HOLLYWOOD—I haven’t laughed while watching a movie so much in a very long time. I’m not big on comedy, but if there is a comedian who always delivers when it comes to laughs that would be Eddie Murphy. Murphy is back for the fourth flick in the popular “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise. This flick, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” comes nearly 30 years after the last flick which was released back in 1994.
I cannot recall Murphy being so on top of his game in a movie recently. He doesn’t always do as many films as he did back in the 80s, 90s, hell the early 00s, but this has to be one of the best I’ve seen from the actor recently. Murphy resumes his iconic role as Detective Axel Foley, a smart-mouthed, antic-driven cop from Detroit. The first film in the franchise is absolutely epic; I will admit upon first seeing that flick I didn’t get a lot of the jokes because it was perhaps beyond my time, but as a film buff who has gotten older, I appreciated the nostalgia of that movie and how the new flick harkens back to the original with iconic staples from the city of Detroit. C’mon America, it’s my hometown, I know the iconic Renaissance Center, Cobo Hall, the newly minted Little Ceasars arena and so many other staples of the Motor City.
This movie tackles Murphy heading back to the city that he claims loves him, Beverly Hills and he gets into a ton of trouble as soon as he arrives after receiving a call from his former pal Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) that his daughter, Jane Saunders (Taylour Paige) is in trouble. I don’t remember a daughter, but it has been 30 years people, so go with it, because it works.
Jane and Axel are very estranged so much to the point that when he calls her, she immediately hangs up, not once, but several times. Rosewood has some tension with his former partner, Chief John Taggert (John Ashton) after an investigation into a potential shady detective comes to light and drugs being peddled in the city and the death of a cop.
Look, the movie doesn’t do the audience any favors when it comes to the villain. You know who that individual is as soon as they appear on the screen. To be honest, I was ok with it, at least you didn’t have a script trying to inform the audience a person wasn’t a villain when it was obvious they were.
There is a scene involving Axel and the parking police that left me in literal stitches. This is a movie that has laughs throughout the entire film. It is not here and there; it is a careful balance, and the action is just as good if not better than previous installments. The additions of Kevin Bacon, Paige and Joseph Gordon Levitt are great to the movie. Jane and Detective Bobby Abbott (Levitt) have a bit of history as former lovers and that plays into the comedy between Axel and Bobby, as he tries to repair his relationship with his daughter.
Seeing familiar faces again from Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot just brings a smile to the face because as a viewer, you’re screaming at the screen, “I remember them!” Is the plot slightly predictable? Yes, but it totally works because I was engaged in this movie from start to finish and let’s just say the film has a ton of story that could easily spill into a fifth installment. which I can’t wait to see it unfold.
The only bummer is this flick is exclusively on Netflix, and I think the filmmakers made a mistake not releasing this movie at theaters because people from the 80s and 90s would have absolutely flocked to see this. “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is comedy gold, and the first guilty pleasure flick of 2024 that I can watch a second and third time and not get bored.
