Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a 2024 American action comedy film directed by Mark Molloy and written by Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten from a story by Beall. Serving as the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series and a sequel to Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Eddie Murphy (who also produces) reprises his role as Axel Foley, with Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot reprising their roles from previous films in the franchise, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon star in new roles.

Axel Foley has returned to Beverly Hills after his daughter Jane and his old partner Billy Rosewood's lives are threatened. She and Axel team up with her ex-boyfriend Bobby Abbott and his old pals, John Taggart and Serge, to uncover a conspiracy.

The film entered development in the mid-1990s, under Murphy's production company. Various directors and screenwriters were attached over the years, including the filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, but the project had faced multiple issues and has undergone development hell. In April 2022, Molloy was hired to direct, with production beginning in California that August. It is also the first film in the series not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was released on the streaming service Netflix on July 3, 2024.

Plot
Thirty years after the Wonder World incident, Axel Foley remains a Detroit police detective under the supervision of his friend, Deputy Chief Jeffrey Friedman. In pursuit of a group of thieves looting the Detroit Red Wings's locker room during a game — Axel's ensuing chase causes costly damage to the city. Pressured by the police commissioner, Jeffrey announces his retirement. He suggests Axel reconnect with his estranged daughter Jane Saunders, a defense attorney in LA who is under the tutelage of Axel's friend Billy Rosewood, former Beverly Hills Police Officer turned PI. Rosewood also calls Axel, warning him Jane's life is in danger. He has been guiding Jane as she represents Enriquez — framed for the murder of undercover officer Copeland. After the call, Rosewood recovers evidence from the vehicle wherein the murder took place, but is kidnapped by the cartel.

Axel returns to Beverly Hills, concerned when Rosewood does not respond. In Rosewood's office, Axel finds a suspicious team searching for something. Axel removes a page out of Rosewood's agenda, then is chased by the group through Rodeo Drive and is arrested. Taken to the BHPD, Axel is met by Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane's ex-boyfriend, and reunites with his old friend, now police Chief John Taggart. Taggart excitedly introduces Axel to Captain Cade Grant, who he mentored as a young police cadet. Upon meeting Grant, Axel distrusts him as he is wearing excessively expensive items for a police salary. Jane bails out her father, but resists Axel's attempts to reconnect with her. It is revealed that, during an investigation of a Detroit mafia, Axel and his family were threatened. With Axel's assistance, Jane and her mother moved to Los Angeles decades ago, but the couple divorced and Axel stayed in Detroit. After convincing Jane to assist him in the case, they are ambushed on Wilshire Boulevard but saved by Abbott. Axel questions Taggart about his operations at the precinct, to which he vehemently defends Grant and his team, shuts out Axel and suspends Abbott.

Without support, the three recover a camera and communication signal jammer in the car where Copeland was murdered – deducing that Grant's team were looking for an SD card containing evidence. The address Axel found in Rosewood's agenda proves to be a mansion owned by Grant and used as a cartel money laundering corporation. Axel enlists his friend Serge's help to gain access to the house through a nearby showing. There, Axel finds more evidence that links to Copeland's murder. Grant is notified of their presence by surveillance. After arguing with Jane, Axel and Abbott interrogate Enriquez's uncle, Chalino. He tells them that Grant helps protect the cartel, and reveals a drug shipment is leaving the port that night. Abbott and Axel are framed and arrested for drug possession by Grant. Axel escapes custody and steals a helicopter with a reluctant Abbott's aid. They fly to the Beverly Hills Police Station where Grant shoots the rotor causing them to crash. Taggart witnesses the incident and is finally convinced of the corruption within his own team. He agrees to assist Jane with the pending investigation, but she is later kidnapped by Grant's thugs. Upon a tip from Chalino, Axel and Abbott go to the port where the cartel is operating. They find Rosewood being held there; they free him and are heading to retrieve the SD card Rosewood hid when Grant calls to announce he is holding Jane. With Jeffrey's aid, the trio triangulate her location as being at the cartel mansion.

Axel, Rosewood, and Abbott, soon joined by Taggart, engage in a firefight against Grant's cartel army. During the fight, Jane escapes captivity. Axel and Grant face-off, in which Axel is shot while protecting Jane, and Grant is shot in the head by Abbott. In the aftermath, Rosewood and Taggart make peace. With the recovered evidence, the charges against Enriquez are dropped. During his hospitalization, an emotional Jane and Axel make amends, with the possibility of him settling in Los Angeles. A few days later, Axel reunites with both Rosewood and Taggart, who were keeping watch that Axel complete his hospitalization, in which Axel successfully persuades the two to join him out for dinner.

Cast
In addition, Luis Guzmán and Damien Diaz make brief appearances as uncle Chalino Valdemoro and nephew Sam Enriquez, respectively, with the nephew's arrest setting the plot in motion. Mark Pellegrino appears as Cade Grant’s henchman Beck. Christopher McDonald makes a cameo as a golf player, a reference to his character in Happy Gilmore. Despite not appearing in the film, Gil Hill and Ronny Cox are seen in photographs as Inspector Douglas Todd who passed away in 2016 in real life and in the third movie and Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil, as the former actor turned down most movie projects due to his music career.

Murphy's real-life daughter Bria L. Murphy, appears as Renne Minnick, a meter maid officer who arrests Foley after he arrives in Beverly Hills.

Development
A fourth entry in the Beverly Hills Cop series was initially announced for release in the mid-1990s, under the production of Eddie Murphy's production company, Eddie Murphy Productions, before production fizzled out. In June 2001, it was announced that Jason Richman had been hired to write a treatment for Beverly Hills Cop IV after executives were impressed with his rewrites of Bad Company. The film was re-announced in 2006, when producer Jerry Bruckheimer announced his intention to resurrect the film series, though he eventually gave up his option to produce the film, passing production duties to Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

In September 2006, a script, which was an amalgamation of several earlier drafts, was presented to Murphy, who was reported to be "very happy" with the outline, described as an attempt to recapture the "feel of the original." Murphy admitted one of his motivations for making a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film was to make up for the fact that the third film was "horrible" and "he didn't want to leave (the series) like that."

In May 2008, Rush Hour director Brett Ratner was officially named director, promising the film would return under the series' standard "R" rating rather than as a rumored watered-down PG-13. In July 2008, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were hired as screenwriters to improve on the existing script and complete a new script under the working title Beverly Hills Cop 2009, which would see Foley return to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his friend Billy Rosewood.

The script was eventually rejected, leaving Ratner to work on a new idea. In an interview with Empire magazine, Ratner stated, "I'm working very hard on the fourth. It's very difficult, especially since there were three before. We're trying to figure out some important things, like, where do we start? Is Axel retired? Is he in Beverly Hills? Is he on vacation? Does Judge Reinhold return as the loveable Billy Rosewood? Many questions to figure out, but I'm hoping to have a script before film disappears from our existence."

Although Murphy committed to the project, it was unconfirmed whether the series' other principal actors, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox, and Bronson Pinchot, would return. Ratner stated in late 2009 that he was trying to convince Reinhold and Ashton to reprise their roles. Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" would definitely be returning for the proposed fourth installment, with Ratner quoted as saying, "It'll be back but it'll be a whole new interpretation." On November 15, 2010, Ratner stated in an interview with MTV that there was still a possibility that they would make a fourth film, but that it wouldn't be "anytime soon."

In October 2011, Murphy discussed a possible fourth film, stating, "They're not doing it. What I'm trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I'd do the pilot, show up here and there. None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn't be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong." In late summer 2013, after CBS decided to pass on the TV series, Paramount decided to move forward with the fourth film. On September 13, 2013, Jerry Bruckheimer stated he was again in talks to produce. On December 6, 2013, it was again announced that Murphy would reprise the role of Axel Foley, and Ratner would direct. Murphy was paid $15 million for his involvement. On May 2, 2014, Deadline announced that Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec would be writing the screenplay.

On June 27, 2014, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Murphy discussed returning to the edgier type of character of Axel Foley after years of making family-friendly films. "I haven't done a street guy, working class, a blue-collar character in ages so maybe it's like, 'Oh, wow, I didn't remember he was able to do that,'" Murphy said. According to studio reports on the film's plot, Foley would return to Detroit after leaving his job in Beverly Hills, and he will be faced with the coldest winter on record as he navigates the new rules and old enemies of one of America's most tenacious cities. The state of Michigan approved $13.5 million in film incentives, based on an estimated $56.6 million of filmmaker spending in the state. The film would be shot in and around Detroit and was estimated to provide jobs for 352 workers. The film was originally scheduled for a March 25, 2016 release, but on May 6, 2015, Paramount Pictures pulled Beverly Hills Cop IV from its release schedule due to script concerns. On June 14, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, directors of the Belgian drama Black, would direct the film. In September 2017, Arbi and Fallah stated their interest in casting Tom Hardy or Channing Tatum to star alongside Murphy.

In August 2019, the film was described as still in the developmental phase. On October 1, 2019, in an interview with Collider, Murphy announced that principal photography would begin after the filming of Coming 2 America. On November 14, 2019, Deadline Hollywood announced that Paramount Pictures made a one-time license deal, with an option for a sequel, with Netflix to develop the film. In May 2020, after delays in the filmmaking business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Arbi and Fallah confirmed they were still attached as co-directors and that a new screenwriter was working on a new script for the film. In April 2022, Arbi and Fallah left the film to focus on Batgirl (prior to its cancellation), with Mark Molloy hired to replace them. In the same article, Will Beall was announced to have written the script. In March 2023, Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten were given credit for the screenplay, with Beall also receiving story credit.

Casting
In August 2022, Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were cast in undisclosed roles. In the same month, Paul Reiser and John Ashton were confirmed to reprise their roles as Jeffrey Friedman and John Taggart, respectively, returning to the roles 37 years after their performances in Beverly Hills Cop II.

In September, Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot were confirmed to reprise their roles as Billy Rosewood and Serge, respectively, returning to the roles 30 years after their performances in Beverly Hills Cop III. That same month, it was announced that Kevin Bacon had joined the cast.

Filming
In February 2022, the film entered pre-production and received a California state tax credit of $16million. Principal photography began on August 29, 2022, in San Bernardino, along with other areas in California, for 58 days, to generate $78million in qualified spending in tax incentives. Additional filming occurred in Detroit in late November and early December 2022, although Murphy himself did not travel to the city. A December 3 NHL game between the Red Wings and the Vegas Golden Knights at Little Caesars Arena served as backdrop for the prologue, but the team locker room seen in the film was a set.

Post-production
Dan Lebental served as the editor.

Music
As the film reuses most of the music from the first two films, a compilation soundtrack was not commissioned, making it the first in the franchise to not have an album featuring the songs heard in the film unlike its predecessors. However, an original song "Here We Go!" was written for the film, by rapper-singer Lil Nas X and released as a single on June 28, 2024.

Lorne Balfe composed the film's score, which incorporates the "Axel F" theme composed by Harold Faltermeyer from the first film. An album containing the film's score was released through Netflix Music on July 3, 2024.

Release
The film was released on the streaming service Netflix on July 3, 2024. To promote the release of the film, a promo featuring the animated character Crazy Frog was released. Crazy Frog previously released a cover of the franchise's theme song, "Axel F", in 2005.

Audience viewership
After premiering on July 3 on Netflix, the film earned 41 million views in five days. It also had 80.7 million hours viewed. During its second week, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F remained the most watched film on Netflix, scoring 22.2 million views and 43.7 million hours viewers.

Critical response
Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film three out of four stars, stating that the film is "a shockingly entertaining diversion.... From the beginning, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is buoyant and playful in a way that legacy sequels usually aren't allowed to be, and that was arguably missing in the more leaden second and third films in this series."

Robert Daniels of The New York Times wrote, "While this installment isn't nearly as woeful as Beverly Hills Cop III, it doesn't have the charm or energy of the first two films either. It's a limp, desperate action comedy with few memorable moments."

Accolades
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F received nominations for Location Manager of the Year – Studio Feature and Location Team of the Year – Studio Feature at the 2023 California On Location Awards.

Future
On June 21, 2024, Eddie Murphy and Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that a fifth Beverly Hills Cop film was already in development.