‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Review: The Heat is Back On as Eddie Murphy Returns to His Movie Star Roots

It has been 30 years since Axel Foley’s last trip to the west coast, and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a welcome return to the franchise that made Eddie Murphy a movie star.

Opening on the gentrified streets of Detroit, Murphy’s Detective Axel Foley still cruises the neighborhoods in his trusty 1968 Chevy Nova. This is his turf. He knows every inch of this town and every person in it. They know him too. Foley is an icon, and the last bastion of a changing city. Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” provides the soundtrack to his route and is one of several tunes that bring us back to the 1984 film.

Axel F gets to the action almost immediately with a thwarted heist at a Detroit Red Wings game, a chase in a commandeered snowplow, and many thousands of dollars in property damage. It’s the sort of action we can rely on from a Beverly Hills Cop movie – or any cop movie – and Eddie Murphy seems overjoyed to be back in the driver’s seat, causing chaos and slinging one-liners. His joy is contagious and we sense the next two hours are going to be a lot of fun.

Foley isn’t fired, but his days at Detroit PD are numbered so when his old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) calls from Los Angeles, he knows he needs to get on a plane. It seems his daughter Jane (Taylour Paige), a successful lawyer at a high-powered LA firm has taken on a pro bono client in a dangerous cop killing case.

Foley’s arrival in Beverly Hills hits all the right beats of familiarity and nostalgia, while also reminding us it’s been a long time since he has been here. While Santa Monica Blvd and Rodeo Drive and the 405 all look the same, they also look very different. Murphy does a great job of maintaining Foley’s constant cheer and optimism. He has always been so amused and delighted by the opulence of the West Coast and that continues in this latest adventure.

His joviality continues when he is arrested by Det. Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the unimpressed, all-business BHPD detective who opens Foley’s file and comments on his last three California cases, a very funny reference to the increasingly silly cases in the previous three films. 

And Foley still maintains his usual optimism when his daughter Jane refuses to talk to him, and when he learns Billy is missing. He has a happy reunion with John Taggart (John Ashton) and meets instantly questionable Captain Grant (Kevin Bacon), head of a BHPD narcotics task force. We catch up with other familiar characters too including Paul Reiser’s Friedman and Bronson Pinchot’s Serge, each bringing something tangible to the story, instead of being relegated to Easter egg cameos . 

As with the other films in the series, the case that brings Foley to California is a means to an end. It’s really about taking an out-of-towner and dropping him into the middle of corruption, culture shock, and perfect weather. But unlike the two sequels that came before it, Axel F infuses new energy into the character with a story that isn’t new but feels fresh.

Soon, Foley learns Jane’s new client, Sam (Damien Diaz) is accused of murdering an undercover officer in the middle of a narcotics sting. Jane took the case because Billy asked her to. Billy, now a private investigator, believes Sam is innocent and is being set up by someone high up in the police department. Billy disappears before he is able to share the evidence he has found. 

As usual, the closer Foley gets to the truth, the more danger closes in on him, leading to the types of shootouts and car chases that defined 70s and 80s action movies before giving way to superhero fights and CGI stunts. Director Mark Molloy crafts sequences that homage the glory days of practical action without making them feel stale or dated. And yet he also acknowledges through bystanders and on-scene reporters that this is simply not how things are done anymore. It’s a delicate balance that makes Axel F work both as a sequel to a 40-year-old movie and as a commentary on how much things have changed.

But what particularly strengthens this film is the relationship – or rather the estrangement – between Foley and his daughter. They haven’t spoken in years and neither is willing to accept the blame for it. The arguments they have over the distance between them feel honest and real. Anyone who has been estranged from a parent will surely recognize practically verbatim conversations they have probably had. Foley tries to rationalize that Jane is an adult and if she wanted him around, she should have called. Jane rejects this, reminding him that he is always the parent. The investigation and the search for Billy are fun plot points, but this movie is really about Axel Foley finally being confronted with the consequences of his own choices and it handles this reality with grace and just the right amount of humor.

Paige is great as the jaded, cynical daughter of an absent father and goes toe-to-toe with Murphy in ways that prove her own starpower. She hurls acerbic barbs when it suits her and glowers silently when she knows words are useless. But in her unsuccessful quest to avoid being anything like her father, Jane has given up anything that would make her useful in a fight, turning her into a frequent damsel in distress. Which, considering how skilled she is with words, leads to some frustratingly repetitive danger situations, but also reinforces great moments of father/daughter argue-bonding.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a thoroughly entertaining sequel. There have already been laments that it deserved to be released in theaters, an understandable complaint in an era where streamers rule and every week brings another box office obituary. Streaming is our reality though, at least for now, and while it’s important to have the conversations about the future of movie theaters, we can also celebrate the fact that in 2024 we got a Beverly Hills cop sequel that is good, funny, and lets Eddie Murphy be the star he always was.

Grade: B+

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F will stream exclusively on Netflix beginning July 3, 2024.

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Karen Peterson

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