After 40 years, Eddie Murphy can still play iconic detective Axel Foley in his sleep, but it’s the little details, like retro Bob Seger and the Pointer Sisters tunes, that iconic Detroit Lions jacket and an impressive dedication to the ridiculous antics of the on-the-job that make his latest film, “Beverly Hills Cop,” a true throwback.
Set 30 years after Axel’s final mission, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (★★★ out of 4 stars, rated R, premieres Wednesday on Netflix) is the fourth installment in the action-comedy franchise. It’s a very modern release, being released on streaming services rather than in theaters, but everything else about it is pretty old-fashioned.
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Chaos, wanton destruction, and Harold Faltermeyer’s groovy, synth-addled “Axel F” theme transport Foley once again from his beloved Motor City to Southern California. Plenty of old faces return and new personalities freshen up the series, with Axel boasting big-dad energy this time around, further cementing his status as Murphy’s best movie character. (Sorry, Donkey.)
After a crazy incident in downtown Detroit involving a snowplow and some ATV thugs (set, of course, to Seger’s “Shakedown”), Axel gets a call from his old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), a former Beverly Hills police officer who’s now a private investigator investigating corruption within the department. Axel’s estranged daughter, Jane (Taylor Paige), is a Los Angeles lawyer who’s been caught up in this shady conspiracy after taking on a cop-killing case, putting her life in danger and her father on the next plane to leave.
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But there’s a lot of resentment between Jane and Axel, especially on Jane’s part, and when Billy goes missing, father and daughter reluctantly team up to uncover the conspiracy, with the help of Jane’s former detective Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
Director Marc Malloy made his film debut with Axel F, and the film is intriguingly self-aware. Bobby recounts Axel’s previous adventures in Beverly Hills, including one from 1994. “It wasn’t his finest hour,” he says, a sharp critique of the forgettable third film. The series as a whole neatly borrows from the tropes of recent similarly-toned “Bad Boys” movies, in this case building a mythology around a character who is new to the series.
These personas allow Murphy to show different sides to Axel. Kevin Bacon’s shady Lt. Grant provides a complex counterpoint to Axel. (Between this and the upcoming horror film MaXXXine, Bacon has enjoyed a period as a canny villain.) Gordon-Levitt gives Murphy a fun character to joke around with, and Page helps the longtime star dig into Axel’s parental feelings. The reasons he and Jane haven’t spoken in years gradually become clear, but Murphy shines in a scene where Axel meets his grown child after a long separation, leaving the chatty cop at a loss for words for the first time.
Familiar faces return in supporting roles, including Bronson Pinchot’s flamboyant real estate agent Serge, Paul Reiser’s embattled Detroit Police Chief Jeffrey Friedman, and John Ashton’s friend and now-BHPD chief John Taggart. One of the biggest disappointments is the limited screen time given to original “Cops” stars Murphy, Reinhold and Ashton; they’re largely kept apart by storylines, but the three are vibrant together.
While the series isn’t exactly known for being a hard-hitting police drama, “Axel F” can sometimes take itself a little too seriously and is at its best when it embraces its more ridiculous aspects, like a chase scene on Rodeo Drive where Axel drives a Meter Maid car and “Neutron Dance” blares from the speakers.
It’s a charming, eye-catching “Beverly Hills Cop” that knows when to play the hits.
