Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) – Review

Hey, listen – if the Bad Boys and Maverick from Top Gun can suddenly explode back onto the screens in explosive adventures that manage to do justice to their origins, then why the Hell can’t Axel Foley?
That’s right, it’s time to check your tailpipes for bananas once again (mercifully not a metaphor) as Eddie Murphy’s wisecracking cop has once again returned to wreck havoc on the streets of Beverly Hills while all the while unleashing that famous, goose honk of a laugh upon us all. However, while Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Tom Cruise returned to their much loved characters only after a mere, prolonged absence, Murphy slips back into the Detroit Lions varsity jacket thirty years after Beverly  Hills Cop III, a movie that could be charitably described as very, very bad.
Is the heat still on, or is Foley’s return only burning with a fraction of the gas? It’s a Netflix movie, so I guess it could go either way…

We rejoin immature police detective Axel Foley doing what he does best like no time at all has passed – destroying sizable swathes of Detroit in order to bring down crooks who probably haven’t stolen anywhere near the amount that Axel racks up in city damages. However, while he slowly realises that his decisions have consequences when his friend-turned captain, Jeffrey is forced to resign, he finds out that once again, some dodgy shit is going down in 90210.
It seems that another friend of his, easily-excitable, idealistic agent Billy Rosewood has gone missing while researching a case that may or may not be related to crooked cops. However, speaking of relations, also wrapping up in this mess is Foley’s estranged daughter, Jane, who now is a defence lawyer that’s trying to free a client framed for the killing of a cop who was about to blab some pretty big secrets.
Somehow, it all ties back to the Rolex wearing, suit flexing Captain Grant who just screams “surprise villain” despite being played as an utter sleaze by Kevin Bacon, but to figure out how any of this shit connects, Foley is going to have to re-enter the world of personalised number plates that read PRE-NUP and ungodly priced hotel rooms and turn that legendary, motor-mouthed charm all the way up to eleven.
Aided by former helicopter pilot turned detective, Bobby Abbott (has everyone in this film had massive employment shifts?), who also used to date his daughter, the two get into an unending string of misadventures that weirdly almost all involve our hero stealing some kind of vehicle or another in order to cause as much collateral damage as humanly possible – but even though Foley’s mouth is as lightning fast as ever, he’s not exactly a spring chicken anymore. Can Detroit’s finest survive yet another trip to Beverly Hills?

It’s fairly ironic that the Beverly Hills Cop franchise has taken a lead out of the book of the Bad Boys franchise and sprung out of retirement – especially when you consider that the first Bad Boys is, at its core, Beverly Hills Cop with two fast-talking black guys instead of one. However, super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer obviously sees vast dollar signs enimating out from this new wave of legacy sequels and probably won’t stop until he can tap a few more. However, while we wait for  an unlikely word of a new Flashdance movie, Con Air 2 or even Gone In 90 seconds, Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F proves to be something of a genuinely sweet return. First time director, Mark Malloy, seems to have no qualms ditching whatever directorial style he may have in favour of aping the best bits of Martin Brest’s original movie and Tony Scott’s typically bombastic sequel (“the less said the better” is the in-film consensus conserning part 3’s less than stellar amusement park shenanigans) and essentially delivering a sequel that breaks less new ground than a styrofoam jackhammer.
While it doesn’t have the unrestrained energy of the recent couple adventures of detectives Lowey and Burnett, there’s still enough oomph in the tank to make this an enjoyable action throwback – although more modern audiences and those weaned on Murphy thanks to watching him as Donkey in the Shrek movies made wonder what all the fuss is about. Still, it’s fairly tough to be overly critical once the criminally catchy Axel F theme tune kicks in and plays almost constantly throughout the entire running time.

The film dodges the matter of Murphy’s age rather neatly by plonking him behind the wheel of a vehicle for virtually every action scene and whether he’s plowing through traffic in an actual plow, riding shotgun in an out of control helicopter (is that Shooter McGavin on that golf course?), or trying to outrun attackers in a battery powered police kart, the only real jabs at his age come from his awkward heart to hearts with Taylour Paige’s angry daughter. While she manages to weather Murphy’s capering rather well, you’ll no doubt be confused as to why Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here, but while his presence is weirdly distracting, he and Kevin Bacon’s antagonist seem to be having tons of fun while letting the star of the show roll right over them.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a legacy sequel if the old favorites weren’t wheeled out for a victory lap whether it actually makes sense or not, so take a bow Judge Reinhold, John Aston and even Bronson Pinchot in a thoroughly gratuitous cameo that technically adds nothing to the film other than that warm, reassuring glow that legacy sequels often give when expertly plucking those nostalgia strings.
The plot is… present, I guess; and Alex F has a refreshing amount of old school swearing located within (I propose a “Fuck you, Foley!” drinking game) but in all honesty, the reason action/comedies are always light on the actual doings and whatnot, is so the main character’s trademark line in laser guided bullshit and the action sequences are allowed to breathe and stretch however it needs, much like a cat in front of a fireplace.

You’ll no doubt see more complex or rambunctious actioners this year – hell, we’ve already had a few if I’m being honest – but Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F genuinely earns its existence by just literally just being a classic, Beverly Hills Cop movie and nothing else. Some maintain that time travel is an impossibility and that traversing the ocean of time is something mankind will never achieve, and yet if you close your eyes during the opening credits when Glenn Fray’s “The Heat Is On” is blaring at full volume, you’d swear blind it was 1984.

🌟🌟🌟