BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F

In Netflix’s BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F, Eddie Murphy reprises his role as the legendary cop from Detroit who finds himself being pulled once again back to L.A. In the fourth title in the series, fast talking Detective Axel Foley now finds that his boss of many years is leaving the Detroit Police Dept. He also learns his estranged daughter is in danger, and that a close friend of his, Billy Rosewood, has disappeared trying to help her. Axel jumps into action, as usual, but finds that his gung ho approach to police work leaves him with much to learn regarding how to relate to his daughter and her former boyfriend. Can Axel, with help from friends new and old, solve the crime, get the bad guys, and restore his damaged family relationship?

This buddy cop franchise, whose first outing hit theaters 40 years ago in 1984 and helped establish what a buddy cop movie should be, has finally gotten a long awaited fourth movie. Thanks to Eddie Murphy’s raw but infectious humor, the return of Jerry Bruckheimer as producer, and the money Netflix has invested here, the movie has very high production values. It’s a big blast of nostalgia with a few new tricks, which should manage to please fans old and new. Despite this, the father-daughter connection, ostensibly brought in to add a personal element to the story to make it more compelling than it might otherwise be, falls a little flat. The truism that family relations are important is there, but really says nothing more meaningful about what it means to be a father or daughter.

This return to the action-filled 80s franchise is explosive at times but does drag in places. At least 20 or 30 minutes of Axel and others trash talking each other could have been cut. The cinematography is memorable and fitting. The writing is snappy though laced with expletives, which has always been a defining mark of the franchise. The return of Judge Reinhold and other members of the original cast and new blood like Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are good additions. Some “take it to the limit” action scenes are crowd pleasers. The soundtrack does a good job bringing back the opening themes for both the first film and its direct sequel (“The Heat is On” and Bob Seger’s “Shakedown”) and fusing these classics with a 2020s musical vibe. As is to be expected in a series spanning four decades, there are numerous comical references to its own iconic status, like Gordon-Levitt’s Abbot’s remark that Foley’s 1994 return to Beverly Hills (the third movie in the franchise) “was not your finest moment.” Most of these are lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek and hit home with viewers and fans.

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F has a strong moral worldview overall. The title protagonist and most of those who support him are upstanding and driven by a genuine sense of justice, though they often bend rules to get to the truth. However, the movie is marred by strong Romantic elements with politically correct content. For example, it has a positive view of sex outside of marriage, including homosexuality, and some racially charged statements, like several uses of the “n” word. The movie also has some very strong violence with some blood and lots of strong and light action violence.

As with all the entries in the franchise, this newest iteration is marred by an unrelenting barrage of foul language. The audience’s ears and thoughts are assaulted almost incessantly with many strong obscenities and profanities. The foul language is so pervasive that it becomes boring. It also shows that the creative team is as short on wit as it is in vocabulary.

Because of these issues, MOVIEGUIDE® finds BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F excessive and unacceptable.