GENRE: Action Comedy
RATING: R for language, violence and brief drug use
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 58 minutes
PLATFORM: Netflix
STARRING: Eddie Murphy (48 Hours, Shrek, Coming to America, SNL)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, Snowden); Taylour Paige (Hit the Floor)
DIRECTOR: Mark Molloy (newcomer)
WRITERS: Will Beall (Aquaman, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Justice League);
Tom Gormican & Kevin Etten (Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent)
PLOT: Axel returns to Beverly Hills when his daughter’s life is threatened
FULL DISCLOSURE: Loved the first two films but not the third.
STORY STUFF: All aboard the nostalgia train. Straight up pandering to those who loved the first two Beverly Hills Cop films. Being the intended audience, I’m fine with it. I recognize the cheapness but embrace it anyway as I get older. While I didn’t mind the family reason for Axel to return to Beverly Hills, they spent way too long on that part of the story. We get it, your daughter is mad at you. The case is okay but the imprisoned victim gets barely any screen time so I didn’t find myself caring about him all that much. It’s all about Axel reconnecting with people from his past. And again, I’m okay with that.
ACTING STUFF: Murphy gets lots of opportunities to shine: he has some great one-liners and fast talking shenanigans. You can tell that he’s not a big runner or action star anymore. He gets to drive weird vehicles now and wreck stuff while wincing at the destruction. Judge Reinhold and John Ashton return as Rosewood and Taggart and boy, do they look old. They each get some fun stuff with Murphy. The film also brings back Paul Reiser in the thankless role of Jeffrey and Bronson Pinchot is back to ham it up like the old days. You can tell that Kevin Bacon is having fun playing the bad guy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt holds his own as the straight-laced cop forced to work with Axel. I really enjoyed Nasim Pedrad as a ditzy real estate agent. I was not a fan of Paige as Axel’s daughter – she is quite the pill. I wish they could have given her a different attitude to play.
ARTISTIC STUFF: Talk about nostalgic – there are a number of songs from the first couple films sprinkled throughout the film like “The Heat is On”, “Shakedown” and “Neutron Dance”. A bunch of the driving scenes are reminiscent of the first action set piece. There is nothing spectacular about the action but it was still fun to watch. A funny nitpick is when Axel is shown his file and it contains production stills from the earlier films. Who took these photos? Was there a cop taking photos of Axel and Rosewood pointing their guns at bad guys at Maitland’s house? Strange.
VERDICT:
Four stars out of five
SEE IT IF:
You grew up with Beverly Hills Cop.
UPCOMING REVIEW: Twisters
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