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Tripwire Reviews Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Back On The Beverly Hills Beat
Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul N Neal reviews Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F available to watch now…
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Director: Mark Malloy
Stars: Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold
Eddie Murphy reprises his iconic role as Axel Foley, who returns to Beverly Hills after his daughter Jane’s (Taylour Paige) life is threatened. Luckily, Axel has support from his old friends Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) to crack the case.
The question is simple. Coming some thirty years after 1994’s much-derided Beverly Hills Cop 3, has this new franchise entry been worth the wait?
The answer is yes with a few caveats. Axel F. definitely feels like it could be the start of a new trilogy of movies, if there is still an audience for the style of action movies that were so popular back in the 1980s and 1990s. This new film is much more a tribute to Tony Scott’s Beverly Hills Cop 2 than the original. Like Scott, director Mark Malloy ups the ante on the crazy car chases and extended shootouts. In a movie landscape that’s been built on the CGI spectacle of the MCU, and even the last few Star Wars or Avatar movies, this approach makes for a refreshing effects free change.
At 63 Eddie Murphy still seems to have the action chops and age does not appear to have slowed him, or his stunt doubles down, one bit. The same cannot be said quite so much for John Ashton or Judge Reinhold: the years would seem to have been a little less kind to both actors.
A hammy brief appearance by Bronson Pinochot’s Serge starts out endearingly enough but wears thin very rapidly to the point of becoming annoying. The crime here is that he isn’t funny anymore and this extends to the whole endeavour. Murphy, once hilarious, is now just delightfully charming. His Axel Foley is still the same brash but lovable rogue, but the skits and the voices just don’t fly any longer. The novelty has worn off.
The heart of the story is Foley’s attempt to reconnect with his estranged daughter Jane. These scenes work very well as do all the various relationships at play. An honourable mention should go to Paul Reiser as Foley’s long suffering ex-partner Jeffrey now promoted to Detroit’s Deputy Chief of Police, and with the welcome addition of Joseph Gordon Levitt and to a lesser extent Kevin Bacon, there is an extended cast of characters that could go on to more adventures.
The plot itself is very light and is simply scaffolding to hang the various crazy set pieces on. Suffice to say, it involves a seemingly framed undercover cop, a lost sim card and a lot of illegal drugs. There really is very little more worth knowing here, except to say that the bad guy this time around is at least a slight improvement on Beverly Hills Cop 3.
The true highlight of the film is the soundtrack. For fans of the originals, the repeated bolts of nostalgia will feel very welcome. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer presumably cherry picked all the best eighties and nineties tunes from the previous films’ soundtracks and put them together as if he was creating the ultimate mix tape. It works brilliantly.
Whether this film will be a success is hard to gauge. It may be a blessing that it has found a home on Netflix, because there remains a doubt whether this style of retro action free of the level of CGI fireworks that modern audiences have grown accustomed to in a summer blockbuster would prosper on the big screen. Conversely, obtaining box office numbers from Netflix can be a challenge so it may be some time before we know.
Ultimately at a little under two hours. the whole experience is not especially taxing. Axel is comfortably back with the daft car chases, some terrific music, a likable ensemble cast, and a hefty dose of nostalgia. There are plenty of smiles to be had, just don’t expect to laugh out loud very often if at all.
Beverly Hills Cop Axel F is available to watch on Netflix now
Here’s our review of the other three films
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