Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
Dir: Mark Molloy
Writers: Danilo Bach; Daniel Petrie Jr.; Will Beall
Starring: Eddie Murphy; Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Judge Reinhold
Netflix
By Paul Bernardo paulieb2003@gmail.com
Beverly Hills Cop 3 was released in 1994. 30 years ago, we said goodbye to Axel Foley, now, we say hello again and see what he and his pals are up to.
The gang is back again in this one, Paul Reiser is Jeffrey, now chief of police in Detroit, Axel’s boss, and he is retiring. Taggert is back, now chief of police in Beverly Hills. Rosewood is back, he quit the force and became a private investigator. Oh, and Axel had a wife and has a grown daughter that he is estranged from.
The gang is all back, and it is great to see them. It’s kind of like a little cocktail party where you get to see snippets of everybody and see how they are doing, sip your drink, nod and move on.
I think as a movie, you’d be super bored, but if you consider this as like going through a scrapbook of memories, you’d really appreciate it.
Axel is too old to do anything, as is Rosewood, Taggert and Jeffrey. So old in fact, Axel was going to pull a con job at the hotel he was staying at, as he usually does, and literally says, “I’m too tired for this”.
Still it’s a movie that goes by fast, nothing too crazy, nothing too violent. Just a bunch of friends getting together again for a nice paycheck.
Axel F is definitely better then Beverly Hills Cop 3, which I am grateful for. The writers did what they could do with the actors they had to work with. I mean everybody is up in age, so you can’t really do much.
Bronson Pinchot is back as Serge with that crazy accent, and much of the same bits, but we all love Bronson and we are glad to see him again. As I said, this film is a small cocktail party with all your favorite characters. You take a sip of your drink, nod a few times and move on.
Nothing memorable here, you do feel bad for Axel, who is still working the streets. He went through a divorce and has a daughter he never sees and essentially gave up on. If
you don’t mind that your childhood hero did not amount to much, then I guess it won’t bother you.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is another fan favorite that everybody loves and we are all glad to see him in here. He brings the youth and is an actual person who can do action sequences and run and stuff like that. The script doesn’t shy away from the age factor, which I am very happy about. One scene Taggert hits the deck from a shooting and tells Rosewood, “I can’t get back up”.
The one person who does get lost in this love fest of a reunion is Axel’s daughter, Jane Saunders played by Taylour Paige. She doesn’t quite fit in, and I don’t know if it was intentional or not. She doesn’t have the comedy timing or chops for this film, and it’s not a dramatic role, so she becomes the sourpuss whenever she appears. Plus we have disdain for her because she reminds us what a bad father Axel was. So this I guess is a no win role for her to play.
All in all I would say if you love the guys, if you grew up with the guys, you should see this on Netflix. It goes by quick and the whole gang is here, and it is great to see everybody. Sit on the couch, take a sip of your drink, nod and move on. You’ll be glad you did.
