Eddie Murphy is still effortlessly funny but the shopworn story and setting plays it safe
It's a good time to be an Eddie Murphy fan. After stepping out of the spotlight for a few years, Murphy is back and reengaging with the culture. There's a new Shrek sequel on the way and talk of a Donkey-focused film. In 2019, Murphy returned with the riotous Dolemite is My Name. He's also begun revisiting some of his greatest hits, first with Coming to America 2 and now Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, a reflective Eddie Murphy mused about the kind of movies he wants to make: "I want to do something I know works and something that I know I can be funny doing."
Whether at 21, the age when he filmed the first Beverly Hills Cop, or now in his sixties, Eddie Murphy is effortlessly funny. There's looseness, a comfort on camera, and ease with improv other comedians can only envy.
Indeed, many of the funny throwaway lines in the new film were improvised, such as when Murphy is being put into a tiny police car and quips, "Y'all are the Lego cops."
This is the Eddie Murphy who wowed audiences back in '84 as Axel Foley, the fast-talking detective from Detroit who caused chaos wherever he went.
The first two films were a smash. Murphy himself in the Times interview admits the third outing "didn't come out good." Now reunited with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the movie mogul responsible for Top Gun, Bad Boys, and Armageddon, Murphy felt he had a winning formula for a fourth installment.
That formula that turns out to be a heady mix of vehicular mayhem and familiar faces. Watch the opening sequence set in Detroit with Foley driving a garbage truck and Bob Segers' Shakedown blaring in the background and you could be forgiven for thinking it's an outtake from the first film. Add in the Pointer Sisters, Don Henley, and the endless earworm of the original Axel F tune and the only missing from the soundtrack is a yellow Sony Walkman to play it on.
After the opening in Detroit (and a warm welcome glimpse of Paul Reiser as the deputy police chief) Foley is drawn back to Los Angeles due to a case his former partner Billy is working. The return of Judge Reinhold is just the beginning of a cavalcade of returning characters. There's the eternally grumpy John Ashton as Chief John Taggart, and what would a Beverly Hills Cop film be with the amusingly ambiguous accent of Serge played by Bronson Pinchot?
Like Murphy, Pichot is evidently enjoying himself. If you're watching on Netflix, keep your eyes out for a fun mirror moment at 49.10, as Serge adds a little flourish as he exits the room.
With a cartel conspiracy and a collection of thugs who look like the rejects of a Miami Vice casting call, Axel F isn't so much reinventing the wheel as it is spinning in the rut.
Keeping the '80s flame burning, Kevin Bacon shows up as a slippery police captain keeping an eye on Foley's shenanigans.
The few new faces do help invigorate the story, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective Bobby Abbott. Every comedy needs a good straight man and Gordon-Levitt's gruff no-nonsense attitude makes the perfect foil for Foley.
While Eddie Murphy's own daughter Bria Murphy appears in a minor role as an arresting officer, it's the addition of Taylour Paige as Jane, Axel Foley's estranged daughter that adds a much-need level of, if not maturity, at least introspection to the story.
After walking out on his family, Axel's relationship with Jane is on rocky ground. With Jane also involved in the case as a lawyer, Paige adds a feisty presence as an actor who can hold her own with motormouth Murphy.
Considering the success of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, another aging action franchise that struck a chord with audiences, it might seem a missed opportunity that Axel F bypassed the movie mutliplex to premiere on Netflix.
But by relying on calcified callbacks and the familar Axel Foley shtick, Murphy is playing it safe and going for the easy laughs. The result is a film that doesn't challenge the star or the audience: comedic comfort food perfect for watching passively on the couch or while you're folding laundry.
