Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

When i think back at the year of 1984 i have so many wonderful movie memories that the list never seems to end. This was the year when we got the very first Police Academy film, it was also the year when horror comedy classic Gremlins hit the big screens worldwide. One of the best action films of that year was of course James Cameron´s sci fi action film The Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton while we also had the Indiana Jones sequel known as Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. There is no question that this was a very magical cinema year for many reasons and let´s be honest, we even have to include the Troma classic motion picture The Toxic Avenger ( which is a B movie masterpiece if you ask me ). Let´s stay within the year of 1984 and talk specifically about one film for a while that became a huge worldwide hit in cinemas and that is the action comedy known as Beverly Hills Cop from director Martin Brest. At the time this film came out in cinema here in Sweden in early 1985 ( yes it was released later here ) i was 7 years old and i only remember seeing the cinema posters. I didn´t see the first film until 1988 at the same time i saw Beverly Hills Cop 2 on VHS when my dad rented both films. It was actually the Beverly Hills Cop films that was my first real introduction to comedian Eddie Murphy and i became a fan since then. Eddie Murphy as the Detroit detective Axel Foley is one of the true iconic 80´s characters and both films were really entertaining. I prefer the original film but i do appreciate Beverly Hills Cop 2 as well. When the 90´s kicked in it seemed we wouldn´t get another sequel until the third film was released in 1994. It is a sequel i do not like to talk about for different reasons so at that time i was hoping Eddie Murphy would do something better in his film career. He finally did in 1997 with the action movie Metro, that was not a box office hit but in my opinion one of his last good films in the 90´s. When the 2000´s kicked in it seemed that Eddie was stuck making family comedies and other comedies that just were not that funny. Over the years i have tried to watch the other films he have released and when news came out he was making a 4th film in the Beverly Hills franchise i was not hopeful. I thought it would be difficult to return with a sequel after so many years. So here we are this summer of 2024 when Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F have been released on Netflix worldwide and it seems fans of the classic franchise is excited. Is this the best Eddie Murphy film for many years or is Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F a sequel that never should have been made at all?

Detective Axel Foley ( Eddie Murphy ) manage to cause chaos once again in Detroit while chasing thievs from a Detroit Red Wings game. Deputy Chief Jeffrey Friedman ( Paul Reiser ) decides to retire to protect Axel from being punished and encourages Axel to reconnect with his estranged daughter Jane Saunders ( Taylour Paige ), a defense attorney in L.A. Billy Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ), working as a privat investigator after having had a fall out with John Taggart ( John Ashton ), also calls Axel, warning him that his daughter is in danger. Axel have no other option but to travel back to Beverly Hills, not only to reconnect with his daughter but also fight against a very dangerous criminal cartel.

I remember waking out of the cinema in 1994 after watching Beverly Hills Cop 3 in cinema at the age of 16 and i was really disappointed. Since i enjoyed both the original film and the sequel it felt like the third film was basically just a cash in to try and sell as many tickets as possible and lost most of the charm of the previous Beverly Hills Cop films. If you have not seen the third film in this franchise, skip it unless you really want to see it. Thankfully they tried to capture some of that Beverly Hills Cop magic back in this latest sequel 30 years after the third film was released. In many ways you can say that they actually made an effort to try and bring some of the magic back with some of the iconic characters we remember. Since comedies these days are lacking of funny dialogue and funny scenes, this film actually have some fun moments where i did find myself laughing. I wouldn´t say this is the funniest Eddie Murphy film i have seen but i have to say he is definetely more funny than he have been in the last 27 years since Metro came out in 1997 ( a film you should see ). Not that Metro is meant to be really funny since it is mostly an action film but in my opinion that was the last Eddie Murphy film that i actually enjoyed. Just the fact that Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F manage to deliver an entertaining action film is clearly a surprise for me where the action scenes works better than i expected. I am definetely pleased that they bring back legendary actors Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as their iconic characters Billy Rosewood and Chief John Taggart. Not only that of course you see very feminine character Serge played by actor Bronson Pinchot, everyone´s favourite gay guy. Actress Taylour Paige give this film a different perspective on the life of Axel Foley by portraying his daughter Jane. Nice to see legendary actor Kevin Bacon in this film as the character Captain Cade Grant, he have such a natural screen presence. The soundtrack feels just like revisiting the older films and i feel they managed to make this sequel a love letter throwback to the fans. Director Mark Molloy have done a wonderful job with this sequel and i hope he works with Eddie Murphy again because we need the old school Eddie back as we used to see in the past. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F may not be a perfect action comedy but this is definetely the comeback of Eddie Murphy we have been waiting for.

Rating: DDD