Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) - Reviving a Classic Comedy Series

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) is the fourth installment in the humorous franchise that relaunched with the comedian Eddie Murphy in the lead role of the detective Axel Foley, this new addition to the film series well known across the world, I'm glad to watch Foley returning to Beverly Hills but bit of a twist as the plot begins the threat of his daughter’s life is used. This personal crisis becomes the reason for Foley’s going back to the city where he had become well known, which means he teams up with his former friends and partners, John Taggart (John Ashton) and Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), they dive into a web of a highly complicated mystery that not only concerns the safety of Foley’s family.

The movie develops in a way that is still appealing to the viewers of the original series, from comedy to action and now including more drama into the role.. It is made even more engaging and interactive with the help of the main cast, such as Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Taylour Paige, with Kevin Bacon’s character brings some mystery into the story and would make the show more interesting whereas Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character brings a new perspective to the team, as for Taylour Paige who plays the role of Foley’s daughter, she turns into a key figure in the film’s emotional aspect as she supplies the character with a personal interest, thus adding concern and intensity to the character’s assignment.

The narrative of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is the title of the movie and is about the return of Axel Foley to Beverly Hills because his daughter Jane is in danger. This personal struggle brings Foley back together with his former partner and friend John Taggart, as well as his former partner and rival Billy Rosewood in order to prevent a terrorist plot not only affecting his family but the safety of the entire city of Beverly Hills. There are new characters in the film; Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the role of Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane’s ex boyfriend and Foley new partner and Kevin Bacon as the police captain Cade Grant working with the Beverly Hills Police Department. Jane Saunders, Foley’s estranged daughter role is play by Taylour Paige; she works as a criminal defense attorney in Beverly Hills.

As there is more synergy between the small and big screen it seem to me that bringing back Axel, specially on a movie that will release on a streaming platform like Netflix opens the door to more movies for the franchise, would not be strange if they try to go for a trilogy or even a TV series as other movies has done, something very incentivized by the MCU between their Movies and TV series. From what I have seen on the trailer Eddie Murphy still has a lot to give, his original movies are great even though the third iteration of the franchise was not so good as the first two, I'm on the side that we need more of Eddie Murphy on the entertaining industry.

This sequel stars Eddie Murphy once more as Axel Foley a hilarious Detroit police officer now returning to Beverly Hills. Throughout his career Murphy has an extensive amount of hits to enjoy which include movies like: Coming to America, The Nutty Professor and the Shrek movies in which he does the voice for Donkey’s character. His coming back as Axel Foley is quite expected as the actor combines both humor and physical activities in his performances, which were evident in the film that made him famous, besides to keep the same essence its the only way to do it right and attract old viewers of the series and a new generation.

Paying alongside Murphy is several actors who resurface their roles in the original Beverly Hills Cop movies, some of them Billy Rosewood played by Judge Reinhold is a friend and a partner of Axel Foley in the Beverly Hills Police Department although rather naive at times. Reinhold has featured in many films among them being Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and the The Santa Clause (1994) series, his chemistry with Murphy was definitely one of the strengths of the first two films.

John Ashton also comes back to his role as John Taggart, Axel’s other former partner, Ashton has been constant in his film and television career and has worked in Midnight Run (1988) and Gone Baby Gone (2007), his character was more of a tough by the book guy, a perfect counterpoint to the wild Axel in the original series and his return brings back the old feel of the same in the new movie.

Paul Reiser also appears as Jeffrey Friedman, Axel’s colleague from Detroit police, Reiser is well known for his performances in the TV show Mad About You (1992), movies Aliens and more recently Stranger Things.

Taylour Paige stars in the film as Jane, Axel Foley’s daughter, Paige has featured in the movies Zola and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, I'm not familiar with her work but I would expect she brings contrast to the character of Axel too, been his opposite.

Joseph Gordon Levitt is added to the cast of the movie as Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane’s ex boyfriend and Axel’s new partner, that is going to be hilarious to watch. As a young actor, Gordon Levitt has been very successful starring in Inception and Looper to mention some of the most famous.

Kevin Bacon is the main actor in the movie and he is cast as Captain Cade Grant who works for the Beverly Hills Police Department, Bacon is a true Hollywood actor with a long list of movies at his disposal including Footloose, Apollo 13 and Mystic River among others.

Mark Molloy is an Australian filmmaker whose works is mostly known by a unique mode of directing and an unusual combination of comedy and drama, by no means a newcomer to the advertising realm before this big project, he had earlier directed some popular commercials that highlighted his talents in both narration and imagery. He has focused on commercials as well especially those for Apple and the commercials have been acclaimed for their ingenuity and ability to evoke the audience’s emotions, he has been famous for getting many awards and recognition within the field.

It is a major development in his career that Molloy has changed from television to feature films, his approach to this project can be seen to reflect this in the sense that Axel has a background in crafting visually stimulating and emotionally appealing stories. During a few online interviews Molloy showed his passion towards the Beverly Hills Cop movies and his desire to give new vision to the popular series.

Murphy has mentioned in interviews that Molloy encouraged the show to be free wheeling so that he could start doing his type of comedy, this way was rather successful and implemented some of the funniest and memorable scenes in the film, illustrating Molloy’s abilities to work with both scripted and improvised scenes.

For a long time, the production was slow and only when Mark Molloy joined the team as director in April 2022 the project got the push needed and filming started in California in August 2022. Eddie Murphy who also wrote the screenplay and acted as the producer was met with a lot of criticism and doubts since the comedian’s success had recently fainted because of some of his recent movies and scandals, this skepticism was not only directed at the prequels, some people asked if a new movie could bring back the spirit of the first three films. The shooting of this film ended in the first trimester of year 2023 and the post production work was also done in full earnest to deliver a product that would meet the expectations of the viewers and critics. The consequence of this is a film that is trying to be a new part of the series while also bringing back the old characters and themes to the audience.

I'm really glad that the movie has the full escence of the previous iterations, a good amount of the original cast is also back making contrast with the additional characters and actors. The movie been release on a streaming platform like Netflix will certaintly give a larger amount of viewers in the short and long term based on how the scene of entertaiment has change in the last decade.

Murphy has shown how he can switch between drama and comedy while still making the plot work and his coming back as Axel Foley is a homecoming and an exploration at the same time since part of the audience thinks he cant putll this off but from the different trailers released I think he just got this one on the bag. The stunts look choreographed in a way that the Hong Kong’s tradition of spectacular action scenes from the 80s and comedy are not left out as it has been depicted in the old series.

There is a lot of expectations for this movie, I can already see myself enjoying it and laughing about the occurences of Axel, listening to the classic theme song that has never died across the year making it an iconic movie series for so long.