The Murphy Monday Podcast
The Murphy Monday Podcast
Axel F... A Non Spoiler Review
Next, we review the latest installment, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, celebrating Eddie Murphy's timeless charm as Axel Foley. From the iconic opening notes of "The Heat Is On" to Axel's classic jacket and Detroit scenes, the film masterfully balances nostalgia with fresh elements. While we appreciate its authentic feel, we critique its occasional over-reliance on nostalgic moments. The storyline, centered around Axel protecting his daughter, adds a grounded touch, making it a worthy addition to the franchise despite some predictable elements.
Lastly, we analyze the evolution of the Beverly Hills Cop series, particularly the shift in tone seen in the third installment. We imagine an exhilarating crossover between Beverly Hills Cop and Bad Boys, picturing a dynamic team-up of Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, and Will Smith. While we acknowledge the mixed critical reception of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, we argue that the film provides enough humor and action to entertain. The return of Eddie Murphy alone injects fresh energy into the franchise, proving that it still has plenty of life left.
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So hey, was it difficult making this. Uh Was what difficult.
Speaker 2:The name change. I noticed you changed your name to Saunders. Was that an easy transition? Yeah, isn't this cool as Foley though Foley makes me smile when I say it. Look, it's Foley. No, is there more?
Speaker 1:Foley just sounds strong, it's punchier and has a crispier thing to it Foley Jane. Foley Jane Saunders. Excuse me, how do you spell your name?
Speaker 2:S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S Saunders.
Speaker 4:Previously, previously, previously.
Speaker 5:On the Murphy Monday podcast and and I get it what they were trying to do is make eddie murphy a fish out of water, which worked. That's why the first movie worked. He was. He was out of his element. You know, the problem is the problem with now. If we try to do a beverly hills cop movie today, we already know what's going on in beverly hills. Like in the 80s, we didn't know, we didn't know, we didn't have internet, we didn't have, like you know, a newspaper from Beverly Hills, we didn't know what was going on, so it was easier to be a fish out of water. Now the pond is so big that we're like I don't understand how he can manage here If you're talking about a future Beverly Hills cop thing.
Speaker 6:but if you're doing it now, like I think, it wouldn't actually be having it Like it, shouldn't he already?
Speaker 3:be like captain by now. Like aren't we? If he's still a detective, we're going to have real problems, right?
Speaker 6:Well, I think my argument is that I think you're right Is that they can't do the same thing.
Speaker 5:I got one His. His son moved to beverly hills to become a police officer. Yes, it's, it's killed in the line of duty. Eddie murphy is now a retired police officer living in detroit. Finds out his son is killed. Goes out there to find out who murdered his son that's possible.
Speaker 6:Pretty good one, I. I kind of like where nigel was going with it. Maybe, maybe bever Beverly Hills Cop is when the repercussions of all the stuff of him being a wild man for three movies is that he is retired and nobody helps him. They couldn't promote him because they couldn't explain giving a promotion to this dude who just broke the law all the time and just did whatever he wanted.
Speaker 1:Well, I wasn't always a police officer Fractured a law or two when I was a kid.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so they forced him to retire and he's been somewhere and some shit goes down. He's got to come out of retirement, but it's a different police force and everybody doesn't want to help him because he's this wild and nobody knows who he is. Think about it Everybody's probably dead by now.
Speaker 5:In my mind. Ogamill's dead in my mind, so you know.
Speaker 2:I think Haxel F is actually going to be good it has to be, but I think it's like, I don't think that it's going to be the funniest number one. I don't think that it's going to wow us, but I do think that the nostalgia factor, kind of like with the Come to America, the nostalgia factor would make us say, okay, this is a decent movie. You know, it will make us feel like, okay, taggart's in it. Alright, Rosewood is in it. Okay, cool, who else is in it? Bronson Pinchot, I don't know. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that he is in it. Okay, cool, who else is in it? Bronson Pinchot, like I don't know. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that he's in it.
Speaker 7:Even if it's too second-rate, like that's all I need, and sometimes you don't gotta reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 2:What would make you say okay, I'm okay with this movie?
Speaker 7:I would say that it would just have to make sense in the sense of like a reason why he would come back to beverly hills, uh, a reason why he would have to go looking for whomever he's looking for, um, to track down with, you know, with the help of his buddy. I want to see like as many people as they can bring back that is alive or that is able to do it. Like I said, I don't have any expectations. As long as they cover those grounds, I get to see the actors. That was in the previous movies. They have some of the throwbacks from other movies and the plot is decent. I'm okay.
Speaker 2:We don't want it to be corny. As long as it doesn't do that, as long as it doesn't suck, I'm happy Like, you ain't got to do nothing else, you just got to just not make it suck. You know there's a difference between House Party and House Party 3 and House Party the remake.
Speaker 1:We've been waiting for a long time.
Speaker 5:Yes, we've been waiting for a long, long time. Good morning my neighbor Jesus.
Speaker 2:Christ, this is becoming very irritating. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Murphy Monday podcast, the only podcast that celebrates the life and career of Eddie Murphy. I'm your host, nigel A Fullerton, this week. Beverly Hills Cop Axl F is a 2024 American action film directed by Mark Malloy, serving as the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop series and a sequel to Beverly Hills Cop 3. Eddie Murphy reprises his role as Axl Foley, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt, taylor Page and Kevin Bacon star in new roles. Axl Foley has returned to Beverly Hills after his daughter Jane and his old partner Billy Rosewood's lives are threatened. She and Axl team up with her ex-boyfriend Bobby Abbott and his old pal John Taggart to uncover a conspiracy.
Speaker 2:What I wanted to do is just give a non-spoiler review before I do the actual Beverly Hills Cop Axl F episode, because I know a lot of you haven't seen it. You know, work, whatever. Like I know it was 4th of July weekend, like you guys were hanging out. I get it. I get it, but what you didn't get is how dope this movie is. I actually do like this movie. I said it before. I just wanted the movie not to suck. That's all I needed. All I needed was for the movie not to suck, and it did its thing well. This isn't my first time in beverly hills I saw that.
Speaker 8:did you ever read your own file? This is is a lot Disturbing the Peace, various shootouts, evading the police. This is from 84. Then there's one from 87. And then 94. Not your finest hour.
Speaker 2:Now let me start with what I liked about the movie. As soon as you turn this movie on, it feels like a Beverly Hills Cop movie movie. Like it starts off with the heat is on. Who does that? Who does that? You know Eddie's wearing his classic jacket that he normally wears in all the movies you get to see him riding around Detroit. It feels like a Beverly Hills cop movie and you can't mix it with anything else. Like this movie has been overdone many, many times. Like we've seen movies that look like and feel like Beverly Hills cop, but this is actually when I turn this on I can tell you that this is a Beverly Hills cop movie.
Speaker 2:Second thing I liked about it was that there was a decent reason for Eddie to come to Beverly Hills. Rather than someone getting shot or dying or whatever trope has been overused, he actually had a reason. His reason was because he's trying to protect his daughter, which is commendable. Number one, Number two you kind of get the feeling in the beginning of the movie that him and his daughter don't have the best relationship, so he's trying to mend it. The third thing I liked about this movie is that Eddie still has the charm. He still can crack some jokes. I was surprised. I was In the beginning. I thought that maybe some of the jokes might have felt a little flat, but they started landing and it started getting better and better, and I like that.
Speaker 1:Who the pussy cloud you think you is calling this place this time of night? Haxel cut the shit.
Speaker 2:Haxel, millen or Haxel, you dial the wrong number. What blood clot number you trying to?
Speaker 3:reach.
Speaker 2:Who is this? The fourth thing I liked is the fact that I like seeing Eddie as an older Axel Foley, Because if he came in here acting like he was 22 years old when he's actually 63, I would have turned his movie off. I'm telling you right now I like that. I like the fact that we got a grounded, more seasoned Eddie Murphy Now. Granted, you still got the car chases and the gunshots and all the other stuff in an action movie, but you got Axel Foley at 63. Sometimes he can't be the fast-talking guy he once was.
Speaker 4:May I help you sir?
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm Nigel Applebottom with Bon Appetit and I was wondering. I'm going to hell with this. I'm Nigel Applebottom with Bon Appetit and I was wondering.
Speaker 5:I'm going to hell with this, I'm just too tired. Do you have any rooms available?
Speaker 4:You're in luck I've got a beautiful resort view room.
Speaker 7:Oh great, I'll take that.
Speaker 6:Wonderful. The rate is $940 a night plus tax.
Speaker 7:I love Beverly Hills. I love Beverly.
Speaker 2:Hills, everything that worked when you were 22 is not going to work when you're 63. And I think that proves its point in this movie. And I think Eddie realized that If I had one critique of this movie, it would be that it used nostalgia as a crutch. I didn't like that. Be that it used nostalgia as a crutch, I didn't like that.
Speaker 2:Um, for a movie that we all love beverly hills, cop and we've seen the sequels beverly hills, cop 2, beverly hills, cop 3 there's been about 40 years between when the first movie came out and when this movie comes out. And yes, there's a lot of stuff that happened within those 40 years. But we don't need to be bombarded with all the nostalgia. Like you can give us some, like you, like you know again, I like the fact that they played the heat is on in the beginning. But there's so much nostalgia like you're jamming it down our throats in this movie. Like we know we're going to get the beverly hills cop theme song. Like you don't have to keep playing it all over and over again. You know, it's kind of the same problem that we had with coming to America, where they just kept giving us nostalgia when the jokes weren't landing and I felt like it was happening in this movie a little bit more than what I what it needed to. But I wasn't mad because the movie kept flowing. It didn't feel stale to me, it didn't feel like all right. Well, here we go again. It didn't feel that bad and that's what I liked about it.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, everybody's not gonna like what I like. If you go to Rotten Tomatoes right now, the tomato reader for the critics is at 66%, which is favorable, because the first beverly hills cop was at 80. Second beverly hills cop is at 48, the third is at 11, so you see a decline, but then you see a rise into what's happening with these movies and that's what I like. I like the fact that we have a movie in 2024 for a franchise that was dead. This move, this franchise was dead. They were not making any more. They tried to for about 20 years. They made a pilot which was not bad, but it wasn't beverly hills cop. They were trying to give you something different. This movie feels and looks and acts and sounds and tastes like a Beverly Hills cop movie. I've been getting text messages all weekend about how people like the movie. They want to know what I felt and I want to know how they felt. And it was unanimous.
Speaker 5:At the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options.
Speaker 4:Nigel, this is so good. This fucking sequel was so good. I laughed, I cried, I hollered. My neighbors are probably like yo, what the fuck is wrong with her? It's so fucking good. Nigel the pod has to do something with this. It's fantastic. They waited 30 years and it's still so. It's, dare I say it's better than the original. I don't know, I don't know, that's wild. It is a fucking fantastic sequel. They did it justice, like from the first 30 seconds. I was sold.
Speaker 1:It's so good look, man, we're talking one of the greatest franchises of all time. When he first did beverly hills cop the first one it almost wasn't him in the movie. You know what he did the movie and it changed movies after that the whole cop cop dynamic. It became funny movies, lethal Weapon, all those movies that came after that and he really changed the game on that. It's an important movie to pay homage to. It was really funny. It did what I thought it was going to do. The jokes were there, the cast was there. The fact that they're all still alive is amazing and the fact that Eddie Murphy looks like he's 30 still is amazing. He he's still very funny and I hope he comes back to stand-up soon.
Speaker 3:No problem. Like I said before, I went in with very low expectations because people were talking a little bit of shit about it through the interwebs and social medias, as they do. Also, I went in with low expectations because of the Coming to america sequel that they came out with a few years back and I was disappointed by that one. So I went in with real low expectations, you know, not really looking for it to be good, and surprisingly I enjoyed it. It was really good and, like I said, the writers, um, did a really good job of paying homage to the first two and kind of updating this one, but but still holding on to that Beverly Hills cop, feel it was cool man. I really enjoyed it and it had none of the humor, seemed for it. It was like Eddie was like the old Eddie, but an old Eddie if that makes sense. It makes sense, but an old Eddie, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It makes sense. I think like I got into it with somebody about this yesterday where they felt like it should have been more laughs?
Speaker 3:Nah, I don't think so. I think they had the right amount. I mean, if you go back and watch the old Beverly Hills Cops, it wasn't like all over funny, like laughs all the time. It had like certain spots, and I believe that it had that same type of timing in this one, like I think people's nostalgia take over to be like, oh it just it wasn't fallout hilarious funny. Well, the original Beverly Hills Cop wasn't that either. It was funny. It was funny to tell. It was like it had its moments. It wasn't like if I can make it make sense, it wasn't like Nutty Professor, where Nutty Professor is like constant boom, boom, like punch, punch, punch, punch. It's like, oh my God, like I'm, you know, having a hard time breathing because it's just joke after joke after joke after joke going running through. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:The Beverly Hills Cop, the originals, to me, didn't follow that type of timing. It was always a scenario and Eddie being Eddie and the funny was there. But also it balanced a good deal of the. You know the, the story in this one about the corruption, about the. Well, I don't know if you want to do spoilers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not doing spoilers for this one.
Speaker 3:Sorry about that, so, but I mean people got. I mean, if you're fucking smart, you know where it's going. But I mean in terms of the story, the seriousness of the story and balancing the interaction between him and the young lady who played his daughter, which I think she did an excellent job. Gordon Leavitt was good in this. I was surprised. I like him as an actor, don't get me wrong but.
Speaker 3:I didn't know if he was going to be able to, um, if he was going to be able to hang in there with eddie in terms of the comedic chops, right, but he he did, he did his thing and plus, you know what? That's funny for me to even think that, because he's been a serious actor for so long. But we forget that he was on third rock from the sun, exactly, so he so he was a comedic actor when he was a teenager. But, um, yeah, man, I enjoyed it. Now, it wasn't as good as my idea. I had an idea for how to bring beverly hills cop or make it more, um, make it more modern than like some years ago, and my idea, if I could share it here, if you don't mind go for it was my original idea because you know the the beverly hills cop ip had been laying dormant for many years, especially after the third
Speaker 3:one, and my belief was that they should have. You know, at the height of when you know he had these cross universes and stuff, I thought Axel Foley should have been brought back in the Bad Boys universe or made the Bad Boys universe cross over with the Beverlyly hills cop universe and my idea was to kill off uh, I forgot my man's name, joe pantanillo, I think his name is the guy who played the boss, yeah, the the chief. I thought that. I thought that he should have been killed off in one of the sequels, like the second.
Speaker 3:Well, he was killed off in the third right but I thought he should have been killed off in the second and then actually foley became their new head detective or head or chief of their of the narcotics division, or something like that. That's how I thought they should have updated the.
Speaker 3:You know, if they was going to do it years ago right but um them staying with the beverly hills cop ip the way it is with this sequel. It was good. They did a good job. They avoided all of the pitfalls of the coming to America and what they, you know, trying to force humor and stuff like that. This was just an organic action movie. It really felt like a classic action movie from the 80s, early 90s, like the Lethal Weapons and stuff like that. It felt like that again.
Speaker 2:Now, why do you think critics are so critical of this movie? Why?
Speaker 3:do you think critics are so critical of this movie Because of nostalgia? Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. People have in their mind what they think the originals were, when this is really what the original was. I think people go on with a lot of high expectations because it's Eddie Murphy and Eddie does a really good job of not oversaturating himself in the public zeitgeist and he gives you just enough. And because he only gives you enough, you expect it to be this big and, you know, crazy thing when you have to just enjoy it for what it is. I think people's expectation and what it ends up being is where the problem is. Go back and watch the original. This one follows the same timing, comedic timing and balance of stories as the other two the first two. The third one was more like a PG-13 Disney type. It was almost like a family movie. It didn't have that same vibe. It was kind of corny. My thing about the third one is that I felt like it didn't have that same vibe.
Speaker 2:It was kind of corny. Well, my thing about the third one my thing about the third one is that I felt like it was trying to tell more jokes. I felt like it was trying to be funny.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right, it was more of a trying to be more of a. Yeah, you're right, it was like it was trying to be more of a comedy versus just balancing the story and balancing it. But even the comedy Comedy, like I said, was tame. Even in the third one it was tame in comparison to the first two. So it was like, yeah, it was comedy, but it was comedy in the way of, like Dr Doolittle, you know what I'm saying it was. It's like nah, if you're going to be Beverly Hills Cop, let it be. Let it still keep its edge, let it still be in the vein of the lethal weapons and you know all of that that came in that same time period.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:It was like it was like they were trying to make it a family movie. I was like it's not a family movie. I knew that as a kid watching I'm like what is this shit, you know? But uh no, I enjoyed it, man, it was, it was dope, it was ill. Um, I'm going to see where that goes, but I think I personally think they could still do a cross universe between the Bad Boys universe and the Beverly Hills Cop universe. That would be dope To see Martin Will and Eddie all on one case doing this, and it would be great to do before they get too old, because Eddie's already 60. Right.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying. Martin may have some type of issues going on with him health-wise and I haven't seen that one yet. And Will is still. You know, Will is still doing his thing, so it'll be ill for them to cross their universes. I think that'll be a great thing. I think that will sell crazy tickets.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd love to see it, definitely. You know, Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Ibrahim Khalif.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no problem, man, thank you. Thanks for having me, it's an honor.
Speaker 2:Anytime Now. This wouldn't be an Eddie Murphy film without there being mixed criticism. The audience score for this movie was 80%. However, the critiques were favorable, but some harsh. Robert Daniels, a critic from the New York Times, says that Beverly Hills Cop Axl F it's busted. He says that Eddie Murphy struggles to revive the more bound action comedy franchise. In conclusion of what he was saying about the movie, he says the worst parts involve lazy allusions to better films. A climactic shootout in a mansion attempting to blend the gunfight from the first Beverly Hills Cop with Scarface is tedious and unremarkable. While this installment isn't nearly as woeful as Beverly Hills Cop 3, 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.
Speaker 3:Now, I've been hearing that.
Speaker 2:I've been hearing that this movie is a cash grab, and I don't understand what they mean by that. Corey Coleman from Double Toasted said that Beverly Hills Cop Axl F plays it safe. These are reheated jokes that taste good here and there, but it was better when it was fresh. Brian Telerico from RogerEbertcom says that, from the beginning, Beverly Hills Cop Axl F is buoyant and playful in a way that legacy sequels usually aren't allowed to be. Carla Hay from Culture Mix says Beverly Hills Cop Axl F relies heavily on nostalgia and a transparently predictable plot. However, this lively sequel overcomes its weaknesses with some funny moments, well-cast new characters and plenty of expected action spectacles.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, nothing about Beverly Hills Cop is new, fresh or exciting. To be honest, beverly Hills Cop the movie birthed a whole bunch of other movies, like the Weapon, rush Hour, bad Boys, you name it. It's influenced every single one of those movies. The problem is that this movie is about 40 years in the making on for the concept that was made 40 years ago, so it's going to fall into the same tropes of what a quote-unquote action comedy is now. This movie is not reinventing the wheel. It can't, because it started the wheel. So if you're looking for this movie to reinvent something or have some kind of high expectation is not. That's not why you're here to watch this movie. You're here to have fun, and if you watch this movie and have fun with it, you will like it.
Speaker 2:Now I've heard people. People have texted me and said that they like this more than they like beverly hills cop 2. Now, that's a higher bar than beverly hills cop 3, but they they're telling me that after beverly hills cop, they like this movie. I feel a lot of people came in this with high expectations and you can't Not with a movie that hasn't had a sequel in 30 years Understand that we're seeing a rebirth of Eddie Murphy. He's not going to be the same person he used to be, but it is great to see him and I'm here for it. If you haven't by now, please like, share and subscribe. Tell Nettie Murphy fans and tell Nettie Murphy fans that you love this podcast and, with all hearts and minds clear, let's end this show.