Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F: Getting Old With Style

Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is back on the beat in Beverly Hills. After his daughter’s life is threatened, she (Taylour Paige) and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to turn up the heat and uncover a conspiracy.

REVIEW:

Give Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise a little age, a little more wisdom, the same amount of jive and wild improvisational mind, add a new plot with a mystery that doesn’t strain his brain too much to solve, mix in the old reliable crew from the past, a new sidekick, and the result is something familiar and satisfying, comfort comedy, mixed with regret and nostalgia.

The new cop, straightman for Axel this time around is Beverly Hills raised (on the fringe) detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who once had something going on with Axel’s estranged daughter and now attorney Jane Saunders (Taylor Paige). Underneath Jane is still a Foley despite the legal name change. One of the nicer subplots is her reconciling with her dad and seeing herself as a Foley again. It’s got all the right feels the audience wants to see in this new edition.

The past cast just slips back into their old routines and rhythms. They delight in showing the now senior audience who watched the original the comic joys and infirmities of aging. They’re still the same, just a little wiser, creakier. There is an enormous amount of deliberately awakwardly applied makeup used to cover up the hair dye, receding hairlines, the wrinkles, the scars of battle while still highlighting their schlub physiques and old man walks. A lot of these vanities are played for gentle comedy. Also, it serves as a contrast to the still somewhat youthful looking Foley, who in this fantasy version of his senior life, can still do all the stunts.

The plot is just a frame for father-daughter reconciliation. Jane is the defense attorney for a falsely accused mark and scapegoat for a criminal corruption plot featuring almost every name star not in the original or the sequels. Kevin Bacon is the villain.

The director Mark Molloy knows that the senior audience who grew up watching the series have a limited attention span for action scenes that stream pass their bed times. The big set pieces featuring a snowplow and a low flying helicopter come early and in the middle. The final one, is barely there. It’s just an excuse for the returning cast to get some interaction and a grand farewell. The last final hug.

Everything is functional and efficient, designed to produce maximum nostalgia. It’s enough to have a straightman and woman to bounce of Murphies rhythms. That’s what the audience wants and there is nothing wrong with giving them that.