Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)

Runtime: 118 minutes

Directed by: Mark Molloy... whoever the heck that is

Starring: The legacy characters, plus familiar faces like Kevin Bacon and some actors I was not familiar with

From: Netflix

This is yet another example of a modern movie that left me cold. It happens frequently, and is why I don't watch as many modern movies as most people do. It is rather disappointing that I was upset at what happened w/ the 4th Beverly Hills Cop flick. After all, rumors of a 4th one have been swirling around for MANY years-that tale had been around for so long, I didn't think it would finally happen. After viewing Axel F., I wish it wouldn't have happened.

The plot-I did not care for it at all. Axel has a daughter (Jane) who of course is a lawyer and of course is in trouble... of course they don't get along and of course Axel flies out to Beverly Hills because of course Billy goes missing and of course Jane is working with Billy... sigh. Then there is how blatantly obvious the villain is; I literally went “this person's a villain!” the first few seconds they appeared! It became insulting when this individual flagrantly flaunted their evil ways and a legacy supporting character looked REALLY bad for not realizing it. Boy, they did that supporting character real dirty. Axel's legacy wasn't destroyed too badly yet I still did not need to see family drama w/ a daughter who unfortunately came off as insufferable to me.

The other modern bits I did not care for:

* The constant usage of foul language. There was a stretch where it was especially bad and it especially tried my patience.

* Bad modern humor. There needed to be way less of that and way more of classic Axel Foley. Don't get me started on that Ashley character, as minor as she was.

* Thank goodness some legacy songs were heard, as the modern songs made in the past few years were all atrocious. Truthfully, modern music is WAY worse than modern movies; I haven't listened to the top 40 in YEARS as apparently it's all terrible Autotuned garbage. For certain, those tracks in this film were just travesties and made me wish for more Glenn Frey or The Pointer Sisters.

* One trope I've never mentioned in a review before but is a major problem now: a character clarifying who someone else is referring to when it is blatantly obvious and was not needed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who I guess was OK here) told the audience that someone was referring to Billy Rosewood... no s***, Sherlock! It really isn't a surprise this would happen in a Netflix Original Movie.

* Action that was not filmed in a memorable or exciting fashion. Maybe people are too lazy to do it well now, or maybe it wasn't the best idea to have a total unknown sit in the director's chair when the first three were directed by well-known figures who had success before and after their time in the seat.

Kevin Bacon... he doesn't do much with such a dumb role. Taggart and Rosewood were apparently too old for this s*** given how much time they have on screen. A character actor's cameo was nice because it wasn't spoiled for me beforehand.

I hate having to post a crabby review on the 4th of July; yet, I was taken aback by how much I didn't like this film. If I have to give positives—well, Foley felt more like himself than in the last installment, and likely this was at least better than III... low bar that it is to hurdle over. The synthwave version of the original Harold Faltermeyer score was fine. Otherwise, hopefully people have a higher tolerance for modern motion pictures than I do and can get more out of this legacy sequel than I did.