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Reviving a franchise after 30 years is a gamble. With an older star, it’s hard to capture the magic of the originals, and yet, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F does emulate them while breathing new life into the action-comedy franchise. Directed by Mark Molloy in his feature film debut, Eddie Murphy (Shrek) returns as Axel Foley. Joining him in this outing is Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) as Foley’s estranged daughter Jane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), and Kevin Bacon (Footloose). The story sees Lieutenant Axel Foley return to Beverly Hills after he’s warned that Jane is in danger.
In addition to the new actors joining the franchise, Judge Reinhold (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), John Ashton (Midnight Run), Paul Reiser (Aliens), and Bronson Pinchot (True Romance) all return for Axel F. A defense attorney, Jane is representing someone accused of killing a cop. She and Rosewood uncover that the cop was dirty, and that puts a target on both of their backs. By the time Foley gets to Beverly Hills, Rosewood has been discovered by the bad guys. Therefore, most of the movie is a buddy cop comedy with Foley and his daughter.
The Beverly Hills Cop Is Back
Roughly 30 minutes into Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, we are introduced to Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Detective Abbott (Gordon-Levitt). For the back half, he joins Foley in the investigation. Pairing Murphy with different actors keeps Axel F well-paced and interesting. Foley’s relationship with his daughter is more than strained, so they’re tense when they’re together. On the other hand, Foley is trying to have fun with Abbott, knowing that he’s dated his daughter. The story itself is interesting enough, with Foley’s motivations as to why he goes to Beverly Hills again, clear.
The villain is obvious, as he should be, and there’s not much intrigue. But, many set pieces feel impactful and surprisingly different. The plot structure allows for a mansion shootout, helicopter ride, truck chase, and a car suspended in midair. Nothing feels too outlandish, but it still manages to feel grandiose. While it’s mostly grounded, the stakes for the characters rarely feel real with plenty of plot armor to go around. There are some interesting tangents the film barely explores like how Foley feels about his daughter representing the people police officers put away. But, they just scratch the surface.
For half of the movie, Murphy’s performance doesn’t feel like Axel Foley. He bounces between giving a shade of his performance from Daddy Day Care and reading the lines off of a page. With that being said, for some of Axel F he does manage to conjure up that Foley magic, and those moments are fantastic. He’ll riff off of an injustice he’s suffering or make a crack at some random officer, and he nails the delivery.
It’s the Same Movie… Again
The returning cast functions well and most of their performances feel like their old characters. Judge Reinhold is good as Rosewood, even though he hasn’t got much screen time. Most of the legacy characters don’t feel forced, with their motivations making sense for the characters they played. Taggart is the grouchy stick-in-the-mud in charge in this one, and that makes sense because he always wanted to stay out of trouble in the previous films. They even bring back Rosewood’s affinity for weapons after mostly avoiding it in the third entry.
But, one of Axel F‘s biggest issues is how close it tries to be to the original films. It makes the same jokes but doesn’t elevate them or make them any different. These moments are obviously designed to milk nostalgia, which might work fine if you haven’t seen the movies for decades. But, if you’ve watched them recently they seem repetitive and they don’t fit in with the film. What’s worse is that it lowers the overall humor of the movie, but thankfully Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a funny movie.
The film could have taken the classic route of making fun of Eddie Murphy’s age because of the gap between films, but it rarely does. Instead, there are some classic visual gags, great one-liners, meta jokes about the franchise, and jokes about the Axel Foley-type not being allowed to get away with everything like he could before. Those jokes are kind of ironic and still work even though they’re a little cringeworthy. After all, Axel is arrested in the first movie, he wasn’t getting away with anything.
It’s All About Family
Gordon-Levitt isn’t great here, with a couple of standout scenes where he plays well against Murphy. Otherwise, his performance feels low energy and strained. Paige, on the other hand, is fantastic and is at times emulating Murphy’s original Foley performances. The familial connection between the two characters is the film’s backbone and they both nail that side of their performances. Bacon hams it up as a suave, over-confident, and slightly dim Captain, but his performance is exactly what you’d expect, and therefore a little boring.
There are a few elements a Beverly Hills Cop movie needs to get right, and Axel F delivers on the musical front. Lorne Balfe (Top Gun: Maverick) reuses and remixes the original Faltermeyer theme to create an excellent score that feels as high energy as the film needs to be. When you watch the movie and you see Axel turn a corner, you’ll hear the music you want to hear. The Axel F theme is overused in only great ways.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is not the worst, nor is it the best movie in the franchise. It’s a middling film with more good than bad. With mostly mediocre performances, the film is saved by good humor, good set pieces, and a great score. That is when it isn’t trying to redo the first film. If you’ve been waiting 30 years for another Axel Foley case you should be happy. But, if you’re a newcomer to the franchise, there’s no reason to start with this one. Instead, check out the original Beverly Hills Cop and go from there.
You can watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix now.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
With a phenomenal score and varied set pieces, Axel F is nothing short of a good time when it isn’t rehashing old jokes.
Pros
- Paige, Reinhold, and (sometimes) Murphy give great to good performances.
- The score is phenomenal, reusing the original themes to bolster the action.
- Varied humor that works most of the time.
Cons
- Murphy sometimes feels like he’s reading the script, and most of the performances are mediocre.
- It reuses bits and gags from the original films poorly.
- The story is mostly surface-level deep.
