Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024, dir. Mark Molloy)

by Jack Martin | Jul 3, 2024

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 115 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 3 July 2024

WHO’S IN BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F?

Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kevin Bacon, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Mark Pellegrino, Luis Guzmán

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Mark Molloy (director), Will Beall, Kevin Etten and Tom Gormican (writers), Jerry Bruckheimer, Eddie Murphy and Chad Oman (producers), Lorne Balfe (composer), Eduard Grau (cinematographer), Dan Lebental (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Detroit cop Axel Foley (Murphy) returns to Beverly Hills for a new case…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F?

Unlike a lot of movie fans, I have no nostalgia whatsoever for Beverly Hills Cop. I don’t dislike the film by any means, but I’ve only ever seen it once – more than ten years ago, well before I began analysing films full-time – and even then, I cannot recall anything about it that I fondly remember (aside from Eddie Murphy, of course. And that rockin’ Harold Faltermeyer theme.) Plus, I never saw the two sequels, but from what I’ve heard about them, especially the third one, that’s probably for the best.

Of course, this all means that I’m going into Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Netflix’s new attempt to revitalise the franchise, without the luxury of wearing those precious nostalgia goggles. Like a lot of these legacy sequels, I wanted to try and judge the film on its own terms and see if it works just fine without having to rely too much on its earlier predecessors. For the most part, I was able to follow it just fine, even amidst the blatant nostalgia baiting that it is often stopping dead to enact, and as a whole I found this film to be perfectly okay. Nothing spectacular, but serviceable in the ways that a movie like this so easily could not have been.

Murphy, naturally, returns as Axel Foley, the Detroit-based cop who’s still cracking wise and chasing criminals down in snowploughs, much to the chagrin of his superior Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser, reprising his role from the second film). Meanwhile, over in the much sunnier and more affluent Beverly Hills, Axel’s estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) is a lawyer who finds her life threatened after she takes on a case linked to a crooked cop. Axel soon flies out to the pristine Los Angeles area and, along with police detective and Jane’s ex Sam Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), helps his daughter dig deeper into the case, and ultimately take down those responsible.

Again, I want to reiterate that my expertise on any of the Beverly Hills Cop movies is minimal at best. Having said that, you don’t even need to have seen the other films to know exactly where and when Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is making direct callbacks to certain lines, locations, soundtrack choices, and even entire scene compositions from before. It can be eye-rolling at times, including one line of dialogue that covers Axel Foley’s previous escapades within seconds (“Not your finest hour,” the one thing said of the much-maligned 1994 sequel), and although there are major roles for other returning characters, particularly former BHPD partners Rosewood and Taggart (played, as ever, respectively by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton) and even Bronson Pinchot as franchise favourite Serge, their participation predominantly feels like an obligation rather than anything truly significant.

Overall, its promotion of the nostalgia for that original film often tends to get in the way of telling its own standalone story. Here, the plot is pretty standard, with a villain whose identity is so easy to guess that the film almost admirably doesn’t even bother trying to hide who it is as soon as we meet them, and the stuff with Axel dealing with his daughter has its moments but isn’t all that different from other legacy characters and how they deal with issues surrounding their offspring. Using another Jerry Bruckheimer-produced legacy sequel as an example of how to do all that stuff not only well, but to a point where it actually improves upon what came before, Top Gun: Maverick – the template to which Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is clearly trying to replicate, right down to naming itself after the main character – managed to establish genuine character-driven stakes that the viewer could become invested in, while reserving the obligatory callbacks to emotional moments that felt earned and were even necessary to the plot. Here, you can see some Maverick-inspired moments seep through, but the nostalgia often drowns them out until all that remains is something reminding you of a popular movie from the mid-80s and not much else.

However, there are enough moments to keep the movie watchable. For one, Eddie Murphy is clearly having a great time reprising this role, putting in a more energetic performance than we’ve seen of him in recent films since his lively 2019 comeback Dolemite Is My Name, and as Axel Foley he easily slips back into that wisecracking frame of mind while still remembering to take certain aspects of his job seriously. The action, as directed by Mark Molloy in his feature debut, is also fairly decent, replicating that 80s atmosphere where the Los Angeles skyline is in full Tony Scott mode and a synth-heavy soundtrack (with composer Lorne Balfe working in numerous variants of Faltermeyer’s iconic tune, including an unexpected “bummer version” at one point) providing them some energy, even when some blatant CGI stunt work upsets the tone a little bit.

In all, it’s a fine action movie that’s got a decent sense of charm and a hugely likeable lead turn that, heavy nostalgia baiting aside, ultimately doesn’t require an encyclopaedic knowledge of the previous Beverly Hills Cop movies to enjoy. However, that’s not to say that it wouldn’t have made much difference, for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is another legacy sequel that does rely a bit too much on that nostalgia for much of its impact. Because of that, I get the feeling that if I was indeed a Beverly Hills Cop expert, then my viewing experience would have been a lot different as I might have been more caught up in my memory for that film rather than trying to engage with this one on its own terms.

At least it’s a better Eddie Murphy legacy sequel than Coming 2 America, though.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a legacy sequel that relies a bit too much on nostalgia for most of its impact, but some solid action and a lively turn by Eddie Murphy make it palatable for those without prior knowledge of the franchise.