Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (United States, 2024)

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, understands what made the 1984 original (and its first sequel) successful and leans heavily into those strengths although some elements don’t play as well in the 2020s as they did in the 1980s. Murphy’s off-the-cuff humor, for example, isn’t as fresh as it once was. At times, it feels more obligatory than organic. The action scenes are overproduced and lacking in excitement. Early in the film, there’s a sequence that might rival John Landis’ car-nage in The Blues Brothers, but there’s nothing remarkable about it outside of the number of vehicles damaged or destroyed. The story is a write-by-numbers Grade B cop thriller. But the movie works reasonably well as a distraction in large part because Murphy retains a slice of his charisma, the nostalgia elements do their job, and the father/daughter material is emotionally effective without becoming sentimental.

Over the years, Murphy has had a love/hate relationship with the concept of making more movies starring Axel Foley. At one point, he commented, “How often can you have [him] talk fast and get into a place he doesn't belong?” He was openly critical of Beverly Hills Cop III and one of the reasons it took so long for the fourth film to materialize is because Murphy rejected many scripts that seemed to be “rehashes” of the earlier movies. Recently, however, the actor’s stance has relaxed, as is evidenced by the fact that Axel F is, in fact, mostly a “rehash” of Beverly Hills Cop/Cop II. It’s hard to say whether the softening of Axel’s sharp edges is more a result of a natural aging progression or Murphy having spent so long in family-friendly/PG movies.

The fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie starts about three decades after the third (same as in real life). Axel, now in his 60s, is still a Detroit police detective working for his soon-to-be-retired friend, Jeff Friedman (Paul Reiser, reprising the role he played in installments #1 and #2). The big opening action sequence features Axel pursuing a gang of criminals robbing the Detroit Red Wings’ locker room during a game. After that, Axel receives a call from his old buddy Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), a retired Beverly Hills Police Officer, informing him that his estranged daughter, Jane Saunders (Taylour Paige), is in danger. A L.A. defense attorney, she’s working a pro bono case for a cop killer and there are people who don’t want the truth to come out. After that, Billy disappears. Axel arrives in L.A., has a less-than-cordial reunion with his daughter, and spends time (re)acquainting himself with some of the cops currently working the Beverly Hills beat. These include Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Captain Cade Grant (Kevin Bacon), and Chief John Taggart (John Ashton), Billy’s one-time partner.

The buddy movie aspect of Axel F focuses on the dynamic between the title character and his daughter. We don’t learn much about the specifics of where their relationship went wrong (except that Axel was never there for her when she was a child and declined to leave Detroit when she and her mother moved to California) but the two traverse the familiar motion picture path from having a strained, adversarial relationship to overcoming their differences. It may not be the most original of character arcs but the actors sell it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as Jane’s ex-boyfriend, hangs around the periphery where he often seems like a third wheel.

The story is standard-order cop-movie fare with enough action to remind the viewer that this isn’t a straightforward comedy. For the most part, it feels like warmed-over Beverly Hills Cop material, which makes it a step up from Beverly Hills Cop III. It leans heavily into nostalgia, with small roles for returning actors Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot (notably missing is Ronny Cox, who apparently was not approached). Many of the songs from the best-selling Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack have reprises, including Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F.”

The decision for Axel F to bypass theaters altogether for a direct-to-streaming debut on Netflix was likely the correct one, at least from a moneymaking perspective. As an older, hibernating franchise, the Beverly Hills Cop series has its strongest identification with a demographic (older men) that rarely frequents multiplexes. And, although younger viewers might be willing to give the film a shot on Netflix, it would not have been a theatrical “destination movie” for them.

The early word is that Murphy and director Mark Molloy are already working on a fifth Beverly Hills Cop movie. Although the business case might be there, I’m skeptical about the project considering the degree of regurgitation evident in Axel F. This franchise has lived past its sell-by date. The fourth movie is in many ways better than it has a right to be and it’s certainly a worthy way to dispose of a couple of hours lying on the couch at home, but this is hardly a triumphant return for Axel or Murphy.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (United States, 2024)