Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

I'm not sure what was more depressing: learning that the new Beverly Hills Cop movie was a straight-to-Netflix release with no theatrical window or watching it and realizing that this was the right decision. I guess I had assumed after Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise reignited the thrill of going to a big summer blockbuster with their legasequel Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 that Bruckheimer and Eddie Murphy might at least attempt something commensurate with the similarly named Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. But this three-decades-later nostalgia trip is more akin to Murphy's other legasequel Coming 2 America, which was also a straight-to-streaming release. Recycling most of the cast, moments, and music from the first two BHC pictures, this is one of those movies that doesn't try to do much more than push the button of recognition in the brains of older viewers like me who grew up with the original film as a touchstone.

The story sees Axel, still a Detroit cop, return once again to Beverly Hills when his old buddy Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), now a private investigator, and his estranged daughter, a criminal defense lawyer named Jane Saunders (Taylour Paige), have gotten themselves entangled with dirty cops under the command of an openly corrupt Police Captain named Cade Grant, played by Kevin Bacon. Grant was trained by Billy's old partner and Axle's old buddy, Chief John Taggart (John Ashton), but it's never explained why Taggart would choose to believe the obviously crocked Grant over his former partner, the daughter of his old friend, or a young detective serving under him, Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). All these characters have interwoven backstories that are constantly alluded to in ways that never get too specific, as they wouldn't really make sense if they did.

Australian commercial director Mark Molloy, making his feature debut, shoots everything competently, but both the comedy and the action play a bit like they're in slow motion. There are no laughs and no moments of suspense, just a sense of familiarity. As the story progresses and the tension between Foley and his grown daughter ratchets up, I started to worry that the legasequel to one of the greatest Gen-X action/comedies was going to devolve into Millennial apology-porn, but, thankfully, that doesn't really happen. Murphy has a nice rapport with Paige (star of 2021's Zola), as he does with Paul Reiser, back as the formerly picked-on Jeffrey, who is now Alex's boss at the Detroit PD. The chemistry between these characters is far less forced than what we get from Reinhold and Ashton, who don't even look like they're enjoying being in this reunion. But watching Murphy and Gordon-Levitt team up after Taggart suspends Detective Abbott is beyond dull. I guess the attempt here is to find comedy in the generational differences between these two cops, the way the contrasts in attitude, style, and rule-following were between Foley and the Beverly Hills cops he met in the original film. The attempt does not result in much of anything funny. Everything about this rather violent R-rated movie feels inexplicably safe and soft.