The summer of 2024 is going to go down as the season of the aging action star. Scan the slate of upcoming 2024 movies and you’ll see the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Bad Boys, Hugh Jackman in his celebrated return as Wolverine, and Eddie Murphy reprising his role of Detroit cop Axel Foley in the fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie. The legacy of the character is referenced in the latest full trailer for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, coming soon for those with a Netflix subscription. And the trailer packs a sweet dig at the dud in the Beverly bunch, Beverly Hills Cop 3. Watch the trailer, and we’ll talk about it on the other side.
Did you catch the shot Eddie Murphy took at Beverly Hills Cop 3? That movie is largely considered to be the disaster in the bunch, a tired retread of the Beverly Hills Cop formula that had a lame villain, and might only be remembered for a Ferris Wheel stunt sequence that very clearly used a stunt double in place of the very valuable Eddie Murphy. So when Joseph Gordon Levitt’s new character is listing off the times that Axel Foley has been through 90201, they show photos of the very cool Beverly Hills Cop and its stylish sequel (directed by Tony Scott). And then Murphy nods at the camera when they mention the 1994 “visit.” One fans would like to forget.
This one looks much better – at the very least, a return to form established by the original Beverly Hills Cop. Based on what’s revealed in the footage, we get Axel Foley on the streets of Detroit, stopping crime using a snow plow. We get a personal reason for the detective to head out to Los Angeles again – this time, he gets a call from Judge Reinhold’s Billy saying he’s in some kind of danger. (In that sense, the screenplay is borrowing from the excellent Beverly Hills Cop 2.) And we have imaginative action set pieces, including one where Murphy and Gordon-Levitt steal a helicopter, even though neither of them can fly it.
Eddie Murphy recently spoke about returning to action films, even though he's "not in my 20s" anymore. Read what he had to say!
Look, we’re not asking for too much from this return of Axel Foley. We want Eddie Murphy to be funny. This is, by far, his most popular character. And he probably hates the fact that he ended the franchise on a stinker in Beverly Hills Cop 3… hence the joke made at that movie’s expense. I’m not sure that the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F can reinvigorate the franchise the way that Top Gun: Maverick put air under the wings of Tom Cruise’s throwback thriller. But if this can restore the balance of the BHC series, and give Eddie Murphy a fine send off, then all the more power to it.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F isn’t the only upcoming Netflix movie that should be on your radar, so make sure you click that link and bookmark our guide to 2024 on the streaming service, because there are a lot of entertaining nights on your horizon.
