Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F First Reviews Call Netflix Sequel a Return to Form

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (aka Beverly Hills Cop 4 as its stylized on the poster) is set to premiere on Netflix in just a few hours and the first reviews and reactions to the movie have made their way online. As of this writing, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F has a 70% approval on Rotten Tomatoes (just barely holding on to a Fresh tomato rating) with most reviews skewing toward a mixed reaction to the sequel. Though many praise it for being better than Beverly Hills Cop III, others lament that the wait for another film may have hurt it in the long run.

Mashable had high praise for the film, writing the 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.” In a 2.5 out of 4 review, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called Beverly Hills Cop 4 “the very definition of passable, comfort-viewing, nostalgia-tinged entertainment.” The Boston Globe on the other hand called the sequel a “joyless affair, a mediocre simulacrum that made me long for the original.” You can read even more reactions to Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F below.

The cast for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F includes, of course, Eddie Murphy, reprising his titular role for the first time in thirty years. He’s joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper, The Dark Knight Rises), Taylour Paige (Zola, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), and Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Mystic River). There are several other familiar faces returning to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise with both Judge Reinhold and John Ashton reprising their roles  as William “Billy” Rosewood and John Taggart, respectively (Reinhold has appeared in all three of the other Beverly Hills Cop movies, while Ashton appeared in just the first two). Paul Reiser is also back as Chief Jeffrey Friedman, having starred in the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies; plus Bronson Pinchot is back as Serge, a weapons dealer that previously appeared in Beverly Hills Cop III.

Netflix’s description of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F reads, “Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is back on the beat in Beverly Hills. After his daughter’s life is threatened, she (Taylour Paige) and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to turn up the heat and uncover a conspiracy.”

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F arrives on Netflix July 3rd.