Three and four decades, respectively, since they each debuted, producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s Bad Boys and Beverly Hills Cop action franchises both returned with belated fourth entries in 2024. Bad Boys was apparently deemed still fresh enough to merit another theatrical release, but former box office juggernaut Beverly Hills Cop wound up relegated to a Netflix premiere this time out.
Setting that aside, as well as the reputation of the third movie everyone wishes to forget, the new Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F turns out to be a perfectly adequate and enjoyable legacy sequel. Does the film have any need to exist, beyond giving Eddie Murphy an easy paycheck? Certainly not. However, it doesn’t tarnish memories of its predecessors (the two that fans actually like) too much, either. Murphy can chalk that up as a win.
| Title: | Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F |
| Year of Release: | 2024 |
| Director: | Mark Molloy |
| Watched On: | Netflix |
In countless ways, the Axel F movie is a straight regurgitation of a formula already recycled to death in this franchise, but given that it’s been thirty years since the last time it was done, I suppose that can be forgiven. Four decades on the job, detective Axel Foley (Murphy) has become a downright legend in the Detroit police force, as well as a tremendous pain in the ass to the Deputy Chief (Paul Reiser) who used to love getting roped into his shenanigans. When he receives a call from old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) warning that his daughter is in trouble, Axel jets right back to Beverly Hills for one more adventure in America’s poshest ZIP code.
The daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), is a no-nonsense criminal defense attorney who’s been estranged from Axel for years, and isn’t thrilled to see her dad show up looking to save the day. Nevertheless, her life has been threatened by some very dangerous criminals connected to crooked cop Cade Grant (Kevin Bacon), and Rosewood, who was helping her investigate the case, went missing shortly after calling Axel. To protect his daughter and rescue his friend, Axel will need to team up with Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a younger Beverly Hills detective who has some romantic history with Jane. Of course, he’ll also need some assistance from Taggart (John Aston), now Chief of the Beverly Hills P.D.
Unsurprisingly, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is heavy on fan-service callbacks to earlier movies in the franchise. Harold Faltermeyer’s famous “Axel F” theme is omnipresent in the new musical score, and pop songs made famous by this series – including “The Heat Is On,” “Neutron Dance,” and “Shakedown” – all find excuse to get replayed over key scenes. Bronson Pinchot’s Serge character even makes a return appearance that, miraculously, isn’t too obnoxious or offensive.
The characters, both old and new, have good chemistry, and the film’s humor is agreeably amusing, without the desperate mugging and forced goofiness that sank Beverly Hills Cop III. However, this sequel is much heavier on plot than comedy, and that plot isn’t always compelling. The stuff with Kevin Bacon’s dirty cop is entirely predictable, and the movie has some pretty long, slow stretches where not much happens. The action set-pieces are competently staged, but also feel a little by-the-numbers. Aside from a bit inside a poorly-piloted helicopter, most of them aren’t especially memorable.
In the final analysis, Netflix is probably the proper venue for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. I don’t think the film offers enough to be worth a theater ticket price, but unlike some of these things, I don’t object to the movie existing. I enjoyed watching it. A casual streaming view in the comfort of one’s own home suits it just fine.
Video Streaming
Netflix premiered Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Wednesday, July 3rd. The film streams in 4K HDR at an aspect ratio of 2.37:1. Photographed digitally, the image is generally sharp and slick, with (unlike earlier installments in this franchise) very little noticeable grain or noise. The picture is also very contrasty, but the HDR grade seems a little restrained without many highlights that appear to extend beyond SDR range. Likewise, former commercial and advertising director Mark Molloy uses a lot of color filters, but I didn’t get much sense of color depth to many of them. Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me if these were streaming issues. In any case, the movie looks pretty stylish, just not among the best I’ve watched in my home theater.
The Dolby Atmos soundtrack has boomy bass and machine gun fire, sometimes annoyingly so. The rest of the track, including the music, sounded a little flat and compressed during my watch. The Atmos mix has hardly any overhead activity that I noticed until the big helicopter scene near the end, at which time those height speakers become hyper-aggressive with sounds flying this way and that all over the place until the scene is over.
Related
- Beverly Hills Cop franchise
- Eddie Murphy
- Kevin Bacon
- Jerry Bruckheimer (producer)
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