‘You look like you sell iPhone cases to teenagers at the mall…’
I went into Axel F with low expectations. The third entry in the Beverley Hills Cop series killed the franchise dead and recent examples of legacy sequels have been underwhelming, to say the least. Happily, while it doesn’t capture the electric anarchy of the first two BHC movies, Axel F does at least harness their spirit…
Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is back and he’s back in Beverley Hills after his lawyer daughter (Taylour Paige) becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving dirty cops and some stolen drugs. Foley is reunited with his old friends Billy (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton), now a PI and police chief respectively, and he also has a new Police Captain to deal with in the shape of Kevin Bacon’s Captain Cade Grant.
Two things make Axel F such a successful sequel. The first is that this feels like a Beverley Hills Cop movie rather than a bunch of old actors reuniting for a payday. I believed in these characters and this world and Murphy slips back into the role of Axel Foley like a hand in glove. The second is that it is genuinely funny. I laughed out loud twice in the opening ten minutes. It’s also worth noting that while there are plenty of nods to the first two movies (and a snide dig at the third), Axel F doesn’t rely solely on nostalgia. Instead, director Mark Molloy taps into what made the first two movies so successful. Namely, spotlighting Eddie Murphy and kick-ass action sequences. It helps that the plotting is tight. The introduction of a grown-up daughter injects some credulity to Foley rocking up to Beverley Hills for a fourth time and the whole thing is much more focused than the lacklustre third entry.
Axel F is far from a masterpiece but it is better than it has any right to be. I enjoyed it way more than I expected – a rare treat.
