My Review of "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F"

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F recently came out this week and people on the internet are all talking about it. I wasn't sure why but this type of hype got me interested in watching it. Pleasantly, this wasn't the terrible sequel that we thought it was going to be. It was quite competent and it didn't feel like it was a straight to home video outing.

The movie starts out with Axel in Detroit. I barely remember the first few movies because they were so long ago but I kind of remember Axel. From what I remember he still feels like the same character that he was so many years ago. He's constantly trying to scheme and lie to get his way and that's what he does in this movie. Of course he's still the good guy because he's trying to do it for justice of the law.

This first situation that Axel gets into is totally outrageous and really fun. It's very much a popcorn movie where you have to throw out your sense of logic out the window to enjoy this movie. The amount of destruction and carelessness that is caused just to apprehend the criminals is hilariously ridiculous. It's so over the top that you have a sense of comedy at how absurd the situation is.

This movie will continue to one up itself with the amount of crazy scenarios and ludicrous destruction upon the city. They play with some of the backstories of each of the characters to build up each of the crazy scenes they're going to be placed into. That's part of the fun with this because you kind of know but ignore that you know what's going to happen next.

The plot for this movie surrounds Axel's estranged daughter, Jane, in Beverly Hills. She's a lawyer that's trying to defend an innocent person in prison. Her client has been framed to aid some underhanded cops that are dealing from the inside. Unfortunately for Jane, she's flying too close to the sun and the dirty cops start to target her. Luckily for Jane, Foley still has some friends in Beverly Hills that have been looking out for her.

When Foley discovers that Jane is in danger he quickly boards a plane to Beverly Hills to protect his daughter. Foley being foley, he gets caught up in the case of the dirty cops and Jane soon misinterprets his purpose for being in Beverly Hills.

This is a very simple story that we can all follow and it fits the branding of the movie franchise. I thought that they added a lot of nice touches to please the fans of the franchise for example the music is brought back from the 80s, we have the cast from the previous movies back into this movie, there are also a lot of familiar hijinks in this movie that are totally on brand with the franchise.

The production level of this movie are surprisingly high. There are the usual CGI effects that do seem like they're starting to blend in a lot better. We also have a lot of practical stunt work that was pretty nice to see. With the over the top action sequences this was really nice to see and it was a nod at the older movies to make the movie feel consistent with the others.

Overall, this movie was a really good time. If you liked the previous movies, I'm sure you'll really enjoy this one. It is really a blast from the past type of movie. I'm not sure how well this movie will sit with this next generation of movie goers but at least it's part of the Netflix package. It's really convenient to watch it. I have to give this one a 6.5 out of 10. Good for a remake but nothing earth shattering.