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None were more giddy for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F than a lifelong Eddie Murphy fan like me. In my defense, it was never about getting anything out of it and rather enjoying his presence, but even for someone striving for nostalgia on steroids, I was not able to find many good jokes in it.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is essentially a carbon copy of all the streaming movies out there, where the effort seems lacking and it feels like a mere box to tick. The streaming industry has reached an all-time low. The characters Foley takes along with him as he goes on to defeat the enemies threatening to take down his daughter are old friends. The plot was by no means extraordinary but with proper execution, along with special effects, this could have served as a beautiful tribute to the Beverly Hills Cop films.
The first scene from the movie opens with Axel Foley smiling and driving through the cities of Detroit, and core memories from a few of his 80s films surface not to mention the tune for The Heat is On serves as the cherry on top. The way the song is set up, you’d think we’re back in Beverly Hills Cop I.
Eddie Murphy’s spot on wig along with the background music is just perfect to deep dive into the movie. Plus the veteran actors from the first movie of the series effortlessly contributed to this piece without breaking a sweat did an incredible job and looked so good.
The best part happens to come in the first 10 minutes of the movie, where Eddie Murphy does a perfect impression of a white person, which is probably the only entertaining section of the movie.
One of the action sequences is incredibly poorly done that will make you cringe. In it, axle F gets pepper sprayed twice and the character continues to walk ever so slowly without stopping.
The only thing working for the film is the fact that Eddie Murphy looks forty when in fact he is sixty-three years young. This really aids the movie because it needs as much help as it can get. The force is strong in this movie in terms of nostalgia. A lot of the original cast is brought back from Paul Reiser and John Ashton as Jeffrey and Taggart to Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot as William and Serge.
Not even a bit of fan appeasement will propel a movie into critical and box office success, and with elementary school-level writing, this movie attempts to do so.
Not much else can be said about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, other than it may be the biggest waste of a comedic heavyweight redacted has ever seen coupled with a nostalgia-bait movie.
The storyline is incredibly dull, the action is pointless, and it’s downright ridiculous that a world-class cast would end up in a movie that could easily have been a short film or even an SNL skit.
Despite the very minimal screen time given to Joseph Gordon Levitt, he manages to do so much. My favorite scene is when he shares a very brief gaze with Axel Foley and says the most brilliant line.
Judge Reinhold, who is back in the franchise and is playing William, looks more than just haggard and a bit crazy, especially in his eyes. Nonetheless, he still maintains most of his charm and superb acting skills, which are always nice to see, even if I believe his best performance was in Beverly Hill Cops III.
While Taylour Paige who plays Foley’s daughter Jane is easy to watch, her acting skills in this movie are not that impressive. As much as I’d hate to say it, she seems like a really nice person, but not a great actor, and her face and equally dull expressions are to blame.
Kevin Bacon has also recently joined the franchise as Big Bad, and he is surprisingly versatile for an actor, but these days it seems he is often cast as the antagonist in films.
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