BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F (2024) - Movie Review

Director: Mark Molloy
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Kevin Bacon
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Writer: Danilo Bach, Will Beall, Tom Gormican
Runtime: 118 min
Rated: Rated R for language throughout, violence and brief drug use
Buy This Movie: Netflix

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Synopsis:

Forty years after his unforgettable first case in Beverly Hills, Detroit cop Axel Foley returns to do what he does best: solve crimes and cause chaos.

Review:

The last "Beverly Hills Cop" movie was released exactly thirty years ago, and since then Eddie Murphy has been trying to get another one made. There was even a pilot episode for a 2013 CBS series starring Brandon T. Jackson as Axel Foley's son, and produced by Shawn Ryan ("The Shield"), which never went forward. Well, Murphy finally made another one. Was it worth the wait? Not exactly.

The plot is as generic as they come and a lot of it is stuck in nostalgia mode. There are many references and callbacks to the first and second installments, and they even reuse some of the same music tracks. Even the third act showdown is an imitation of the big mansion shootout from the first film. At least Lorne Balfe's score is a decent update of Harold Faltermeyer's classic themes.

This movie arrived way too late. Murphy is still game and has some funny moments, but there are times when he just looks tired and maybe a little too old for this...well, you know. The energy he brought to the original films is almost gone now. Franchise veterans Judge Reinhold and John Ashton are also too old to participate in the action in any meaningful way and are absent from most of the movie, but they do get to pop one or two bad guys. It's such a shame we never got a sequel with these guys back when they were still at the top of their game.

New additions to the cast include Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a younger Beverly Hills cop, and Taylour Paige as Foley's daughter. Neither makes much of an impression, and Paige in particular is so bland, it's hard to understand how she got cast in the role. The father-daughter relationship is the movie's weakest subplot. Paige and Murphy have no chemistry, their scenes together are cliched and dull, and Paige's line delivery is annoyingly flat. And if you guessed that by the end of the movie she becomes yet another damsel in distress, then you've won my deepest respect and admiration. On a positive note, Kevin Bacon is fun as the movie's bad guy, although he feels more like a caricature than an intimidating villain, and Luis Guzmán is hilarious in a brief appearance.

At least "Axel F" distracts us from the uninspired plot with some solid action. A few car chases, some shooting, you know, the works. They're not very original, but competently put together. There is one particular chase involving a helicopter that I actually found entertaining. I bet the studio was also aware of how good it is, because they almost showed the entire thing in the trailer. Unfortunately, it's the only somewhat original set piece. On the other hand, I did appreciate that they leaned harder into practical work, with minimal use of CGI.

Unfortunately, "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" feels too much like a Netflix movie, and less like a big cinematic event. Franchise-wise, it's certainly better than the third installment, which is barely a "Beverly Hills Cop" movie, and almost on par with the second one, which wasn't particularly great compared to the first. It's just an average action comedy with loads of nostalgia for the fans.

SCORE: 6/10