes reckons he can put a stop to it. Utilizing all the skills he learned on the gridiron, as well as all the intelligence that would imply, he teams up with real police officer Kelvin (Frewer), who originally was with the baddies but defected back to the good guys. Masterson (Davi) is the mastermind of the operation, and Boomer's quest involves saving the love of his life/woman he just met that night, Laura (Kozak). Will Boomer single-handedly take back Beverly Hills? Right from the jump, something seems off about The Taking of Beverly Hills. Sure, it's a "DieHardInA" movie, but its low-budget, shot-in-Mexico vibe is clearly evident, and the scenes almost feel like they're in the wrong order, or something. Beginning with an unnecessarily long intro/credits sequence/travelogue, and continuing through to the mixed-up scenes, bad humor and amazingly inane dialogue, not to mention the generic aspects of the plot, The Taking of Beverly Hills is one big - as Boomer might say - fumble. It's not that the concept of a Die-Hard-In-A-Town that has to be saved by an ex-footballer is a bad idea per se, it's the pain of seeing a potentially awesome movie fall apart right before your very eyes. We hate to see when an idea isn't properly capitalized on, and here is a prime example.The problem is you're not invested in the characters, and you can't really care about Boomer as a triumphant hero. He's so much of a meathead, he can only think in terms of football analogies to anything that happens to him. So while there are a bunch of cool explosions, car stunts, shooting and general blow-ups and mayhem that ensues, it's really all for naught, because we don't really care anyway. We really, really wanted to care. But the movie wouldn't allow us to. Matt Frewer played the typical, whining "regular guy" caught up in the action situations. There's always a complainer. During a car chase, you know a movie is poorly written when the sidekick says something like "I think this is a bad idea!!!!!" Scooby-Doo has less audience-insulting dialogue than that. The end result is that Boomer Hayes is no more than a talking mullet.So while Wahl's mullet is both extraordinary and distracting, Branscombe Richmond attempts to steal focus away from whatever that is that's on Wahl's head by driving a tank and screaming while shooting a flamethrower. While those moments were indeed cool, the overall tidal wave of dumbness washes over every second of the movie. As far as the music, we liked the Jan Hammer score, and of course there is the time-honored sax on the soundtrack as well, but there are all these weirdly unnecessary hits of the day on the soundtrack too. The filmmakers must have paid a bundle for them. At random times we get EMF's "Unbelievable" and Faith No More's "Epic", almost as if a little punk 14-year-old snuck into the editing room after hours and added them on as some sort of prank. But then again, you haven't heard Janet Jackson's "Black Cat" until you've heard a snippet of it tacked-on to The Taking of Beverly Hills.The long career of director Sidney J. Furie is spotty at best: there's the good, Direct Action (2004), the okay, The Rage (1997), and the downright awful, Detention (2003). The Taking is quite mediocre and appears no one really had much faith in the project. Fan favorite Robert Davi does what he can, and we loved seeing him brandish a crossbow, but for much better Davi, see The Dangerous (1995) instead. You'd be "Taking" up a lot of your valuable time if you waste it on an unfortunate dud like this.

Brian Ellis Believe it or not, but I thought this movie had the makings of a guilty pleasure in the beginning. Rather humorous prelude and interesting credits with a big surprise: Lee Ving (here billed as Lee Ving James), the always entertaining Fear frontman. Then, disaster. Even seeing Ving as a cop couldn't help this. In case the filmmakers are reading this, some tips to make this better (Spoiler alert). Replace Jan Hammer as composer. Eliminate ALL slow motion shots. Drastically reduce the stuff going on outside Beverly Hills. And forget the hitman sideline, unneeded. If that had happened, I would be saying "not a bad little movie" as it was, another brain dead action picture that should be put away and forgotten.

anthony_palumbi I remember when I walked into the video store when this movie first came out and how excited I was to see it. I had been such a great fan of Die Hard and I have always been a fan of the one good guy against a billion bad guy type of movies. Well, I am sorry to day that this movie is bad. The plot is extremely unrealistic. The special effects are elementary and the acting is very, very, very bad. But it is still fun to watch one guy go up against an army. If you are a real fan of the genre then I would suggest renting this. If you are a so-so fan or less. Find sometihng worth while.