Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on July 11, 2024.

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Mark Molloy.

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Luis Guzmán, Damien Diaz.

The Golf Cart Bandit was finally brought to justice.

The key to writing high school essays is much the same as making a belated film sequel - understand the assignment and do your homework.

Aussie debut director Mark Molloy has done both here. He knows exactly what a Beverly Hills Cop movie needs to be, and I'd hate to think how many times he watched each of the first three movies to get that understanding (or at least the first two, no one needs to rewatch Beverly Hills Cop III).

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F AKA BHC4 feels exactly like an Axel Foley movie should. It's a tightly plotted cop procedural punctuated with some solid car chases that lets Eddie Murphy do what Eddie Murphy does best, while giving him good characters to bounce off and ending in the inevitable hail of bullets.

Thirty years on from his disappointing third outing, Detroit cop Foley receives a call from his old pal Billy Rosewood (Reinhold) saying Foley's estranged daughter Jane (Paige) has had her life threatened by a drug gang because of her involvement defending an accused cop-killer. Before you know it, the motormouth cop from the Motor City is back in Beverly Hills, trying to solve crimes while simultaneously trying to patch things up with his daughter.

Molloy nails the tone and style of the first Beverly Hills Cop. It's very much set in the now, but its pacing, its delivery, its humour, and even much of its soundtrack comes straight outta the '80s. This kind of comedic cop movie doesn't really exist any more, replaced by either self-aware send-ups or jokey low stakes affairs where the comedy outweighs the crime. But right from the opening moments, as Foley cruises the streets of Detroit to the sounds of The Heat Is On, this film is at pains to invoke its origins.

What's great about all this is it doesn't feel like gratuitous fan service - only the return of popular character Serge (Pinchot) lands in that territory. Instead, it's about deliberate stylistic choices that celebrate the original. Yes, it opens with literally the same song, but this feels more like it's singing from the same songbook as opposed to doing a bad cover version.

Murphy slips back into the role of Foley with ease. It was this kind of role that left him feeling typecast early in his career (see Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hrs, and Trading Places), but no one does it like him, even 40 years on from the first BHC. His ability to switch from comedic to sincere and back again is effortless and a huge part of the film's charm. There's even a sense of depth and maturity to the character that befits the passage of time.

While it's nice to see Reinhold, Ashton and Reiser back for another outing, and Bacon's ability to play goodie or baddie with equal panache is what makes him so ubiquitous, the highlights of the supporting cast are Gordon-Levitt and Paige. Both go toe-to-toe with Murphy and hold their own. Gordon-Levitt reminds us of his comedic chops, and Paige has a great mix of toughness and vulnerability as the daughter who is bitter towards her absent father.

It's easy to forget what a shake-up to the genre the original Beverly Hills Cop provided - it was Oscar-nominated for best original screenplay and brought some much-needed comedy and culture-clash into the increasingly dour and dark world of cop movies. While BHC4 can never be as groundbreaking, it at least understands what made the first film so great, and does an excellent job of living in that world.