Beverly Hills Cop Review: Axel F | Eddie Murphy Is Electric in Fun Legacy Sequel

This success spawned sequels in 1987 and again in 1994, both films sticking to the same formula but offering diminishing returns compared to the wildly entertaining original.

Thirty years have passed since then, making this latest installment, titled Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, a sequel in the vein of Top Gun: Maverick or Creed. And while it doesn’t quite live up to those two films, the result is a fun film that brings both a pleasant nostalgia and a welcome freshness to the series. Murphy clearly enjoys returning to his iconic role as maverick cop Axel Foley, especially compared to his rather wacky performance in the third film.

The plot sticks relatively closely to the previous formula: After a chaotic operation in his hometown of Detroit goes awry and leaves his superiors upset, Axel heads to the eponymous Los Angeles neighborhood to carry out a mission close to his heart. This time, he’s summoned by his old friend Billy Rosewood (a returning Judge Reinhold) to investigate a police corruption case that also involves his daughter Jane, a new character played by Taylour Paige.

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As he digs into the case with his trademark energy and unwavering powers of persuasion, he encounters faces both old and new. Among them, Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins the cast as Bobby Abbott, a detective who gets off to a rocky start with Axel partly because of his romance with Jane, while Kevin Bacon excels as the somewhat shady police captain Cade Grant.

Nostalgia is rife throughout the film, with a slew of familiar references and recurring characters, including the iconic Bronson Pinchot reprising his role as Serge, a flamboyant former art gallery salesman. But director Mark Molloy largely handles these callbacks in a way that avoids coming across as too cynical, creating a crowd-pleasing experience that will surely leave most viewers wondering why Netflix opted for a streaming-only release given the franchise’s box office pedigree.

As far as the corruption plot and exploration of Axel’s broken relationship with his daughter go, the narrative itself is pretty standard. And when the film moves away from Axel’s elaborate quips and antics to more serious subject matter, it never strays far from cliché – with some slightly wonky dialogue along the way.

But the combination of Murphy’s electric charisma, solid performances from a game supporting cast, and a selection of well-directed scenes — including a standout sequence involving a disastrous helicopter flight — ensures that this film stands head and shoulders above most of Netflix’s aforementioned action-comedy productions.

And, of course, that iconic melody remains as hummable as ever.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available on Netflix from Wednesday, July 3, 2024 – sign up from £4.99 per month. Netflix is ​​also available on Glass of the sky And Virgin Media Stream.

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