Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills after his daughter’s life’s threatened. Includes old pals John Taggart and Billy Rosewood working to uncover a conspiracy.
Chuck says:
I’ve experienced bouts of déjà vu before, but never so strongly as the other night. As I watched Eddie Murphy commandeer a garbage truck to engage in a high-speed chase, Bob Seger’s “The Heat is on” playing in the background, it was if I was back at the Town Cinema in Kankakee, a senior in high school, a goofy grin on my face as I basked in the big-budget mayhem playing out before me.
I’m pretty sure we didn’t need another “Beverly Hills Cop” movie, but that being said, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is about as good as we should expect under the circumstances. Taking a page from the “Top Gun: Maverick” playbook, director Mark Molloy and the three (?) writers who authored the screenplay make sure to give a tip of the hat to every single element that made the 1984 original such a hit. And while on the surface, this may seem lazy, this is a movie that is nothing if not an exercise in fan service, and if that means bringing Bronson Pinchot out of mothballs, so be it.
The template for these movies being what it is, the action opens in Detroit, where Foley (Murphy) is still cruising Motown’s mean streets, causing massive amounts of property damage while solving routine crimes. A phone call from his old buddy Billy (Judge Reinhold), now a private eye, gets him on a red eye to Los Angeles. Seems Foley’s daughter Jane (Taylour Paige), a Beverly Hills attorney, has decided to represent a young man accused of killing a police officer. Before you know it, she’s being threatened by masked miscreants, telling her to drop the case, indicating that there is much more to this than meets the eye.
Of course, as soon as Foley lands in the City of Angels, reunions are the order of the day. Seems Billy’s old partner Taggert (John Ashton) is now the chief of police, while Serge (the aforementioned Pinchot) is still mangling the English language with his generic Eastern European accent. And there are new players to keep track of too, as Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves a welcome addition as Detective Abbott, Jane’s ex and Foley’s reluctant new de facto partner. Then there’s Kevin Bacon as Captain Grant, who might as well have the words “Bad Guy” written on his forehead from his first scene onward.
The story is as predictable as the day is long, so much so that my son Grant, who was totally unaware as to what “Beverly Hills Cop” is, watched “Foley” with me, and accurately predicted all that occurred with the resignation of a “been there, seen that” old man. But we’re not here for intricate plotting. No, this is a trip down memory lane and if nothing else, Murphy and company make sure each and every thing associated with this franchise is recreated or alluded to.
From the techo-beat, disco-pop soundtrack to the outlandish action set pieces, Molloy renders them with an ear and eye towards replication. Of course, Murphy follows suit, effortlessly turning on the brash charm that made him an international start four decades ago, as if “Cop III” came out yesterday. I forgot how much fun it is seeing Foley in action, assuming one persona after another, cajoling or commanding as the situation demands it, providing the viewer with a gleeful cathartic experience as he skewers one authority figure after another.
To be sure, there are a few modern concerns thrown into the mix. When Abbott informs our hero that his attempts at emasculating others no longer works and that as far as policing is concerned, the public “doesn’t want swashbucklers, they want social workers,” it feels like the screenwriters were required to include such modern notions. Foley’s admonishing a fellow cop early on regarding racial stereotypes comes off as labored as well. While these issues cannot be addressed often enough, this is not the forum to approach them in such a half-baked way.
No, this is about car crashes, wisecracks, seeing Murphy in his element, and being reminded that all from the original cast are, in fact, alive and kicking. And while Netflix’s massive coffers make it so that their films do not require a theatrical release, it seems as though they are doing fans a disservice by not putting this on the big screen. The very definition of a summer popcorn movie, “Axel F” doesn’t rewrite the action film playbook, but it succeeds in doing what it was meant to do. It reminds us of what made us fans of Murphy in the first place, while providing the viewer with many opportunities to grin in appreciating the kind of grounded action, comedy that for many years has been sorely missed.
3 Stars
