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BQB here with a review of ::: checks notes::: the latest sequel where one of our 1980s hero characters is brought back as a senior citizen to ride again.
You know, 3.5 readers, Hollywood sure has been keeping a lot of properties born in the 1980s artificially alive well into the 2020s, well past their prime, if you ask me. I liken it to burying your dead cat in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. You miss your kitty, so off you go to the cursed burial ground. You put your furry pal in, hoping he’ll live again, but what you get back is nothing like your fuzzy BFF. Instead, its a gross, disgusting, pathetic simulation, a terrible horror, frankly a crime against God and humanity that all you want to do is look away, beat it to death with a shovel and curse yourself for wanting it to live again.
That’s because, like your deceased kitty kat, these movies and franchises were products of their time. Star Wars was hot in the 1970s and 80s because the special effects were unlike anything movie goers had ever seen, and it had themes of defeating an evil empire and keeping the world in the light and from descending into darkness – like America had just defeated an evil empire in Nazi Germany thirty years earlier, and was trying to defeat an evil empire in Russia at the time and would eventually do so. Forty years later, art imitates life, so Star Wars has descended into nonsense about lesbian space witches, but I digress.
I could discuss why many films belong in the 80s and shouldn’t be resurrected for a time that doesn’t understand them, but we’re here to talk about the Beverly Hills Cop Franchise, which IMO jumped way over the shark when Axel investigated an evil amusement park in the third installment in the 1990s such that I’m surprised Hollywood decided to do a fourth now but as Yogurt from Spaceballs reminds us, there’s always a quest for more money.
So, my first question is why did Paramount hand this off to Netflix? Paramount has its own Paramount Plus streaming platform and I feel like this would have attracted a lot of viewers. I had a sub for a year and enjoyed watching a lot of Paramount stuff, like the old Star Trek movies, and Yellowstone, Maverick, the Fatal Attraction series (another dead cat in the Pet Sematary if you will) and so on.
I let my sub lapse but I would have renewed it to watch this because I like Eddie Murphy that much. So who knows? Netflix made the best deal I suppose.
In this installment, Axel heads to Beverly Hills where his estranged daughter Jane is a lawyer, under fire for representing a man falsely accused of a drug related murder. When his old pal Billy Rosewood calls Axel to let him know his daughter is in hot water, Axel is on the first plane to Beverly Hills, his old stomping grounds where he previously upset the status quo in this fancy schmancy uber rich town twice and/or three times if you count part three while dragging around his local cop buddies Rosewood and Taggart (John Ashton who honestly, I thought he died long ago so I was pleasantly surprised to see him still alive.)
Along the way, Axel teams up with Jane’s cop ex boyfriend Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt) to take down a cabal of corrupt cops led by the top corrupt cop (Kevin Bacon). Don’t forget, Axel is from Detroit, so an opening scene checks in with his old cop buddy Friedman (Paul Reiser.)
So, whats the good? This movie has a lot of action. A lot. 1980s style action. A lot of car chases and crashes. Gun fights. Even a helicopter chase.
Eddie Murphy is remarkably well preserved. Whereas other 1980s icons bringing their stuff back in modern times (Harrison Ford, Sly Stallone) look like they are ready for the nursing home, Eddie, IMO, for an old timer, looks not that far from his younger self. It just doesn’t feel like you’re watching a geriatric running around, although I suppose you are.
The bad? Sadly, everyone else looks like they’re 1000. To the film’s credit, all the supporting characters are either in upper police management or moved on. They’d be happily spending their golden years waxing a desk chair with their butts if Axel hadn’t dragged them back into the shit. Friedman and Taggart are upper management in Detroit and Beverly Hills while Rosewood has left the force to become a private investigator.
The funny trio of Axel, Rosewood and Taggart was what made the first two films smash comedy hits. Taggart was a grizzled old prick who never wanted to deviate from procedure. Rosewood was young and trying to follow Taggart’s lead, but had a comical bloodlust such that once he got hold of a little firepower, turned into Rambo and started wildly shooting at the bad guys with any big, bad guns he could get his hands on with reckless disregard to his safety. Axel would drag these two nerds kicking and screaming into the breach.
And of course, Axel would rely on Eddie’s comedian skills to bluff his way into places he shouldn’t be, taking on all manner of silly accents and roleplays, conning his way behind closed doors.
While Taggart and Rosewood have key roles, they are, alas too old to be at the center of the action so the movie fails to recreate that fun 1980s buddy cop vibe they once had. They try by pairing Axel with Leavitt’s Bobby and they have some good moments but it isn’t the same.
Here’s my number one complaint. Apparently, all of our beloved 1980s heroes, when they are dragged back into modern times, have to be old trainwrecks, estranged from their wives and children. They did it with Han and Indy and Luke and now, Axel is divorced (he wasn’t married in the originals if I recall correctly) and his daughter hates him for letting his job come between him and his family. And by hate him I mean really hate him. Axel and Jane work the case and she is kvetching at him the entire movie and can’t give the guy a break for a second. Like seriously, the guns are blazing. The bullets are flying overhead and this chick is like, “Waah, you were never there for me, Dad, waaah.” WTF.
Look, I get that from a writing perspective, an older character being washed up can create great drama. I just wonder why Hollywood writers couldnt have said, hey we’ve done this so many times with so many other resurrected 80s characters that why can’t we give Axel a wife and a kid that actually like him? Would that be terrible? I don’t think so.
Bronson Pinchot returns as his classic Serge character but its 2024 so of course, Serge gets a lecture on how his Serge-ness might be considered offensive. I guess that was the price of allowing Bronson to be grandfathered in on doing a character with a foreign accent.
And whereas Axel fought criminals and crooks in the earlier films, today he takes on corrupt cops because, cops are evil right? The movie goes out of its way to reflect the current climate where cops aren’t too popular but Hollywood would do well to remember that cops aren’t despised everywhere in America and you know, criminals still exist so I don’t know why Axel couldn’t have been sent after some legit villains here.
STATUS: Shelf-worthy. I’ll give it credit in that its better than a lot of other sequels that breathed fresh life into old stuff but sometimes I wonder why Hollywood doesn’t look at what makes these movies great and rather than say “we can grandfather it in because its an old franchise” just apply it to new stuff. The car chases are awesome. The action is awesome. The gunfights are awesome. Just put more of that in new movies with younger actors. You don’t need Eddie and Arnie and Sly and Harrison to carry your water forever.
Bookshelf Battle 