Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Kevin Bacon, and Taylour Paige

Director: Mark Molloy

What’s Good: Eddie Murphy’s charm is out of this world, and the antics are still quite fun and entertaining as Axel goes through Beverly Hills, destroying everything on his way.

What’s Bad: The film is just too long and while the plot moves along, it definitely feels like a tighter edit would have made this more fun and impactful.

Loo Break: The later part of the second act is just too bloated as the movie tries to put all the characters together, but it never really blows up in the way it should.

Watch or Not?: This is a watch if you are a fan of Eddie Murphy, or if you just need something fun to play in the background.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Netflix

Runtime: 115 Minutes.

User Rating:

Opening:

Nostalgia keeps selling, or at least, it keeps getting a ton of projects green lit as studios know that a proven formula is better in the long run than something new and fresh. And so, we are here facing a sequel coming 30 years after its previous installment and the result is a movie that really manages to be all it wants to be, but sadly that might not be enough for modern audiences looking for something that feels complete, substantial and fun.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Movie Review: Script Analysis

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F could be the definition of a throwback in the dictionary, and it is what makes the movie successful from a certain point of view. The film manages to conjure all the elements that made 80s and 90s films work in the respective time periods; long shootouts, good vs. evil, emotional subplots, ridiculous one-liners and of course, synth music. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F does it all and does it well, but the feeling of stagnation that permeates the movie is too strong to allow it to rise on top of all of these misgivings.

Eddie Murphy comes back as Axel Foley, our favorite Detroit cop, and the actor’s performance and the writing manage to keep things consistent with the previous entries. Of course, the script needs to deal with the elephant and the room; the fact that Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F comes 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop 3, and Murphy is quite older. The way the movie deals with the subject is very superficial, but at least it is aware of it. In many ways, the subject of getting older is dealt better in the latest Bad Boys’ film through Martin Lawrence’s character.

The script goes into some legal affairs, with a conspiracy inside the police department, but it doesn’t really matter, this is just an excuse to get Foley back in action, and to gather characters from past movies and have a big member berries moment. It all works to an extent, but the script definitely needed a bit more work if it wanted to deliver something compelling in the story front.

As it is, the film doesn’t really care a lot about its plot, and so we shouldn’t either. Instead, the film allows its actors to go along and improvise a lot of stuff, and it feels so, as some lines are delivered in an almost awkward kind of way. There aren’t really any powerful lines or epic moments either, everything that is presented in the story is just a way to keep Foley and the characters moving forward to the final confrontation and delivering jokes along the way.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Movie Review: Star Performance

The script is incredibly basic, but it is Murphy who shines because he makes the film entertaining just with his performance. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the entire film is on Murphy’s shoulders, and he reminds us why he was such a big star once upon a time. Age has definitely hit the actor, he looks great, but the energy is just not the same. Nevertheless, there is enough here to make you smile and laugh, especially if you think fondly of the previous films in the franchise.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Taylour Paige become Murphy’s sidekicks through the movie, and they do a fine job, although, it makes you wonder why Levitt never really exploded, especially when being such a great actor, and having worked in some amazing films throughout his career; he seems to be waiting for that huge breakthrough film, and so are we.