Loomis, what is going to make Rocky Balboa a good sequel, in your eyes? Better than BC 4
Well, the advance word on BALBOA is extremely positive, with a handful of rave early reviews suggesting that the film is close in terms of quality to the first outing in the series, which was, let's not forget, a Best Picture winner. Now, like I say, I'm a biased fan of the Rocky franchise, and I don't care at all for the BEVERLY HILLS COP flicks (only the first was any good, IMO), so feel free to ignore this, but I find it very, very hard to imagine BEVERLY HILLS COP IV creating the same kind of buzz as BALBOA is stirring up.
There have been plenty of comedy cop movies since the last Axel Foley adventure, so BHCIV just doesn't seem like anything fresh or new. Not that ROCKY VI is fresh or new, of course, but Rocky Balboa remains an iconic character as unique and as cherished by audiences as James Bond. In a neat parallel with the first film, when Stallone was a hungry no-hoper chasing a dream playing a hungry no-hoper chasing a dream, Rocky's comeback attempt in the new one mirrors that of its washed-up star/writer/director.
Now, BALBOA may not succeed, but, still, people are curious about it, and asking: can Rocky return to the ring? Can Stallone, at 60, still make a good film and draw an audience? I guess there'd be a similar-ish underdog quality to BHCIV, but nothing so dramatic, and the BEVERLY HILLS COPs, to be frank, never enjoyed the sort of critical reception the Rocky series did back in the day. And Axel Foley was never a much-loved iconic character like Rocky or Bond, just as Catherine Trammell wasn't, which is surely one of the reasons BASIC INSTINCT 2 bombed royally (the star used to be popular, but the character never really was). It just seems like just another tired, belated, moneygrubbing comedy sequel, like CROCODILE DUNDEE III. To me, at least.
CinemaConfidential.com has reported that Eddie Murphy will return to the role of Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop IV!!! 
