It's been 30 years since Eddie Murphy last played swaggering, smack-talking Detroit cop Axel Foley— a fish out of water in Los Angeles— in "Beverly Hills Cop 3," a sequel even Murphy called "atrocious." Is anyone psyched for Part 4, called "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F," as it bypasses theaters (never a good sign) to go straight to Netflix on July 3?
Look, Murphy is now 63, a settled, fatcat movie star with nothing left to prove since the first "Beverly Hills Cop" in 1984 sparked his meteoric rise as a young, boundary-pushing comic innovator. Despite its R rating, "Axel F" is the opposite of wild and untamed, preferring the easy glide of nostalgia to the hard stuff that came before. No crime there, but no glory either.
Murphy seems to prefer it that way, showing genuine affection for the series that harnessed his hotshot energy to cop action formula. The Murphy secret sauce that fired the first two "Cop" hits may be gone, but the memory lingers on. And that just might be enough.
We pick up with Axel as his Detroit PD boss (Paul Reiser) plans retirement after watching Axel, now a lieutenant but still runnin' and gunnin', pursue a bad guy through downtown traffic in an explosion of vehicular destruction. Hearing the original "Cop" theme accelerate this carmageddon is a major bonus.
MORE: Review: 'Judas and the Black Messiah' is a new movie classicAxel jets off to L.A. when he learns from his ex-partner Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold ) that his estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige), a glamorous, no-bull Beverly Hills attorney, has nearly been killed by a drug cartel for defending a dude it wants dead.
Enter another "Cop" vet, John Ashton as BHPD honcho John Taggart. To see Murphy, Reinhold and Ashton mix it up again, is fine fan service. Though they've all gotten thicker around the middle, their comic timing is still aces. Debuting director Mark Molloy says he gave Murphy and his buds plenty of room to improvise. Smart move since the script is a big nothing.
Joining Paige (so good in "Zola") among the newbies are the reliably appealing Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane's ex-boyfriend (he still loves her) who becomes Axel's new partner, and Kevin Bacon oozing sleaze as Captain Cade Grant, a top cop on the take.
Except for turning Axel into a devoted daddy who must finally learn to accept parental responsibility for his 32-year-old daughter, the fourth chapter in the life of Axel F is mostly juggling cliches. And that includes chases on foot, wheels and chopper. The blades of that whirlybird in traffic, shot in-camera without CGI, really get the blood pumping.
MORE: Review: 'In the Heights' pure unleashed joy grabs you and never lets goThat lewd Murphy grin that once radiated strutting confidence, has been domesticated into a safety zone that threatens no one. That's a sign of our risk-adverse times, of course. Welcome to "Beverly Hills Cop: The AARP Version."
In his strongest screen role in 2006's "Dreamgirls," Murphy won his first and still only Oscar nomination for playing a James Brown-like soul man who refused to fake his way to the top with a mellow sound that sells. Yet it's a mellow Axel F we see here, a father restored to love in his daughter's eyes.
As for the radically fun and ferocious Axel the 23-year-old Murphy first played in 1984, he's no more. In his place is a memory trying to pass as the genuine article. That's not going to happen. But for old time's sake, it works like a charm.
