It's time for another revival movie from the eighties!

This time it is a Netflix movie based on the previous comedic classics featuring the beloved Eddie Murphy, ‘Beverly Hills cop’. Murphy reclaims his role as Axel Foley in this new film where Axel has gotten older. The movie takes place in a contemporary setting but despite the passing of time Axel is still the same risk craving police as he was in the old movies. After once again getting pulled away from Detroit to solve a crime in Beverely hills he meets up with his daughter who is now an adult lawyer. She is rightfully mad at him for leaving her as a child but is pulled into Axel’s investigation as he can help her exculpate one of her clients. After butting heads Axel teams up with a police officer who earlier was in a relationship with his daughter and the two of them get framed by the police as drug dealers. The two have to flee from jail and save the day from corrupt police and evil criminals.

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That plot summary may seem a little reductive but there is very little to actually say about the plot. It would be a waste to go through the generic evil group as they are nothing more than an excuse for Axel to go on his adventure. In the movie they are even blatantly called bad guys by police and aren’t given much thought by the characters. This isn’t really an issue though as the movie is actually about Axel's relationship with his daughter, Jane (Taylor Paige). As a child Axel abandoned her when his ex-wife moved to Beverly hills. Axel stayed in Detroit and now blames Jane for their poor relationship and refuses to take responsibility for leaving her. This upsets Jane who didn’t have a choice as a child but Axel refuses to see it her way.

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Axel seems very out of the loop in this movie and it is very hard to relate to his selfish approach in his relationship with Jane as he tries to blame his daughter. However, the movie takes the rather odd approach as it is not Axel who has to change but Jane who needs to take responsibility for their relationship. I find this very questionable in multiple ways, if nothing else it is a very weird message to put out. Besides that the movie has a very hard time at showing Jane's supposed faults and instead solves the conflict by having Axel save her from a gunshot prompting her to forgive her later.

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There are other questionable decisions in the movie. This film is not as humorous as the previous and the only time it really gets any close to matching any of the charm from the originals is over one hour into the movie. The upbeat, fun eighties movie is made into a dull drama between father and daughter where there are close to no fun jokes and instead unoriginal plot points and cliches are being thrown around. You could think it's supposed to be a more introspective look at the character of Axel Foley but it is not. From the start he is criticized for his wild antics and he is obviously doing questionable things. Within the first 10 minutes he manages to run over a man with a snow plow, threaten a civilian, destroy countless cars and other property. They have a part where Axel is reprimanded and is flat out told that there are different times and he can’t do these sorts of things. You would assume this would lead to something bigger where Axel needs to change from being so destructive, especially since we live in a time where critique against American police is extremely high, but it doesn’t matter at all.

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The movie looks fine although it keeps none of the charm of the original. It is generally good looking although it looks different. My only real issue is the few times they use CGI as it looks rather bad. It is not the end of the world but it could absolutely be done better. The original was praised for its sound and music but in this movie it is sadly lacking. Many scenes feel weirdly quiet and the only song coming up is the leitmotif of the franchise ‘Axel F’. It is not like the audio mixing is poorly made but compared to the originals it just feels lacking.

I was a fan of the original movies and feel like this was a letdown from the iconic originals. It is annoying how this movie puts such a weird focus on his daughter leaving Taggart (John Ashton) and Billy (Judge Reinhold) to the sideline until the very end. It is hard to recommend this movie to fans of the originals and even harder to say anyone else should watch it. It isn’t close to being as bad as ‘The Room’ or similar “bad movies” and there is some fun to be had but it isn’t really gonna be on anyone's favorite.

RATING: 2/5