By Netflix is set to launch the fourth “Beverly Hills Cop” film on its service in just a few hours, the film coming three decades after the last entry.
So what’s the verdict? With 48 reviews counted, the film has racked up a 69% (6.1/10) on Rotten Tomatoes.
To put that in perspective, it’s far and away the best score of any of the sequels – beating Tony Scott’s poorly received second film at 46% (5.1/10) and John Landis’ third film which scored an atrocious 11% (3.9/10). However, it’s not in the same league as the original at 83% (7.2/10).
Most of the reaction calls it ‘entertaining enough’ depending upon how you feel about obvious nostalagia exercises, though there’s a lot of love for Murphy seemingly slipping right back into character. Here’s a sampling of quotes:
“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F isn’t just a great sequel, or an awesome action-comedy, it might just be the most entertaining movie of the year.” – Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“Far better than anticipated (or has any right to be), thanks in large part to Murphy recapturing some of the wisecracking magic that originally made Axel a sensation.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“‘Axel F’ can’t afford to overplay the fish out of water dynamic from the original (Axel isn’t a stranger to Beverly Hills anymore), but it finds a clever way to tweak the same formula without disrupting it entirely.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“In both structure and presentation, Axel F often feels as ‘80s as cocaine and Kevin Bacon—and, wouldn’t you know it, this movie contains scads of both.” – Jarrod Jones, AV Club
“Satisfyingly constructed less like a modern blockbuster and more like a Beverly Hills Cop movie, the film is mostly baseline effective and aggressively average, elevated by Eddie Murphy trying to recapture his prime” – Robert Kojder, Flickering Myth
“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is another magic trick that shows it takes the right alchemy to make something flourish, even if it takes years of experiments to determine the right combination.” – Marcus Shorter, Consequence
“Newcomers may be puzzled by the slow pace and ‘80s feel of Mark Molloy’s directed sequel. It’s not as funny as previous ones or ambitious in the way sequels for beloved franchises have gotten. But it has Murphy blowing stuff up and joking about it.” – Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
“The shortage of fresh perspective, the absence of excitement and the slavishness with which the filmmakers stick to the original formula in one unimaginative action sequence after another makes the sequel seem past its expiration date.” – David Rooney, THR
“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” premieres tomorrow on Netflix.
The post “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” Reviews Are In appeared first on Dark Horizons.
