Detroit Detective Is Westward-Ho … Again
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Detroit police detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) attends a Redwings hockey game with Det. Mike Woody (Kyle S. More), sees some unsavory characters led by Junior Bollinger (Kenneth Nance Jr.), interrupts them while they’re stealing paraphernalia from the locker room, gives chase as they run away but they have motorcycles while Foley has to commander a snow plow. Axel eventually pushes them into the custody of arriving cops but manages to bash into police cars, other vehicles along the way, making trouble with the Police Commissioner for his good friend Deputy Chief Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser) who decides to retire rather than allowing the heat to fall on Foley. Friedman encourages Axel to reconcile with his daughter, Jane Saunders (Taylour Paige)—changed her surname—now a defense attorney in L.A., aided by Axel’s old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), now retired from the police force, working as a private eye. Sure enough, Rosewood calls Foley, tells him Jane’s in danger because she’s representing Sam Enriquez (Damien Diaz), who's been framed for murdering an undercover policeman, a man called Copeland.
Next, we see Rosewood in L.A. recovering evidence from the car Copeland was killed in, but then he’s kidnapped by the cartel actually responsible for the murder. For the 4th time in this franchise, Foley heads to southern CA worried about both his daughter’s well-being and the lack of response to calls made to Rosewood. When Axel goes to Billy’s office he finds a couple of guys ransacking the place who end up chasing him through Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, as he’s trying to escape in a little vehicle he’s stolen from a meter maid. Eventually, Axel’s caught, taken to Beverly Hills police central where he finds another old friend—now Police Chief (he retired some time ago as well but came back, seemingly to get some relief from his nagging wife which says little about the quality of his marriage) John Taggart (John Ashton)—who introduces him to Captain Cade Grant (Kevin Bacon), a prized former cadet of Taggart’s, but Foley’s suspicious about Grant’s expensive wardrobe. Axel also meets Det. Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Jane’s ex-boyfriend who clearly still keeps distance from her when she comes to bail out Dad (after hanging up on him a few times when he calls from a cell [a jail cell, that is, not a cell phone]), then has no interest in reconnecting with him because she still has the hurt of him not only giving more attention to his career than his family but also because he helped her and Mom move out of his life to L.A. Axel explains that was to get them far from Detroit’s 12th Street mob threatening the family, but that fails to soften her up, even though she does agree to work with him to clear Enriquez and find Billy, after which he will head east again.
However, they’ve barely made that bargain when they’re attacked, leading to another wild chase through the streets. When their car’s disabled and they’re about to be shot by cartel thugs, Abbott shows up, guns down their would-be killers, but when Foley attempts to question Taggart about how Grant seems caught up in all of this, Taggart explodes, throws Foley out, suspends Abbott. Still determined to find the source of all these problems, Axel and Bobby slip into the impound yard where Copeland’s car is stored, find there’s a hidden camera in the dashboard, surmise there’s an SD card containing evidence against Copeland which Rosewood must have found, then stashed it somewhere before he was taken captive. Axel has an address he took from Billy’s office which is an upscale mansion owned by Grant, used by the cartel for money-laundering. Axel, Bobby, and Jane—with help of another Foley-old-friend, Serge (Bronson Pinchot)—arrange for a showing of the huge house adjoining the cartel HQ, with Jane and Bobby posing as a married couple while Axel slips next door, sees a vehicle involved in that recent chase of him and Jane, but surveillance cameras catch him, with a report to Grant. Axel and Bobby visit Enriquez’s uncle Challno (Luis Guzmán) who tells them Grant helps protect the cartel, with a drug shipment scheduled to leave the port that night, but before they can do anything about it they’re arrested, framed for a major drug possession by Grant.
Left alone for awhile by the cops, Axel slips out of his handcuffs, escapes, rescues Bobby, they fly off in a helicopter (Bobby has pilot experience), but Bobby’s nervous (from a previous crash), flies too low to Beverly Hills Police HQ where Grant shows up, shoots their rotor, causing them to crash onto a nearby golf course, finally finish their escape in a stolen golf cart. Taggart sees most of this, finally believes Foley, agrees to work with Jane, but then she’s kidnapped by Grant’s goons. Axel and Bobby go to the port, find Billy locked up there, free him, but then Grant calls to say he’s got Jane. Foley calls Friedman back in Detroit; with his help they learn Jane’s held at the mansion so Axel, Bobby, Billy, and—eventually—Taggart attack the mansion with Jane escaping her own handcuffs (a skill she learned from Dad), during the ensuing firefight. ⇒Eventually, Grant and Foley face off with Axel shot before Abbott kills Grant. Jane comes to Axel’s hospital room where they finally reconcile, with the possibility of him moving to L.A., just as Rosewood and Taggart also make peace, charges against Enriquez are dropped (not sure what becomes of Abbott in this scenario). At the end, Taggart and Rosewood have been asked by Jane to secretly monitor Foley so he doesn’t slip out of the hospital before his recovery’s complete, but he suddenly jumps into the back seat of their car, after which they agree to go with him for a steak dinner as he’s no fan of hospital food.⇐
So What? While you don’t have to know the 3 previous entries in this franchise (with, apparently, a 5th in development according to #4 producers [along with several others] Murphy and Jerry Bruckheimer, so nostalgia hasn’t run its course yet) to understand or fully appreciate what’s going on in … Axel F, you might benefit from an awareness of the original Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984; 83% positive Rotten Tomatoes reviews) from 40 years ago, where Foley first goes to Beverly Hills—against his Detroit boss’s orders—to investigate the murder of old friend Mikey. (If you want to explore streaming for this one, you’ll find it’s free on Netflix, fubo and Paramount+, $3.99 rental on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and VUDU; if you don’t want to watch it, you can just read a plot summary, with a potential follow-up to either/both of these here that explores references in #4 to #1, although both this site and the Wikipedia link contain Spoilers so be aware should you want to watch the 1984 original [I highly recommend unless you have a good awareness of it already].) While I’m relatively sure I saw both Beverly Hills Cop II (Tony Scott, 1987; RT positives at 46%, Metacritic average score at 48%, yet it’s the highest-grossing of the first 3 at $299 million globally; summary available; free on fubo, Netflix, and Paramount+, $3.59 rental on Amazon, $3.99 on Apple and VUDU) where Axel goes to Beverly Hills in response to ally Capt. Bogomil being attacked and ... III (John Landis, 1994; true OCCU dismissal with 11% RT positives, MC 16% average score [even Murphy says it's “horrible”]; summary also available; free on fubo and Paramount+, $3.99 on Apple and VUDU, $4.29 on Amazon) where Foley goes to L.A. to find links to crooks who killed Detroit Police Chief Inspector Todd, I must admit I remember nothing about either sequel but do have a fairly decent memory of #1, because I’ve watched it again a few times over the last 40 (Yikes!) years.
In further truth, while … Axel F has some entertaining chase scenes, a nice reunion of several main characters from #1, and periodic bits of Murphy humor such as Axel fooling Det. Woody at the beginning about a nonexistent Negro Hockey League (although Murphy notes, even in regard to maligned #3, that his character has matured over the years, isn’t still the wisecracking-learner-on-the-job he was originally, so these later episodes aren’t being played for laughs the way much of #1 was—in addition to those action scenes such as Foley being thrown through a plate-glass window or the intense shootout at the end), I’d be content with just continuing to occasionally re-watch #1 rather than slogging through attempts to recapture its foundational magic by these returns to a non-Detroit environment where many of Foley’s antics are even more outrageous in a mostly-sophisticated segment of southern CA than they were back home in the snow-bound Motor City. … Axel F is satisfying-enough entertainment with a lead actor who continues to command the screen even as he ages (which I think he does a bit better than his 1984 co-stars), but this franchise is slipping into beating-a-dead-horse territory, so if we do find ourselves with #5 somewhere down the road, I’ll just have to hope it finds some new twists rather than resembling another Motown celebrity years ago, the Four Tops (seen them a couple of times over the years, always a great experience), who followed their great “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” (1965) with the tongue-in-cheek structure of “The Same Old Song” (1965). Come on, Eddie, try something new with this material, or maybe you don’t need to make the next one such a group project as #4 here has 3 writers—story by Will Beall, screenplay by Beall, Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten—along with 8 producers (including 4 executives, 1 associate). A focused, singular vision might well prove to be more productive for you.
Bottom Line Final Comments: You can only find Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix streaming, so there are no box-office results to report (although it did bring in 41 million views last week) nor is there great enthusiasm from the CCAL for this new Foley venture, with RT positives at only 66%, MC average score lower at 55% so unless you’re already a Netflix subscriber you might need to think a bit about whether you want to invest even a month’s trial ($6.99 with ads, $15.49 with no ads) in order to get access to this latest Axel Foley trek to the land of sunshine and cartel-corruption, but if you do make even a short-term investment you’ll also have access to everything else in their vast library during that curiosity-month, so consider wisely what your next move may be.
I’ve pretty much exhausted all I can say about this latest franchise installment, so I’ll just leave with my usual finish of a Musical Metaphor which in this case I’m using The Eagles’ (late, great) Glenn Frey with his hit from the original 1984 soundtrack, “The Heat Is On” (written by Harold Faltermeyer, Keith Forsey), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SsTQYlpKtM (linked to footage from the first Beverly Hills Cop), a song whose tempo and lyrics (“And the beat’s so loud / Deep inside / The pressure’s high / Just to stay alive / ’Coz the heat is on”) fit the mood of these Beverly Hills Cop episodes, so much so that we get a snippet of it at the start of #4, just as another reminder of how this latest chapter in the saga is meant to allude to much that you may have seen before (no replay of the banana in the tailpipe, though). In truly closing (thanks for the applause), I’ll note that maybe another reason why “The Heat Is On” appeals to me now is the heat has been horribly on in California (and many other states) during these last couple of weeks, where even in my near-coastal area where summertime temps usually linger in the mid-70s we’ve been in high 90s (no air conditioning for me, Nina, and the cats, just fans) while farther inland records have been broken as 100+ assaults on human sensibility are wearing people down, contributing to wildfires (good thing there’s not much vegetation that could burn in Death Valley which has topped 130o), helping prove that climate change is no left-wing fantasy even as the opposite sort of weather of hurricane-level high winds and rain is once again battering the Texas Gulf Coast, bringing more danger to my old home town of Galveston. All many of us can do (except for the noble firefighters) is stay inside to wait out the heat or tides, with hopes next week will be less of a challenge. So, if you’re hunkered down somewhat trying to avoid heat stroke or flooding, maybe … Axel F (or even better, the 1984 Beverly Hills Cop, a 4-stars shoo-in if I were reviewing it) would be a useful distraction. Your choice.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some options for your consideration: (1) IMDb's 5 Things to Watch this week (includes Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F); (2) IMDb's Staff Picks for July 2024 (also includes … Axel F); (3) Why did Paramount (the home studio of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise) merge with Skydance?
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 5,692—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
No comments:
Post a Comment