Eddie Murphy isn’t finished yet – as he proved with his barnstormer of a performance as Blaxploitation pioneer Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name. But there’s something a bit tired and formulaic about this further go-around for his iconic Detroit cop Axel Foley from the Beverly Hills Cop action-comedy franchise which 40 years ago made Murphy an explosive Hollywood star – and whose catchy Axel F theme became an 80s anthem, duly revived here. He’s back for the fourth film, yet again leaving his Detroit turf to be a scruffy fish-out-of-water in the hilariously chi-chi world of Beverly Hills, yet again wryly noticing from the wheel of his car, on the way in, a montage of all the crazy California stuff, including a car registration plate reading: PRE-NUP.
Axel’s grownup lawyer daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) is in Beverly Hills, menaced by a conspiracy of corrupt cops, which may involve flinty-eyed, suit-wearing Captain Grant (Kevin Bacon) – and once again, among other franchise old-timers, Axel runs into his old BHPD cop pals Billy (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) who has supposedly retired and then unretired and come back as chief. Like the Detroit police department – and indeed the Miami police which employs bad boys Will Smith and Martin Lawrence – they have a laid-back attitude to retirement.
Murphy gets wacky chases in a snowplough, a traffic control vehicle, a golf cart and a helicopter and there are the time-honoured scenes where with brazen fast-talking pretence, he pranks various pompous or unhelpful club doormen and security gatekeepers into letting him in. It’s still funny when Murphy does his “white people” voice, once a staple of his standup days. But like Murphy’s 2021 sequel Coming 2 America, this feels a bit stale, and a mature guy like him can’t play the subversive anarchist comedy energy in the way he did. Murphy could still play comedy or drama with the right script, but this presumes a great deal on the audience’s brand loyalty.
• Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is on Netflix from 3 July.
