Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – 2024 American Action Comedy Film

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F : Movie Name
Directed by: Mark Molloy
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Kevin Bacon
Genre: Comedy, Action, Crime
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Release Date: 03 July, 2024
Rating:
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Eddie Murphy Productions
Budget: $- million

Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills after his daughter’s life is threatened for a family reunion that includes old pals John Taggart and Billy Rosewood to uncover a conspiracy.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – Overview

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (or known as Beverly Hills Cop IV) is an upcoming American action comedy film directed by Mark Molloy, written by Will Beall, Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, from a story by Beall. Serving as the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series and a sequel to Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Eddie Murphy (who also produces) reprises his role as Axel Foley, with Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot reprising their roles from previous films in the franchise, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon star in new roles.

The film entered development in the mid-1990s, under Murphy’s production company. Various directors and screenwriters were attached over the years, including Brett Ratner and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Molloy was hired to direct in April 2022, with production beginning in California that August. Production has wrapped up, with the film scheduled to be released on the streaming service Netflix on July 3, 2024.

In February 2022, the film entered pre-production and received a California state tax credit of $16,059,000. Principal photography began on August 29, 2022, in San Bernardino, along with other areas in California, for 58 days, to generate $78 million in qualified spending in tax incentives. In August 2022, Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were cast in undisclosed roles. In the same month, Paul Reiser and John Ashton were confirmed to reprise their roles as Det. Jeffrey Friedman and Sgt. John Taggart, respectively, from the first two films.

In September, Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot were confirmed to reprise their roles as Sgt. William “Billy” Rosewood and Serge respectively, with Kevin Bacon and Mark Pellegrino joining the cast. Filming occurred in Detroit in November 2022, before production wrapped in early 2023.

Movie Trailer:

Movie Review:

The heat is on with Eddie Murphy

This Eddie Murphy-led cop action comedy is a worthy addition to the franchise, that is simultaneously respectful and playful

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.

Thirty years might have been a touch too long to wait for Harold Faltermeyer’s electronic instrumental, ‘Axel F’ to play in the background as a quick-thinking Detroit police lieutenant set things right, but the wait has been worth it. And though Friedman tells Foley “they don’t want swashbucklers, they want social workers,” we know that as long as Axel F is on the streets, we have nothing to worry and plenty to smile about.