Stream Beverly Hills Cop Trilogy To Get Hyped For Beverly Hills Cop 4 On Netflix

The first Beverly Hills Cop is the quintessential buddy cop film, perhaps one of the first truly successful ones. And what’s funny about that is the fact that Axel Foley was more of a lone wolf, as he didn’t have a partner in the movie. Instead, he teamed up with two partners, Sergeant John Taggart and Detective Billy Rosewood, played by John Ashton and Judge Reinhold, respectively.  

You see, Axel’s not a Beverly Hills cop from Los Angeles. He’s from Detroit. Back home, he’s a plainclothes detective who likes to do things his own way. Axel’s superior, Inspector Todd, yells at Axel and warns him to start doing things by the book or he’ll be fired. When his childhood friend is murdered, Inspector Todd won’t allow Axel to investigate the case because he’s too close to it. Instead, Axel decides to take a “vacation” and heads off to become the Beverly Hills cop who will investigate the murder. 

It is there that Axel meets Taggart and Rosewood, along with Lieutenant Bogomil, who warns Axel against doing any police work. Of course, Axel investigates anyway and continues to come up against Taggart and Rosewood until the three end up working together. Crime, humor, and adventure ensue until the film comes to an end, with Axel presumably heading back to Detroit, no longer a Beverly Hills cop. 

A second film, Beverly Hills Cop II, follows the first, only three years later. In this movie, Axel returns to Beverly Hills after Lieutenant Bogomil gets shot working on a case involving high-end burglaries. He teams up with Rosewood and Taggart again, and this time, Axel is aided by his partner back in Detroit, Jeff, played by the fabulous Paul Reiser. 

This time, Axel poses as an FBI agent, works closely with Bogmil’s daughter, Jan, and battles with the gorgeous villain, Karla, played by Brigitte Nielsen. In classic Beverly Hills Cop fashion, there is danger, death, destruction, camaraderie, and many laughs. The film did well at the box office, shooting to number one, but critics didn’t love this one. 

It was a bit surprising then that the studio went ahead with a third Beverly Hills Cop movie in 1994. By this time, Eddie Murphy had gotten into the over-the-top silliness phase of his career and, at the same time, seemed to take himself too seriously. As a result, this third installment isn’t funny. 

In Beverly Hills Cop III, Axel is back in Beverly Hills, this time at a theme park, teamed up again with Rosewood and Taggart. It is the least interesting and least well-received of the three films, so fans of the first two are hoping for a return to Axel’s glory with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. As of now, we know the original team will return, and we’ll get roles by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon as Axel and his grown daughter head to Beverly Hills. 

It will be interesting to see if Eddie Murphy can return to fine form, as he has done in the last few years in films like Dolemite Is My Name and You People, or if he’ll end up over-the-top again like in Candy Cane Lane and the Coming to America sequel. We’ll have to stream the fourth Beverly Hills Cop film on Netflix in July to find out. 

You can stream Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix now and catch the second and third films on Paramount Plus or Amazon Prime.