Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F has landed a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes after its first reviews.
The fourth film in the franchise sees Eddie Murphy reprise his iconic role as wise-cracking police officer Axel Foley, who returns to Beverly Hills and reunites with Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) after his daughter Jane’s (Taylour Paige) life is threatened.
Following the positive first reactions from last month, the movie now sits at a critics’ rating of 68% on Rotten Tomatoes from 63 reviews.
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This has landed the film the second-highest score of the franchise, though it still doesn’t come close to the first instalment’s impressive score of 83%.
So it’s no surprise that, in Digital Spy’s review of the new sequel, we said it “fails to recapture the magic of the first movie”.
“It has plenty of fan service and, at best, will be a diverting Netflix watch for fans if you just want to see Axel do his thing again. If nothing else, it’s also not as bad as the third movie,” our review continues.
“But for the most part, all Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F does with its numerous callbacks is remind you that you could be watching the far superior first movie instead.”
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Here’s what some of the other critics have been saying:
Entertainment Weekly
“While Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F isn’t terrible, and it does have a few funny zings plus one decent chase scene, there’s not a molecule of originality on display. One can’t help but call it a missed opportunity.”
Independent
“The film has the confidence to poke fun at the franchise’s infamously bad third entry, yet comes to the table with nothing to prove, nothing to say, and nothing for Murphy to work with.”
Variety
“Plotted like a generic police-corruption thriller, lit with cruddy efficiency, pausing every 10 minutes or so for a ‘light’ moment, the movie is no Beverly Hills Cop. But it’s better than the ballistic noise orgy that was Beverly Hills Cop II (1986) or the clunky retro mess of Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), so I guess we should be grateful. And I suspect that a lot of viewers who grew up in the ’80s will be.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Murphy’s big personality makes Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F better than a lot of Netflix features and he seems at least slightly more engaged than he was in Beverly Hills Cop III. The movie also has real LA location shooting on its side. But that doesn’t stop it from feeling like something recycled out of 40-year-old ideas. If you’re fine with that, enjoy.”
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available to watch now on Netflix.
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