Netflix Action Comedy Brings Back World’s Worst Cop

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F takes place thirty years after the previous movie. Axel Foley remains a detective for the Detroit police force but when a pursuit goes wrong and significant damage is caused, Eddie Murphy’s character is suggested to go down a different road…connecting with his estranged daughter.

For the rest of the movie, the fate of his daughter, Jane, (Taylour Paige) rests in his hands as he must fight to save her and their relationship.

Making his feature film directorial debut, Mark Molloy headed Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Molloy replaced well-known directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, known for the Bad Boys franchise, due to the pair wanting to focus on their unreleased DC superhero film, Batgirl. Despite primarily being a director for commercials, Molloy was able to exceed expectations and truly stepped up to the plate.

To the audience’s excitement, Eddie Murphy is not the only actor reprising his original Beverly Hills Cop role; Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot also agreed to revisit the film. Molloy decided to bring some new names to the franchise, such as actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon. 

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. On June 21, 2024, Eddie Murphy and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) let audiences know that a fifth would soon be in production as well.

While fans still regard the first installment, released in 1984, as the best of the bunch, many are just glad to see Axel F and his crew still kicking it. Though many were concerned that at Murphy’s age, he wouldn’t be able to bring the charisma and energy that his 23-year-old self did in the original, nerves were quelled as soon as he appeared on the screen. 

Premiering on Netflix on July 3, 2024, the film soon reached popularity, earning over 41 million views in only five days. In its second week on the platform, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F became Netflix’s most watched film. While it wasn’t seen as a groundbreaking film by critics, it still received okay ratings. The film currently has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 67 percent with an audience score of 78 percent.

Jen Chaney, a critic for New York Magazine/Vulture, wrote, “Despite its reliance on the familiar, Axel F actually is largely a good time, so breezy and insistent on not taking itself too seriously that you can’t even get mad when the dialogue occasionally sounds like it got pumped out by ChatGPT.” 

For those who haven’t yet watched Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, it is available to stream, and only available to stream, on Netflix. While a fifth installation for the franchise has already been teased, with the release of the fourth being so fresh, it wouldn’t be surprising if it takes a bit for us to hear anything.

The rest of the franchise has also been made readily available on Netflix, allowing new fans to catch up with Axel F’s antics before watching the most recent film.