The Heat Is Off

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F starts the same way as the original 1984 film, with loving shots of Detroit followed minutes later by a police chase destroying a significant portion of the city and its beloved cars. In Beverly Hills Cop, Detective Axel Foley’s (Murphy) botched sting operation ends with a gleefully nihilistic criminal ramming a semi full of stolen cigarettes into anything rammable. In the newest entry, it’s Axel himself snowplowing through half of Wayne County in pursuit of somebody for something. Yee-haw.

If you’re not familiar with the franchise, after 48 Hrs and Trading Places set him up, Beverly Hills Cop spiked Eddie Murphy into minted movie stardom. Martin Brest’s (director of the stellar ‘80s buddy movie Midnight Run) original film sent young smartass Detroit cop Axel Foley to California to pursue the hitmen who whacked his ne’er-do-well buddy. It’s not a perfect film, and parts of it have aged poorly, but it’s got a pretty lovely fusion of ‘70s grit and ‘80s flash. Brest does a fantastic job establishing and building a fun ensemble, anchored by Murphy at peak levels of charisma and charm.

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F ★★ (2/5 stars)
Directed by: Mark Molloy
Written by:  Will Beall, Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Kevin Bacon
Running time: 118 mins

The rest of the series follows a cut-and-paste pattern: friend or loved one of Axel is threatened or harmed in La La Land, and Axel brings his motor mouthed Motor City mojo to bend the rules of the tightass 90210ers in his pursuit of justice. Tony Scott’s 1987 BHC II laid on enough of the director’s smoggy ‘80s magic hour motif for it to almost work as Beverly Hills Cosplay. It was less funny and more scattered than the O.G. but light years better than John Landis’s 1994 BHC III. That one even made Murphy look exhausted; watching it is an endurance test for only the most devoted masochists. Axel F doesn’t stray far from the plot formula but it still lands somewhere near BHC II in terms of quality and watchability.

Axel F  finds Axel still running and gunning on the mean streets of Detroit, much to the exhausted bemusement of his academy buddy-turned-captain Jeffrey (Paul Reiser). Since running over half a major city with a snowplow isn’t grounds for termination, Foley is free to visit sunny California when his gun nut buddy Billy Rosewood (Reinhold) calls for help. Some ruffians dangled Foley’s estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) from the side of a parking garage. Her Beverly Hills defense attorney work threatens to out a conspiracy of corrupt cops. Cue all of Axel’s routine tricks and some daddy-daughter drama.

Axel’s always had two go-to tricks:

1. When met with resistance trying to acquire or gain access to something, impersonate an official and embarrass people until they give him what he wants.

2. Use streetwise skills gained from a petty criminal adolescence prior to becoming a police officer.

The second trick includes knowing things like how to use coffee grounds to throw off the scent of cocaine or how to circumvent an alarm system with a metallic gum wrapper. They’re pretty good tricks that go a long way toward establishing his street cop bona fides with the Beverly set and the audience. Unfortunately, the first trick gets old about halfway through the first movie and then ages about as well as sushi in a hot car. He goes from masquerading as a Caribbean psychic named Johnny Wishbone in BHC II (in that one, just to get out of a semi-awkward conversation) to impersonating a new Detroit Red Wings player to a crew of the most gullible jewel thieves ever.

It’s hard to watch Axel F without comparing it to similar franchises that attempt to reckon with the aging of their leads. Despite being a Lockheed commercial, Top Gun: Maverick very effectively reckoned with the costs associated with living your life like your name is Maverick. Directors Adil and Bilall’s Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys Ride or Die flipped Bay’s series into gonzo telenovelas that aren’t as moving as Top Gun: Maverick but capitalized on the strengths of its stars while dealing with the inevitability of their aging. Martin Lawrence spends the majority of Ride or Die thinking that he’s close to invincible after a near-death experience and it’s mostly pretty funny because his main use for that power is to try and sneak candy breaks. Murphy spends most of Axel F telling young folks that they don’t know how things should be done, which is about as amusing as it sounds.

Like Axel, the series never grows up. Which wouldn’t be a problem if the movies ever put any effort into the mysteries that draw Axel to LA in the first place. Instead, they throw a lead character into danger as the MacGuffin and try to string the rest together with Murphy’s impersonation schtick even when it isn’t believable or funny. By Axel F, it’s well-established that Axel has relationships in California. He could just be there when something happens and share the screen with young hot cops like Gordon-Leavitt’s Bobby Abbott the way that Smith and Lawrence cede screen time to Alexander Ludwig and Vanessa Hudgens or Cruise does with Miles Teller and Glen Powell.

Axel F does try a little bit. A plucky parking attendant steals a scene and almost ends a chase when Axel commandeers her vehicle. I’d like to have seen more of her. There are meta moments when Axel or those around him try to call him on his retrograde rogue cop-ish-ness, but as soon as one of those moments happen, they meet him with another set of headshakes marveling at Axel’s impish pluck. You can’t have it both ways, even though Top Gun: Maverick kind of got away with it.

Are there enough nostalgia points for it to be worth it for fans? Sort of. There’s Bronson Pinchot Serge-ing it up again. Very missed in the dog of a third entry, John Ashton’s cranky ass is back as Taggert, now anointed as BHPD’s chief. The cruising into Beverly montage of Rodeo Drive has more purse Pomeranians and less leotard ass than the rest of the series but such are the times. Unfortunately, even with an inflated budget that allows for wrecking way more cars and even a helicopter,”Axel F” is mostly missing two of the most important things in an action-comedy: excitement and laughs.