‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ movie review: The heat is on with Eddie Murphy

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F brings back Eddie Murphy's iconic character in a fun, action-packed nostalgia trip on Netflix.

If you’re like me, fighting a horrid bug and feeling bleh, who you gonna call? Okay, you could probably call the ghostbusters or watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. That opening with our favourite motor-mouth, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy), cheerfully grinning as he trades insults with the good people of Detroit as Glenn Frey sings ‘The Heat Is On’ is enough to bring a smile to one’s face.

There are other returnees including Billy (Judge Reinhold), Chief Taggart (John Ashton), Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser) as Foley’s partner in the Detroit Police Department and art/weapons dealer, Serge (Bronson Pinchot).

Foley is doing his stuff in Detroit chasing bad guys from a hockey game in a snow plough (just another day at office) before Billy calls to say his estranged daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), a criminal defence attorney, is in over her head with some very bad people. Foley immediately packs a bag and heads for the City of Angels to set things right.

And he is straight away in the thick of action, getting rid of scary goons who were tossing Billy’s office. Billy, incidentally, has retired from the Beverly Hills Police Department and become a private investigator. Jane is defending Sam, who is accused of killing an undercover policeman, as she feels something does not add up.

Foley is not taken in by the shiny police captain Grant (Kevin Bacon)—his $2000 Gucci shoes and Rolex are a giveaway. The detective in charge of the case, Sam Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is Jane’s ex-boyfriend. Abbot and Jane reluctantly team up with Foley as there is no way he is going to give up the trail. There are musical cartel kingpins, cocaine in hideous statues, crooked cops, ugly, ostentatious mansions and $1000-a-night hotels.  

First-time director, Mark Molloy, approaches Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F with the lightest of touches. The nostalgia is there but not a solemn, kneeling-down-at-the-altar, worshipful affair. It is a fun way of remembering why we liked Beverly Hills Cop 40 (wow!) years ago and liked Pankaj Parashar’s  Hindi movie avatar, Jalwa (1987) as well.

Murphy in his jeans, jacket and sneakers with that killer rowdy smirk and bright beady eyes holds one transfixed through the hectic happenings. From telling a movie-mad person he is a producer for “a new Liam Neeson revenge thriller called Impound” to the completely unhinged low-flying chopper chase—it is all good and enormous fun. Gordon-Levitt and Bacon give good account of themselves (the former more than the latter) while Paige is mostly forgettable.