Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)

40 years after sweeping the world by storm, and 30 years after his last outing, Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills, and a lot has changed in the world while much stays the same. This one tries to capture the spirit of the earlier movies, but aside from a few winks and nods, doesn't accomplish anything the first two did better. They thought they could replicate the magic by using the exact same songs, but all it does is remind you of better days gone by. In terms of fun, this feels the least rewatchable to me, and I'm not sure how much of that has to do with Netflix's desaturated color grading, which makes everything look a lot more drab and murky compared to the other films in the series.

John Ashton returns for the last time, as this turned out to be his final role.

2½ stake-outs of 5

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

What happens when you transpose a popular '80s franchise to the '90s? You get a downgrade in quality, that's what. This one is the rotten stepsister of the series, although it actually holds up much better on reconsideration. Murphy and Reinhold return, but Ashton drops out and is replaced by a new character played by Héctor Elizondo. The bulk of this installment takes place at a theme park, which tells you everything you need to know, but there are still enough cheesy lines and memeable moments to warrant a rewatch in the future. 

2½ Wonder World songs on repeat out of 5

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Tony Scott takes over the reins from the original, resulting in a much more action-oriented approach, but a lot less brains. The result is not quite as memorable or iconic as the first film, but the catchy soundtrack remains.

Murphy reprises his role as smart-aleck Foley, with John Ashton returning as the hard-nosed sergeant, but Judge Reinhold undergoes a bit of character assassination here as a gun nut. It mostly thrives off the camaraderie and witty repartee between Axel, Rosewood and Taggart, and sometimes that's enough.

3 shoot-outs of 5

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Alex Foley is a fast-talking undercover detective who makes his way from the hard streets of Detroit to the glam life of Los Angeles in the first of this buddy cop action comedy franchise that defined the '80s and launched SNL veteran Eddie Murphy into superstardom (after previously making a splash in 48 Hrs).

What's great is how director Marty Brest balances the grittiness of the drama with the silliness of the humor, which was never quite replicated to the same effect throughout the series. The back-and-forth antagonism between Murphy and the two by-the-book detectives Taggart and Rosewood (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold) is irresistibly charming. It's an '80s staple that still holds up, even though the surrounding cultural landscape has changed significantly.

The soundtrack is a big part of the reason why this remains such a classic, from Harold Faltermeyer's catchy synth theme to some great '80s pop hits.

4 bananas in the tailpipe out of 5

Candy Cane Lane (2023)

In order to win a $10,000 prize for best Christmas house display, a desperate family man buys a magical set of decorations based on "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I like the idea of the entities from that song coming to life and trying to kill you, but I would have enjoyed this so much more as a horror film. Imagine some bare chested maids-a-milking and some lords-a-leaping through people. Anyway, as a family movie, I thought it was a decent enough effort. Went on way too long though; I felt like it would have ended on a much better note a good half hour earlier. The kids will probably have fun with this one.

2½ Matrix houses out of 5

48 Hrs. (1982)

It’s a 'buddy cop' movie with one San Francisco cop and one smart-talking convict who's given a 48 hour get out of jail pass card. The usual precinct clichés are in abundance, shouty Chief, hookers getting booked at desks and officers shuffling around in the background, but elsewhere it’s less formulaic.
I don’t like Murphy’s attention-grabbing screen persona very much, but I’m a fan of director Walter Hill’s ability to put us into the dramatic heart of a scene without overplaying it or making it seem false, so even though I was kept at a distance by the former I was pulled back into the story by the latter.
In short, it’s an entertaining 80s cop drama in an overcrowded genre arena.

3½ crummy days out of 5

The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Pluto Nash. Yup. It’s real. Someone (you know who you are) better laugh it up as much as they can because he’s going to be eating moist kitty litter for giving me this eye-bleeder. Out of respect for his reasons, and to raise my anger to a suitable level whereby I can punish his testicles with nettles without any pangs of remorse, I watched all of it. All. Every bastard bit. My Friday night, ruined. There will be blood and swollen, stinging man parts. It lost the studio over $100 million. Good. That means there won’t be a sequel.

0½ because, amazingly, I've been forced to watch worse out of 5