‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Review: Eddie Murphy Loses His Smile in This Salty Sequel

direction: Mark Molloy | Scenario: Will Beale, Kevin Eaton, Tom Gormican | Throws: Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, Taylor Paige as Gene Saunders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Bobby Abbott, John Ashton as John Taggart, Judge Reinholt as Billy Rosewood, Paul Reiser as Jeffrey Friedman, Kevin Bacon as Kid Grant. and others | game time: 118 minutes | year: 2024

In the second half of the 80s, everyone was singing Harold Faltermeyer’s synth tune “Axel F” and black and white jackets were hard to come by: the first two parts of beverly hills cop It was a huge success and cemented Eddie Murphy’s status as a leading star in the action-comedy genre. His monster Axel Foley had a ton of lines and a million laughs. Now the man is back inside. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel FBut does Murphy still have the charm? Isn’t a story about corrupt cops and a bickering father and daughter one that’s told too often?

In between, in 1994, the film The Evil One was also released. Beverly Hills Cop III Released. This is parodied in the new installment when a character says next to an old photo of Axel: “The 90s: Not his best period.” It’s one of the better jokes in this attempted comedy, but it’s simply not funny enough. Murphy can no longer deliver the rapid-fire verbal pacing or vocal delivery that made him famous, and where’s that signature laugh? No, Murphy is old, too old for this…

The latter applies in an exponential sense to the entire slew of other actors who have been plucked from the fat to reprise roles from their heydays. John Ashton is now seventy-six, and Judge Reynolds hasn’t been active in Hollywood since 2017. They clearly can’t recreate the comedic cop duo of yesteryear. beverly hills copMovies: The magic is gone. The dialogues between all these old men together are very slow and joyful, and the action scenes often seem to be happening – unintentionally – in slow motion.

The younger generation isn’t much better off. Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to show up on set half asleep while Taylor Paige recites her lines like a poorly oiled robot. The father-daughter relationship (he was never there for her, of course, due to his workaholism) is constantly discussed, but it’s hard to feel anything about it, even when the dynamics shift in what should be the film’s emotional journey. The uninspired dialogue and wooden acting take all the salt out of the gruel.

The plot of this film is a predictable mix of the best action comedies about strained family relationships and police corruption. The bad guy is, of course, the cop in the thousand-dollar Gucci shoes, and Axel regularly goes undercover as one of his types to get information. At one point, tired of this unconvincing disguise, he looks at his conversation partner with a sigh and says, “I’m not even going to try.” It’s an example of self-insight that Murphy could have used, too.

The most beautiful scene in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F When Axel first moves from Detroit to Los Angeles. The California street scene has changed in forty years, but Beverly Hills has remained more or less the same. The beautiful, effeminate people are still around. In 1984, Axel had to laugh off two men who approached him wearing black and red Michael Jackson outfits. Now this is the man who uses suntan lotion in the car next to him. The editing adds a nice touch of nostalgia, which is what the rest of the film is very forced to do.

For younger viewers, Eddie Murphy previously played the donkey. a partner know or not at all Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F There’s almost nothing to offer. The action, humor, and plot development are all very old. This is a franchise that shouldn’t be reheated. However, that synth tone will be around for a while.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F It can be seen in Netflix.