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The Good and Bad of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Image Credit: Netflix
The Good and Bad of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
I’ve been a fan of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise ever since the original 1984 classic hit home video. In fact, the original VHS release of Beverly Hills Cop is the first tape my family bought when we got our first VCR (my parents bought a copy of their own after borrowing a friend’s copy to watch). We watched that tape God knows how many times. I first saw the sequel, Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) at a friend’s house. The sequel looked very different from the original (that’s due to the now late but always great Tony Scott directing the sequel), but it was just as funny. The sequel also had a scene at a country club shooting range where people fired guns with laser sights on them, which was a big deal to me back then (after 1984’s The Terminator and 1986’s Cobra, which prominently featured people using guns with laser sights, I was all about laser sights on guns. Look, I was young and fascinated by weird things). And then I saw the second sequel, Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), when it first hit cable. Directed by then frequent enough Murphy collaborator John Landis, the third Beverly Hills Cop movie was fun, sort of, but it also felt like a big letdown. Where was Taggart? Where was Bogomil? And why did the movie seem more violent and mean-spirited than the previous two?
The franchise then went dormant for a few decades. There were rumblings of a potential Beverly Hills Cop TV show in and around 2013, focusing on Axel Foley’s detective son. A pilot was made. Eddie Murphy actually appeared in the pilot as Axel Foley. The hope/plan was to have Murphy do some sort of reoccurring part on the potential show, only to have Murphy say that he had no interest in doing a TV show for any amount of time. The show didn’t get picked up anyway. Rumblings of a potential fourth movie then started.
And then eleven years later, we finally got that fourth movie. Directed by Mark Molloy, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F once again has Detroit Police Department Detective Axel Foley headed to Beverly Hills, this time to help his estranged lawyer daughter (Jane Saunders, as played by Taylour Paige) and find old pal Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) while also uncovering a big hooha criminal conspiracy. The great John Ashton is back as John Taggart, who is now the Chief of the Beverly Hills Police Department. Paul Reiser is also back, this time as the Deputy Chief of the Detroit PD and Axel’s new boss. Bronson Pinchot appears again as Serge. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a new character, a BHPD detective named Bobby Abbott. And Kevin Bacon is in the movie, too, as the shady cop Captain Cade Grant. The action-comedy made its debut on July 3rd on the streaming platform Netflix and was an immediate hit. People were clearly happy that Murphy and company were back. But was the movie good? Was it bad? Was Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F worth watching at all?
And so, without any further what have you, what’s good and what’s bad about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F?
Warning: this review contains spoilers
The Good
Eddie Murphy is back as Axel Foley: Ever since “the real Eddie Murphy” came back after the awesome Dolemite is my Name (2019) and his stupendous return to Saturday Night Live, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Murphy would play Axel Foley again. We had to wait until he played Prince Akeem again in a Coming to America (1988) sequel, Coming 2 America (2021), but Murphy finally put the Detroit Lions jacket back on and started taking down criminals and making jokes and being a smartass with Axel F. And Murphy does a great job playing Foley again. Murphy is clearly older now (he’s in his 60’s), but it’s like no time has passed since the last time he played Foley. He’s still just as spry and just as funny as ever, and it’s awesome to see him back and taking on the bad guys. Seeing him back, it makes you wonder what sort of stuff Foley has been up to since Beverly Hills Cop III. We know that he’s been suspended a few times, and he has a reputation, like all great 1980’s cop movie cops do, for creating all sorts of carnage. We also know that he had a family of some sort, as he has a daughter working as a lawyer in Beverly Hills. Foley has clearly been busy.
The movie’s big action scenes: Axel F has two really great big hooha action scenes. One of them involves Foley driving a snowplow while chasing some robbers from a hockey game in Detroit. The second big one involves a helicopter in Beverly Hills. There’s also a really funny and well done chase scene in Beverly Hills where Foley commandeers a meter maid scooter. It’s this kind of stuff that makes movies like Axel F feel like a big deal. It’s also great how each scene doesn’t seem all that ridiculous. You could almost say that these sequences are grounded in a kind of reality that we just don’t see enough in modern, big deal moviemaking. Netflix and company could have easily shoehorned The Fast and the Furious type action scenes, where cars and people defy physics. Thankfully, that didn’t happen with Axel F>
Axel Foley, John Taggart, and Billy Rosewood are back together again: The first two Beverly Hills Cop movies showed that Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold, as Foley, Taggart, and Rosewood, have tremendous chemistry together. We, the audience, like it when they’re together and we like spending time with them. Not having them together again in Beverly Hills Cop III is one of the reasons why that movie is the least of the BHC franchise. Getting them back together for Axel F was clearly a priority for the movie, and they managed to get it done. And while we really only get one scene with Foley, Taggart, and Rosewood together, it’s terrific, and, again, it’s great that the boys are back together.
Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Detective Bobby Abbott: Even though Axel F was positioned as a kind of nostalgia act, with all of the returning actors and whatnot, it was obvious that the movie would likely get a few new, younger characters in it simply because that’s what always happens. It’s just what you do. And Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Detective Bobby Abbott of the Beverly Hills Police Department is a pretty good “new” character. He’s smart and somewhat resourceful (he’s not Axel Foley but no one is), he knows all about Axel Foley’s exploits in Beverly Hills, and he proves to be a valuable collaborator with Foley as Foley tracks down the big conspiracy at the heart of the movie’s plot. Levitt also provides a good “straight man” chemistry to some of Murphy’s craziness. It also helps that Levitt’s Abbott has history with Foley’s daughter, which raises the stakes for Foley and Abbott’s relationship. It will be interesting to see if Abbott comes back in any sort of Axel F sequel. Maybe Abbott will become Foley’s son-in-law?
Taylour Paige’s Jane Saunders: Jane Saunders is Axel Foley’s daughter. They don’t have a great relationship. She’s a defense lawyer out in Beverly Hills, and she finds herself defending a young man that’s caught up in a big hooha conspiracy that sends masked men to try to intimidate Jane. They actually dangle her, in her car, off the side of a parking garage. That’s messed up. And yet Jane isn’t going to back down or give in. She’s going to stay the course and do what she can for her client. When her father comes to Beverly Hills to look out for her, you can tell they have massive tension between them. Paige does a great job as Saunders. She’s smart, she doesn’t take shit from anyone, and you can see the “Axel Foley” in her. I mean, she doesn’t do weird voices and whatnot, but the “street smarts” that make Axel Foley Axel Foley are in Jane Saunders. Paige also has great adversarial chemistry with Murphy, which is what the character needs. And check out her final big sequence. It’s exactly what you expect to see happen. I bet her eventual wedding to Abbott will be a riot (will that be the plot to the eventual Axel F sequel or will that be something that happens of screen?).
Kevin Bacon’s Captain Cade Grant makes your goddamn skin crawl: If you don’t know that Kevin Bacon is playing the villain in Axel F going into it, you know as soon as you see Bacon’s Captain Cade Grant that he just has to be the movie’s villain, or at least connected to the movie’s villain. A movie like Axel F isn’t going to have character like Grant in it and not have him be a villain of some sort. Grant is such a slimy douchebag, and you understand that way before you see his expensive watch and designer clothes and all the rest of it. Grant makes my goddamn skin crawl. And Grant’s special task force or whatever the hell it is, you know that it’s not on the up and up because of all of the sleek looking black stuff they have around them. I think you’ll enjoy what happens to Grant. I know I did. Not as much as I still enjoy what happens to Victor Maitland at the end of the first movie, but it’s still pretty damn great.
The soundtrack: The soundtrack includes several callbacks to the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies, with an emphasis on the soundtrack from the second movie (at least that’s how it sounded to me. I could be wrong on that). And it’s a real joy to hear, once again, the classic “Axel F” theme.
The return of Jeffrey: The great Paul Reiser, who played Axel Foley’s Detroit cop buddy Jeffrey Freidman in the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies is back, this time as Foley’s boss, the Deputy Chief of the Detroit Police Department. Just like with Taggart and Rosewood, it’s fun to see Jeffrey and Axel back together again. Their relationship has obviously changed professionally, but Jeffrey is still mixed up with Foley’s schemes. It’s sad that Jeffrey announces that he “put his papers in” and wants to retire, as it’s bad for Foley’s action filled career (based on what Foley and Jeffrey talk about, it sounds like Jeffrey used his position as Deputy Chief to protect Foley from getting fired or worse. If Jeffrey retires, who the heck is going to keep Foley from getting the boot for causing too much damage?). Murphy and Reiser still have the chemistry they had together back in the first two movies, which is just so great to see. What the heck will Jeffrey do in a potential Axel F sequel?
The Bad
Not enough Foley, Taggart, and Rosewood together: As awesome as it is to see them together again, I would have liked to have seen at least one more scene with Foley, Taggart, and Rosewood together. We get a brief bit where they’re together again, shooting at the bad guys and whatnot, and we get them together again in a car. And that’s pretty much it. Why don’t we get to see them in the restaurant together, ordering steaks? How great would it have been to see them all together again in a call back scene similar to the attempted strip club robbery scene in the first movie? Maybe they’re saving that for the eventual sequel? All I know is that one of the big draws of Axel F is seeing the boys back together again, and we should have had a little more of them together. I’m sure it would have only improved the movie.
The movie needed more of Eddie Murphy being a smartass: When Eddie Murphy gets to be “Eddie Murphy,” one of the great pleasures of seeing Eddie Murphy in a movie is seeing him be a smartass. Improvising, riffing, creating funny voices and characters seemingly out of nothing, it’s what the audience wants to see and something that Murphy excels at. Think of the redneck bar scene in 48 Hrs. (1982), the jail scene in Trading Places (1983), and the “herpes simplex 10” scene in the restaurant in the first Beverly Hills Cop. Murphy gets to do a little of that kind of thing in Axel F, but there should have been more. I know that the Beverly Hills hotel scene is meant to defy expectations and do something different than what we saw in the first movie, but who didn’t want to see Axel Foley go off on another epic tangent to get a discounted room? The world would be a much better place right now if that had happened.
Why is Serge in the movie at all? He doesn’t do anything: One of the most memorable scenes in the first Beverly Hills Cop is the “Get the fuck out of here!” art gallery scene with Murphy and Bronson Pinchot’s Serge. I’d suspect that that scene is one of the most, maybe even the most, quoted scenes from the first movie. Murphy and Pinchot have beyond tremendous chemistry. And one of the highlights of Beverly Hills Cop III is Foley and Serge meeting again. I think there was big anticipation for the eventual scene that everyone knew we would get between Murphy and Pinchot. Just how awesome would it be? How funny would it be?
It’s not awesome at all. It’s not very funny, either. Serge is back, they do have a moment, but it isn’t very memorable. Serge is basically just in the movie. Nasim Pedrad, who is fantastic as the real estate woman Ashley De La Rosa, gets to do what you expect Serge to do. Maybe they should have save Serge for a scene later in the movie, where it’s just him and Foley and they get to riff for a minute. That probably would have been more satisfying. I mean, yeah, it’s fun to see Serge back, but I wanted to see him do a little more.
Why no mention of Bogomil? Or Jenny Summers? Or Detective Jon Flint?: The last time we saw Captain Bogomil he was recovering from being shot by Brigitte Nielson’s Karla Fry in Beverly Hills Cop II and becoming the new Beverly Hills PD chief. The last time we saw Jenny Summers was at the end of the first Beverly Hills Cop movie. What the hell have they been up to all of these years? And what about Bogomil’s daughter? And I know that the third Beverly Hills Cop movie is the least of the franchise, it would have been nice to know what Hector Elizondo’s Detective Jon Flint has been up to since the end of the third movie. I can’t imagine that Foley and Flint didn’t create some sort of enduring friendship after what they went through in the third movie. And, again, I know that the third movie is the least of the franchise, but Elizondo is cool. I bet he would have come back if he was asked to.
And why the heck didn’t they get Damon Wayans to come back? He was the guy that gave Foley the bananas in the first movie. How hilarious would it have been if Wayans had popped up, either as a new character or as the banana man again? Maybe now the banana man is the manager of the Beverly Palm Hotel or whatever. You know that would have been a riot.
The final shootout is lacking: The final shootout at the mansion is meant, to a degree, to call back to the shootout at the Victor Maitland mansion at the end of the first movie. It starts out well enough, with some major big truck mayhem, but the actual back and forth between the good guys and bad guys isn’t great. The final shootout also goes by so quickly it comes off as a big disappointment. And I think this is the first new action movie I’ve seen where the big shootout, using fake guns with CGI muzzle flashes, just looks like people holding fake guns. There’s no real kickback. I’m a big supporter of using fake guns on movie sets (there’s no real need to use real guns on a movie set anymore after The Crow and Rust), but they have to find a way to make it look like the fake guns are real, with real kickback. They just do.
Conclusion
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a fine action-comedy, and a fun return of Eddie Murphy’s smartass cop Axel Foley. The “real” Eddie Murphy is back, and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is something that you should absolutely make an effort to see. I’m glad I got Netflix to see it, and I generally don’t care for Netflix at all.
See Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. See it, see it, see it. Welcome back Axel, Taggart, and Billy. Jeffrey, too.
Rating: 8.0/10.0
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