The summer of 2024 is going to go down as the season of the aging action star. Scan the slate of upcoming 2024 movies and you’ll see the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Bad Boys, Hugh Jackman in his celebrated return as Wolverine, and Eddie Murphy reprising his role of Detroit cop Axel Foley in the fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie. The legacy of the character is referenced in the latest full trailer for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, coming soon for those with a Netflix subscription. And the trailer packs a sweet dig at the dud in the Beverly bunch, Beverly Hills Cop 3. Watch the trailer, and we’ll talk about it on the other side.
Did you catch the shot Eddie Murphy took at Beverly Hills Cop 3? That movie is largely considered to be the disaster in the bunch, a tired retread of the Beverly Hills Cop formula that had a lame villain, and might only be remembered for a Ferris Wheel stunt sequence that very clearly used a stunt double in place of the very valuable Eddie Murphy. So when Joseph Gordon Levitt’s new character is listing off the times that Axel Foley has been through 90201, they show photos of the very cool Beverly Hills Cop and its stylish sequel (directed by Tony Scott). And then Murphy nods at the camera when they mention the 1994 “visit.” One fans would like to forget.
More to come….