Within seconds of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, we are transported back 40 years. The late Glen Frey’s “The Heat is On” blares, Eddie Murphy is back in Detroit as Axel Foley, and it’s clear that nostalgia is going to carry this 4th installment of the franchise. That’s not a bad thing.
In fact, for old folks like me who saw Beverly Hills Cop when it first opened in theaters in 1984, hearing the familiar synth-driven soundtrack and seeing Axel go back to West LA brings back fond memories. Some people might forget that Murphy helped define the genre (R-rated, F-Bomb-loaded, violent, buddy cops) with 1982’s 48hrs., when he was barely 21 years old. He knows how to do this.
This time it’s a threat to his estranged daughter, Jane ( Taylour Paige) that brings him back to California. She’s an attorney who backs the wrong man, outing her in the crosshairs of the cartel and crooked cops. She’s definitely not happy to see Dad in her backyard-she says he was never there when she was growing up.
The plot is as shopworn as you’d expect from a franchise reunion, hardly worth detailing, but the movie visits all the touchstones you’d hope to see, including the return of the sometimes bumbling cops (Judge Reinhold and John Ashton) as well as Bronson Pinchot and Paul Reiser in cameos.
It also brings back numerous car chases, a helicopter chase and plenty of shots fired.
The new faces do a great job; Joseph Gordon-Levitt finally looks like a man, and Kevin Bacon has fun as an ice-cold villain. They add to Murphy’s comfy-as-an-old-shoe performance, and benefit the film overall.
Bottom line: if you’re expecting a new twist, an original plot, or any surprises, this isn’t your movie. Netflix spent a reported 150 million dollars to produce this, and they’re betting that more mature filmgoers yearn for the comfort and warm feelings that looking back to another time generates.
It’s also a better way to go out or even continue than was the lame Beverly Hills Cop III back in 1994.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is on Netflix now.
