User Reviews

A gang of criminals cause a fake chemical spill in Beverley Hills and after the residents are evacuated loot their homes and businesses. A football player Boomer Hayes and a tainted cop Ed Kelvin unite together to foil the nefarious scheme. It starts well building up the characters and the situations then it proceeds to be rather silly. There is lots of noisy action to keep one watching but that's about it. The heroes are bland and the robbers equally so except of course for Robert Davi as Robert Masterson who steals all his scenes with his villainous charm.

Jan Hammer's music score kept being interrupted by inappropriate pop music. I hope he didn't mind

That's the biggest surprise here, how dull the movie really is. Wahl is not a bad actor, although his character is unappealing. The "Max Headroom" sidekick guy is not a bad actor, though his character is unappealing. Actually, nobody in the cast does a bad job per se -- though all of their characters are unappealing. The problem is that a really good idea -- robbing an entire town -- becomes reduced to a lot of boring car chases and tanks running into houses and the like. Robert Davi probably comes off best as the surprise "bad guy" (betcha didn't see that one coming, huh?), although you can see him sweating to ham it up a bit, make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

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.

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.

I'm sure that line was said a billion times by producers during meetings for this over-the-top action flick. Football team owner Robert Masterson (Robert Davi) concocts the elaborate scam of faking a toxic spill in the titular location and having his team of crooked ex-cops looting Rodeo drive once it is abandoned. What he didn't count on is his star quarterback Boomer Hayes (Ken Wahl) getting in the way. Boomer teams with Ed Kelvin (Matt Frewer), a conspiring cop who develops a conscience when folks start getting killed, and tries to stop the bad guys and save love interest Laura (Harley Jane Kozak). This won't win any awards for originality, but it is definitely action packed. Director Sidney J. Furie loves to blow some stuff up, even putting his leads in some precarious looking shots as nearly everything explodes. I imagine this would have worked better with a bigger name cast as the really has all the hallmarks of a big studio action picture. I could also imagine this would have been a perfect vehicle for Brian Bosworth post-STONE COLD. Frewer provides the comic relief and Wahl, popular on WISE GUY at the time, is passable in the lead. He never headlined another picture. Unfortunately, this never got a chance for a big audience as it was one of many causalities in Orion's collapse. Columbia eventually released it in 500 theaters in the fall of 1991. This still hasn't been released on DVD, which is a shame as it could use a widescreen presentation.

A chemical spill has caused the occupants of Beverly Hills to be forcibly evacuated.

A retiring football player left behind, finds that the toxic gas emulating from the spill is a bogus front for a heist set up by fired police officers out to plunder the city of all its valuables.

Finding himself siding with a corrupt cop who was once apart of the plan until he discovered the city's mayor had just been blown away, by one of the chief crooks in charge.

Now both on the run with no help in sight...both must do whatever they can to stop these murderous looters....

Yes the film is crazy stupid, yes Ken Wahl is a really unconvincing hero, but he has 1991s best mullet and runs in a straight line when being chased by a SWAT vehicle.

There are so many unintentional funny moments in this film, that it begs for repeat viewings. All the houses in Beverly Hills according to this film, are made of cardboard.

Robert Davi likes to sing when he is trying to scare the woman from Arachnophobia, but it doesn't matter, shes just spent the last few hours with Boomer drinking whisky.

Matt frewers hair gets increasingly insane as he film progresses, and suddenly looks like it's been treated during the final fight.

The soundtrack appears to have taken the years best tracks, and just put them on at random times.

And the best thing about this film? That there is a hit-man in Beverly Hills who looks like Wahl for no reason at all.

This Beverly Hills is the smallest place on earth, because once it's evacuated, it appears that there is only a bus full of people who live there, and the only shop there is a place called Freds.

But it's fun, there are explosions aplenty, silly one-liners and probably the best villain death in any Die Hard ripoff movie.

If you see the movie, watch it with a huge pinch of salt and know that it's tongue is firmly in its cheek.

Good cheesy fun.

I gave this film a chance, and I wasn't disappointed. Some people have described Ken Wahl as wooden but here he is very good as hero Boomer. Matt Frewer, Robert Davi and Lee Ving are great in their roles too.

Branscombe Richmond is also great as Benitez, a would-be intellectual bad guy who drives around in a police tank. Though to be fair, it is a bit unbelievable that the entire action of the film is meant to be taking place in just over an hour. But, that said TAKING OF BEVERLY HILLS is quite an enjoyable film.

I've been interested in seeing Ken Wahl's films ever since I saw this TV movie he made in the 80s called THE GLADIATOR. I've seen a couple more of his films since seeing TOBH and the only one he really sounded a sour note in was James Glickenhaus' THE SOLDIER, although to be fair, even one good performance couldn't save that film. But TOBH is really enjoyable with plenty of action. It's a bit of a strange coincidence that Boomer happens to know how to make Molotov cocktails, as one review I read somewhere pointed out, but the character is very likable and resourceful. The final showdown between Boomer and Benitez is very well-handled and the film has a great sense of humour as well. I hope it gets released on DVD sometime. It deserves a DVD release.

"The Taking of Beverly Hills" combines elements of the James Bond caper "Goldfinger" and the Bruce Willis cop epic "Die Hard." "Ipcress File" director Sidney J. Furie not only helmed this exciting, larger-than-life actioneer, but he also came up with the audacious story. A sleazy millionaire hatches an outlandish scheme to sabotage a wealthy insurance company owner because the former hates the latter with such contempt. The affluent villain concocts a plan to systematically loot Beverly Hills by staging a phony toxic waste spill prompting the evacuation of all the wealthy residents while keeping the Beverly Hills police locked up in their own facility. The ambitious idea flounders because one of the cops changes his mind about the crime and teams up with a playboy NFL quarterback and they derail the millionaire's strategy. However, fighting these high-tech thieves is no picnic, especially when one of them, Benitez (Branscombe Richmond of "Renegade"),pursues them with a passion in a SWAT Team tank, hurling shells at them when it isn't smashing through walls, fences, and homes. Indeed, mullet-headed Boomer Hayes (Ken Wahl of "The Soldier") is the fleet-footed quarterback who shoots himself up with cortisone because he suffers from a bad leg. Boomer gets unexpected help from a turncoat Beverly Hills Cop, Ed Kelvin (Matt Frewer of "Orphan Black"), who saves our signal caller from getting riddled by bullets from bogus police in his Beverly Hills home. Together, these two misfits undermine rich man Robert Masterson (Robert Davi of "License to Kill") and blow his grand plan to screw over Mitchell Sage (William Prince of "The Gauntlet") who detests everything about Masterson except his money. At the same time, leading lady Harley Jane Kozak plays Sage's daughter Laura who doesn't hold Masterson in the same contempt that her dad does. Masterson has romantic aspirations for Laura, but Masterson's star quarterback Boomer cuts into his plans. Just as Boomer and Laura are about to soak into a hot tub with bubble bath, Masterson's goons orchestrate their phony toxic spill and isolate the city. The villains set themselves a time table and rigidly adhere to it and have over $700 million in loot when Boomer and Kelvin pull the rug out from under them. Sidney J. Furie doesn't squander a second in this fast-moving crime thriller punctuated with fireball explosions. Wahl shuns guns and relies on his throwing arm and his football strategy to avoid getting sacked on the field. He has a device that helps him deal with a football field blitz. The film sets up the heist with an opening expository scene about Beverly Hills and how it is a self-governed enclave to itself in the middle of Los Angeles. Indeed, Furie and his scribes establish the credibility of the scheme from the get go. Lots of fun. The dialogue is crammed with neat lines.