To call 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop a hit is an understatement. It was one of the year’s highest-grossing movies, earned a Best Original Screenplay nomination, and catapulted Eddie Murphy to stardom. While its sequels never quite reached that same height with fans and critics, many attempts were made throughout the years to bring back the beloved action franchise, to no avail. But 40 years later, Netflix has stepped in to continue the story of Axel Foley (Murphy).
Like most 1980s comedies, the Beverly Hills Cop franchise followed a simple premise: Despite being told otherwise, Detroit detective Axel Foley travels to California to investigate and solve crimes. Axel F keeps the familiar format, with Axel returning to Beverly Hills once again after he discovers that the lives of those close to him are in danger, and it’s up to him to find out who is behind it all.
As seen in Dolemite is My Name (2019) and Coming 2 America (2021), age has not kept Eddie Murphy from being the comedic tour-de-force he has been for almost half of a century. Even after all this time, he still brings the clever charm and cheekiness that has made Axel an iconic character. Series trademarks such as Axel pretending to be somebody else and freaking out are just as entertaining as they were 30 years ago due to Murphy’s commitment and meticulous comic timing.
Murphy is not the only returning player, as Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton), Axel’s frequent partners, are back to help him uncover a conspiracy within the Beverly Hills Police Department. Unfortunately, the reunion is frequently pushed to the side in favour of new characters who are not nearly as interesting. While it is not wrong to want to move the franchise forward, the natural back-and-forth between Axel, Bill, and John showed sparks in the few scenes they had together, and the lack of this trio halted the film’s momentum whenever they were not on screen.
When Axel is not chasing down drug dealers and disobeying orders from his superiors, he is attempting to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), a lawyer whose life is in danger after she agrees to defend a man who is being framed for murdering a police officer. Beyond her repugnance towards her father acting as the catalyst for Axel to start investigating in the first place, her significance quickly diminishes throughout the runtime until she is reduced to a typical damsel in distress who needs saving once the third act begins.
Even Detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Axel’s latest partner, is not given any real character development and is largely just an audience to Axel’s antics. When Axel meets Abbott for the first time and it is revealed that he used to date Jane, there is a set-up for a fascinating relationship and banter, but beyond one conversation, their past connection plays no role, making us wonder why they included it to begin with.
Despite having such a large gap between entries, not much has changed in the format of a Beverly Hills Cop movie, which will be a joy to life-long fans of this series. However, some may rue the lack of innovation that could have reinvigorated the franchise, especially after Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys For Life) were originally hired to direct. It’s possible they could have given the fourth movie the energy it needed after a long break, as they did with Bad Boys. Mark Molloy does an adequate job in his first directorial effort, but nothing about Axel F will have the same lasting impact that its predecessors did.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now streaming on Netflix.
