It’s hard not to have expectations of one kind or another when you watch a movie these days, simply because so many movies are sequels, or prequels, or legacy-quels, or reboots, or, well, you get the idea.
And so when one of these movies is even a little bit better than what we assume, it can feel enormously refreshing, even if it’s not, at its core, terribly fresh. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is the latest awkwardly named example of all this, as Eddie Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who this time travels back to Beverly Hills to help his estranged daughter, who’s a defense attorney who’s been pulled into some very hot water. This gives the movie an opportunity to reintroduce us to almost literally every character we met in the franchise’s three earlier films, and to give us all sorts of musical cues that remind us the heat is, indeed, on.
But, thankfully, we’re not entirely wallowing in nostalgia slop—that is certainly there, and the movie falters the most when that’s what we’re doing. Some of these characters are better left in the 1980s. Axel, though, is not one of them, simply because Eddie Murphy is so dang charming, and seeing him run around being a rascal while saving the day turns out to still be a whole lot of fun. Axel and Eddie may have both lost a step, but there’s something comfortable in this slower pace, and it’s great to be reminded that Murphy is a real professional: so many movie hero quip machines these days feel cookie-cutter dull. Murphy, though, knows how to toss off a line to maximum effect, and he knows how to zig when we expect him to zag. What can I say, he’s a funny guy.
It may be very faint praise to say this movie could have been a whole lot worse, but I don’t mean it to be quiteso faint. Let’s say it’s mild praise, and plenty enough for a summer diversion.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is on Netflix.
