Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – Eddie Murphy reboot delivers 'hit of nostalgia'

"It's been 40 years since Eddie Murphy first played detective Axel Foley" in the hit action-comedy "Beverly Hills Cop", said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman. An "amped-up sequel" smashed box-office records in its opening weekend in 1987, "then 1994's 'Beverly Hills Cop III' suggested the franchise had run its course".

Yet now it's back – and for a man now in his early 60s, Murphy is in pretty good shape, so seeing him "running and gunning" once again isn't as jarring as it might have been. 

Judge Reinhold is among the other returnees from the original cast; new recruits include Taylour Paige, playing Axel's attorney's daughter Jane, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a good-natured detective. 

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In this outing, Foley travels from his native Detroit to La La Land to help Jane out when she gets into trouble while trying to expose a corrupt cop. The film is really "just about delivering a hit of nostalgia", and to this end, debut director Mark Molloy "handles everything with workmanlike proficiency": there is hardly a scene that doesn't make a reference to the first two films. 

When I heard the first strains of the "instantly recognisable theme tune", and caught a glimpse of our "baseball-jacketed" hero, I was inclined to feel fondly of this reboot, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. "But I struggled to hold on to that critical benevolence." 

Yes, some of the action sequences are "excellent", and the film has funny moments, but it all relies far too heavily on Murphy and the sheer force of his "charisma". 

It struck me as "a bit tired and formulaic", said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. With the right script, Murphy can still turn in barnstorming performances; but this stale film "presumes a great deal on the audience's brand loyalty."