Film: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton
Director: Mark Molloy
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 118 min

The 1984 release, Beverly Hills Cop was a landmark film because it helped establish Eddie Murphy as a bankable star, had a peppy pop song-laden soundtrack, and still has the power to draw you into its narrative exploits. This fourth film in the Beverly Hills Cop series starring Eddie Murphy, comes 40 years after his first outing. The third sequel was released in 1994 so it was about time for the series to be resurrected. Most of the characters from the original movie are back in action. And of course they are aged and much slower on the action but that hasn’t stopped them from doing what they do best. Taggart, Rosewood, an unrecognizable Jeffrey and Serge are all there.

Axel F is a continuation of sorts to the third movie. The style is the same and the remixed music including songs like ‘The Heat is on’, ‘Hot in the city’, ‘Neutron dance’,’family affair’, ‘Oh here we go,’ ‘ Shakedown’, playing in the background gets you tripping on sheer nostalgia. Composer Lorne Balfe manages to get the tone and tenor of the past in tune with the present. Her musical nod to Harold Faltermeyer (the original’s composer) is faultless. This one is not entirely an action film either, there’s plenty of humor in it. And Eddie Murphy hasn’t lost any of his glib-talking, voluble charm.