‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ review: Eddie Murphy returns in pointless sequel

nypost.com:

2021’s “Coming 2 America,” the misguided sequel to “Coming To America,” it’s understandable that viewers approach Eddie Murphy’s new “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” with some trepidation.Unfortunately, they’re right to.Netflix has, once again, gotten its greedy hands on a cherished title, tossed in some celebs and lazily devalued it into an algorithmic afterthought.Everything uniquely special and hilarious about the 1984 fish-out-of-water hit is gone, replaced by commodity streaming mush that looks like every other ho-hum action-comedy right now.Another mediocre nostalgia grab.More and more I ask, though: How nostalgic is it, really, to see our favorite characters return worn out and weary in forgettable films?

Who does that make feel good? Not me!Problem No. 1 is that Detroit police officer Axel Foley (Murphy) hasn’t changed enough since 1994’s dismal “Beverly Hills Cop III.”The only substantive difference is that he has an estranged adult daughter named Jane (Taylour Paige), a defense attorney in Beverly Hills, who gets into a dicey situation with a drug cartel.That’s why he leaves Michigan for the luxe California enclave, where director Mark Molloy stages overly wacky chase scenes (a helicopter flying in traffic) and beats tired gags to death.Axel desperately needed some new shtick. “Bad Boys For Life,” for example, pumped energy into a workhorse franchise by having Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s characters humorously wrestle with middle age.

That worked wonders.“Axel F” should have made a similar move with the title cop instead of choosing business as usual. The guy can’t still be an outsider in Beverly Hills.