Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F teaser trailer is a triumphant return for Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F premieres on Netflix in summer 2024
Film News Eddie Murphy
“They love me in Beverly Hills,” Axel Foley declares confidently in the new trailer for the fourth installment of Beverly Hills Cop, and it’s true. People still love Eddie Murphy, and they love Beverly Hills Cop. So it only makes sense for the comedian to return to his old stomping ground, though this time at a new home: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is coming in summer 2024 on Netflix.
The new trailer leans into old rhythms, bringing back familiar friends as well as introducing new faces. “Detective Axel Foley (Murphy) is back on the beat in Beverly Hills,” reads the streamer’s synopsis for the film. “After his daughter Jane’s (Taylour Paige) life is threatened, she and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) to turn up the heat and uncover a conspiracy.”
Paul Reiser also returns as Jeffrey Friedman, who’s checking in on Axel from Detroit, while in California he’ll have to contend with Captain Cade Grant, played by Kevin Bacon. Gordon-Leavitt, meanwhile, seems to be an enthusiastic new partner for Murphy, posting on Twitter/X ahead of the teaser, “I’ve played a Gotham cop, a NOLA cop, now a Beverly Hills Cop opposite this GOAT.”
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F lands on Netflix almost exactly 40 years after the premiere of the original film, but Murphy “still has the twinkle in his eye” that brings Axel to life, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer tells the streamer’s site Tudum. Plus, Beverly Hills still has enough shine to make Axel’s return feel fresh, even if he’s experienced it a few times now, director Mark Molloy assures. “As we were scouting going from Detroit to Beverly Hills, the cultural contrast that made Axel a fish out of water in the eighties still is so vivid. They might just be the two most opposite places in America,” he says.
And then of course there’s the fact that Eddie Murphy is a living comedic legend. “Some of the funniest moments in Axel F are when Eddie’s improvising,” Molloy shares. “For me, a big part of my job was to create the right environment, cast the right people around Eddie to allow him to do what he does best.”
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The last ten seconds put a smile on my face that will last all day !
i wonder how much digital de-aging is in this
I Googled the cast, Eddie is 62, Judge is 66, John is 72. They looked good on current images, so maybe no digital de-aging. Hard to tell watching the trailer here though.
honestly i was prompted by the initial image in the article. that looks cleaned up to me but whatever, its the norm.
I see what you mean, he looks shopped in or they used a low-cost photo-editor to make him “pop”.
John is 75. He was only 36 when the first BHC came out, but he looked like he was in his mid 50’s!
People in their 30s looked hell of old in the 80s. lol
John Ashton was born in 1948 so he is 75 now. He was only 36 when the first one came out in 1984. I would have said he was 50 then.
i think murphy’s hair is completely drawn on.
I was wondering the same thing. It seems like a recent-ish trend in Hollywood to not just digitally de-age for flashbacks, but just to make older actors look young on screen the whole time. Sometimes it looks like a bad TikTok filter.
It’s set in the modern world, in theory there’s no need to digitally de-age anyone, other than vanity. Murphy’s only 62 and seems to be ageing well, from what I’ve seen.
maybe not “de-age” but clean off wrinkles and such. time/setting is irrelevant. studios and stars are pretty vain, even the ones we like.
Not with Eddie. He’s botoxed and hair implanted to the hilt.
this looks about 10x better than i expected, if it clears the low bar of 3 i’ll be happy.
That is a pretty low bar… but, agreed.
Dammit, now the weird facial fillers have gotten Reinhold! Note to world: IT MAKES YOU LOOK FREAKY, NOT YOUNGER.I’ll watch this for sure though.
This til the end of time. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s face in Hateful Eight vs. whatever is going on with it on Fargo right now. Sigh.
I assumed those were prosthetics in Fargo, to make her look freaky-scary on purpose. I mean, her face doesn’t look puffy or full of fillers like Reinhold – her skin looks stretched taut.
The one who kills me is Courtney Cox. Hopefully she’ll be a cautionary tale for others considering this.
Now is the time for all good people to unite and agree that DEATH BECOMES HER was prophecy.
Scream 5 and 6 I was like “Courtney, what the hell did you do?!”
Parts of JJL’s face look blurred to me in a lot of Fargo. It’s very weird.
She can only talk out of one side of her face too.
Don’t judge Reinhold!
Hey, I said I was going to see it! Can’t guarantee I won’t make a bit of an involuntary cringe face when Reinhold’s on screen though. Maybe the trailer scene is just unflattering lighting from the dash.
Bit of a close talker.
I feel like we don’t talk about Beverly Hills Cop enough in terms of series that went from awesome to terrible. The first movie is a stone classic, the second is mediocre 80s excess and the third is about as awful as any cash-in sequel you’ll ever see.
I agree overall, though I think the second one is above average, though obviously a GIGANTIC step down from the original. But my god, that third movie… I’ve watched it multiple times, hoping each time, “Maybe it’s not as bad as I remembered” and then… oh. Oh, it’s just as bad, if not worse.
2 was a very very very 80’s sequel. I remember enjoying it but never revisiting it. My only memories of it are Brigitte Neilsen being evil and lots of shattering glass.
2 is a Tony Scott masterpiece. “Do you like rap music?!”
Tony Scott Tony Scotting.
We also don’t talk about why poor Lisa Eilbacher is the only person phased out after the first one.
it basically tells the story of murphy’s career, too. first movie is a 1982 lightning rod that introduces a new movie star, second one is coasting on his charm but he IS still charming, then by 1994 he’s completely over it and it shows. if you look at his 90s output (with the exception of boomerang) he has no idea what he’s doing until nutty professor, which marks his career change into family films.
You’re looking past Bowfinger, which was fantastic.
it’s obviously not a perfect analogy, but it’s also not like bowfinger (which i adore) represents any kind of trend in his career. except maybe that he’ll do an outlier every 5-10 years (bowfinger, dreamgirls, tower heist, dolemite)
Comedies are hit and miss in general, though, and he’s a comic actor. There aren’t many comic actors who have unqualified hit after unqualified hit for decades, and even his flubs have their fans.
He’s still seems to have no idea what he’s doing and floats around. He tried to go back to action films and didn’t work (Metro, Showtime) sci-fi and didn’t work (Pluto Nash), Oscar bait and didn’t work (Dreamgirls, Dolemite, Mr. Church), cartoon voice work but stopped doing it (Shrek, Mulan). Now his newest phase seems to be jumping in on the reboot/nostalgia wagon for his past successful movies.
I think it’s not talked about because everyone knew the third one would be a terrible cash grab and nobody pretended it would be anything else. It’s one of those where you watch the first one and forget the third one exists. The second one isn’t so bad. It has a few great jokes.
The third one was notoriously contentious behind the scenes because Eddie wanted to steer the movie in a more dramatic direction to demonstrate his range as more than just a funny guy.
So everybody but him knew it was a terrible cash grab. lol
Pretty much!
Yeah, exactly what I was going to say – he wanted to transition to being a full action star, and BHCIII was definitely more action than funny. Big misfire.
I keep forgetting there even was a third film. I’m pretty sure I never saw it.
series that went from awesome to terrible I just realized that, for some reason, I’ve never seen the sequels to Beverly Hills Cop – saw the first movie in the theater, seen it several times since. It holds up like crazy and is still very enjoyable.So I think this will work for me – I’ll be able to consider it the only sequel to a really fun movie.
Same trajectory as the Rambo franchise – an 80s story
And the Lethal Weapon movies.
You’ll find plenty of people who will fight you on Lethal Weapon 2. It’s definitely the most memorable of the series.
it’s a very different movie than 1 but lethal weapon 2 is by far my favorite. in fact, the characters’ evolution and their relationship progressing from the first to the second is a big reason i love it.
Oh, 2 is great… I meant 3 and ESPECIALLY 4. Speaking of 80s/90s trajectories, they took a surprisingly amusing part of a movie–Pesci–and ran it into the ground for two more movies.
The first was absolute lightning in a bottle. Just so well put together and just pure fun. You can tell that some of the funniest moments are pure Murphy improv.Hilariously, his ‘dating game’ song scene has become a regular thing with me to start humming the track whenever I am waiting for something with someone.The second did have its moments though….and Brigitte Neilsen’s legs.
I liked Part 2 (as I saw it in the theater like part 1) but yes Part 3 was the Jaws 3d moment. Just shit.
It went on a pure downward vector like Jaws, but that’s easier to do without a dead cat bounce when there’s only three movies. We’ll see how this one fares!
I honestly don’t know if I never saw the third movie or if I blocked it out. It sounds like I should not try to remedy that.
I feel like Michael Bay went to see BHC2 and was like, “Holy shit, that’s my style!” and it all went out of control from there.
I’m having a similar reaction to this that I did the first trailer for Dial of Destiny. I don’t expect it to be as good as the first one, as long as it’s not as bad as the last one.
Did DoD deliver?
Not really.
By those criteria, yes. There’s no question that it’s the fourth best, but it’s much, much closer to third place than it is to fifth. The magical item works in a way that fits Indy’s world and avoids going off the rails, which it could easily have done.And anyone who says “Boo, they’re replacing Indy with a girl!” came to it with very wrong preconceptions and then didn’t pay attention to the plot or her arc.
Don’t let the toxic youtuber asshats ruin the fun. Dial of Destiny certainly won’t go down as a classic, but I had a blast with it and it’s at least a very respectable final chapter for my favorite cinematic character of all time.Thank goodness they let him go out on a high, or at least high-ish, note.
That’s somewhat encouraging. I hadn’t seen it because the response seemed to be general apathy, but at least it wasn’t hostility like to the last one. May as well give it a shot I suppose.
It has elements that I didn’t like — mostly the precocious kid. But it’s worth a watch. I’ll be happy to sit and watch it again once I catch up on some other stuff.For context: I consider Raiders a perfect movie; have warmed to Temple after not caring for it for most of my life; love Crusade as the funniest and warmest of the series; and of course I hated Skull.
That’s pretty much my series synopsis. Crusade is barely behind Raiders for me, if only because the first was such a blast of creativity and Crusade followed the tracks it already laid.
I dunno, I’d say it’s far closer to fifth than third. Crystal Skull has its moments, the only really memorable part of Dial is the last 20 or so minutes, everything else is rote and pretty bland. As bad as Crystal Skull is, at least it’s not boring.
Looks like even Serj (Serge?) is back. Bronson Pinchot always classes the place up.
Time to do the Dance of Joy.
I was listening to the Alien: Infiltrator audiobook over the summer, and thought the narrator was excellent. Looked up the name – “Bronson Pinchot.” Thought noooooo, that can’t be him, can it?And damned if it wasn’t Cousin Balki.
Get the fuck out of here!
No. I can not!
Awkwhel Foley
The absolute Bronson Pinchot erasure in this write-up has NOT gone unnoticed.
Discovering via this trailer that John Ashton is not dead has me immediately asking why he was never part of Breaking Bad. Like, as Hank’s dad, maybe? That man is a wasted treasure.
Now that the kids are old enough Midnight Run is definitely going to be in the family movie rotation this holiday season.Smoking or non?Take a wild guess.
He’s still holding out for that Gerald Ford biopic.
I guess I’m in the minority, but this looks awful to me.Axel Foley was a fun character because he got by using just his “street smarts”, in a place where those were not important. It was an action movie, but all the action consisted of him hanging on for dear life, or getting the crap kicked out of him. He used his cleverness and persistence to overcome his limitations.In this he looks like a generic action hero.
Perhaps the teaser is selling it short.
Yeah this kind of public mayhem and damage is not something that gets overlooked just because you catch the bad guy.
I’d watch Eddie Murphy do a dramatic reading of the Yellow Pages, but… after 40 years, shouldn’t Axel Foley be watching from either a window office high in police headquarters or a Winnebago as his son chases crooks?
Axel strikes me as a character who has so much fun on the job that he would do it until he body literally couldn’t do it anymore.
He’s very similar to Maverick – either refuses promotion or gets into enough trouble to avoid it, just so he can stay in the action.
Yeah, Axel isn’t going to become a Sergeant or Captain in the police (it seems from the trailer that his former partner might be the new Captain) — he wouldn’t want it, and is too much trouble to get it anyway.
Reminds me of the advice Admiral Kirk gave Captain Picard in Star Trek: Generations:“Don’t let them promote you. Don’t let them transfer you. Don’t let them do *anything* that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you’re there… you can make a difference.”Same reason a lot of us older Corner Marshals in auto racing don’t want to be promoted to Flag Chief. We want to stay where the action is as long as your body allows – and keep making a difference.
It does help solve the Captain Kirk problem. Kirk as an admiral flying a desk isn’t a particularly compelling use of the character, so they had to figure out a way to make him the captain of a ship, usually (with the exception of STIV until the very end) the Enterprise for every TOS film.
Are you saying he’s getting to old for this shit?
Ageism? From you? Has the whole world gone mad??
Not only Axel, but Taggart and Rosewood both appear to be working the same beat, despite LAPD officers being able to legally retire AT FIFTY. Taggart is 75, he could have retired a quarter century ago!
after 40 yearsAnd just like that, I feel ancient.
Maybe that’ll happen when Murphy himself shows any sign of aging. I swear, sometimes I think he doesn’t look a day older than he did in 1985. It’s starting to get a little creepy.
It’s the Die Hard syndrome.
There Is no doubt that Kevin Bacon Is corrupt In this show.
Yep. Totally the dude in that mask.
That’s typecasting, and that’s wrong.Completely accurate, but wrong.
None!
The third movie was basically “Beverly Hills Cop: Pluto Nash”, so this MUST be better.
Looks good, looking forward to it and we can pretend part 3 never happend!
Like that Highlander 2 movie that totally never happened?
It. Didn’t. Happen.
The Planet Zeist died on its way back to itself.
I pretend Halloween 5-6 and Halloween Resurrection never happened! So I’m good with this!
Already have to do that with three of the Die Hards…
There were six Die Hards?( Vengeance is the last good Die Hard Movie , unless you count 16 blocks as a Die hard movie (its not but it feels like one , and is a nice ending to the series))
Nah, As I said, there were two Die Hards. Vengeance is well made, and starts brilliantly. But once you know the bomb in the school is a fake, any rewatch has a 45 minutes lump in the middle of it with no tension or stakes whatsoever. McClane running around quipping to corpses is also more weird than anything else.
When we get to the line “I know the man, I know the family” I turn it off. So stupid.
I know a lot of people prefer to ignore Douglas Adams’s last HGttG book, but honestly I think it’s an overreaction. Sure, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is quite a bit different from the preceding trilogy, to the point it feels almost like a novel-length postscript rather than a full-fledged continuation, but it’s a fun read that fits in that universe, and gives the story an upbeat ending cut with Adams’s typical trenchant humor. It’s a better conclusion than most genre trilogies get.
Finally some “Wears the same jacket since the 80’s” representation!
Yes, he’s part of our Member’s Only club!
What kind of de-aging nonsense are they pulling to where Murphy looks younger now than he did 30 years ago when III came out? Or is he just aging that well?
Definitely has some Jalen Rose hair nonsense going on, otherwise he has just looked pretty good for a long time.
Axel F is not only Eddie Murphy’s character but it’s also the name of the info dump music they use in the first movie.Speaking of, that’s what they really need to aim for quality wise. The first one was mostly well received but from 2 onward it’s been substantially diminishing returns.
Okay I am skeptical of a new Beverly Hills Cop, especially considering that the series is only 1 for 3, but, ngl the “how many people have you pissed off” exchange really got me“Is it that high up? Wow..” is such an excellent Eddie Murphy read
I feel like I just read a press release.
Will this quell the omnipresence of the stupid Crazy Frog version of the Axel F theme or revitalize it?
We live in the worst possible timeline, so it’ll not only revitalize it, but whoever owns the rights will also release a new autotuned version with AI-generated animation for the video.
Missed opportunity to call this “Beverly Hills Cop : Axel AF”
Ha!
I have re-watched Eddie Murphy’s elf sketch from SNL three times in the past month just to get a dose of Eddie at peak silliness. While the Beverly Hills Cop sequels were pretty lousy, am I stupid to be cautiously optimistic about this?
Eddie seems back closer to the way people remember him from earlier in his career, so I’m going with ‘yes’ on the optimism. As long as he doesn’t turn up in a fat suit or some shit playing another role in the movie I’ll be satisfied.Every year on the first day of summer I send around the Ice Cream! clip to start things off the right way.
I always find myself re-watching the Home for the Holidays sketch and monologue from that episode. Hard to believe it’s been 4 years since he was on.
I’ll have to rewatch that one! The North Pole one is the one burned into my brain from that episode, though.
I’ll never be able to read/hear Judge Reinhold without thinking “MOCK TRIAL!”
I’m the same with “My name is Judge!”
“Judge! My name.”
And since when is a TRAILER “a triumphant return”? It might be an absolutely terrible movie and considering Murphy’s track record I bet it is.
To what is this pertaining?
this should be the 10th movie by now.Axel should be retired from the Detroit PD and long since relocated to Beverly Hills to be a teacher in criminal justice at Beverly Hills Community College (yes, that’s a thing… right?) when a new Big Crime happens and Axel has no choice but to engage, rules and protocols and tailpipes be darned. His honorary reserve deputy status bestowed upon him by Rosewood hasn’t technically expired yet.
Axel Foley clearly needed to be training the next generation of Beverly Hills Cops. Then, when they flunk out, he shows them how its done.
How is a trailer a “triumphant return”?
It’s interesting how many 80s-90s movie trilogies follow that thematic arc, isn’t it?First film: an exciting, quirky thriller with plenty of humor and a strong message about societySecond film: the same characters having an absurdly over-the-top action adventure with an almost incomprehensible amount of violence and nothing to really sayThird film: low budget banality, usually toned way down to bring in those family dollars