Netflix film “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F”, which was released in last week, shows that Eddie Murphy still has it, and I am glad about that. As the belated third sequel to “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), the movie feels redundant to some degree, but it is actually better than the two preceding sequels in addition to simply letting Murphy demonstrate more of his enduring star quality, and the overall result is one of more entertaining Netflix products during last several months.

The screenplay by Will Beall, which is developed from the story by Beal and his co-writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, mostly sticks to the story formula already established in the 1984 film. Not long after getting into another big messy incident in his hometown Detroit, Michigan, Murphy’s street-smart police character, Axel Foley, is notified that his estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige), who has worked as a successful lawyer in LA, is in a serious trouble due to her latest case, which is involved with some powerful Mexican drug cartel. In addition, his old friend Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who has worked as a private detective since leaving LAPD some time ago, is also involved in this situation, so Axel quickly comes to LA for some help, and then things turn out to be a bit more complicated than he thought at first.

Right from when he arrives in LA, Axel is not so welcomed by the local police or his daughter, who still remembers well how problematic their relationship was when they lived in Detroit. Because her current client must be proven innocent of the murder of a corrupt police officer who was delivering some drug with him at that time, she has no choice but to let her father help her a bit, and, what do you know, they turn out to work pretty well together as shown from one humorous scene where they must slip into a highly exclusive place for getting more information.

Meanwhile, the local police, which is now headed by Billy’s old partner John Taggart (John Ashton), is not so willing to delve more into the case, though Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young detective who was once very close to Jane, begins to sense something fishy as a number of suspicious things come out thanks to Axel. He is willing to know more from Axel, but Axel is not so sure about Abbott because he comes to find that there are a bunch of corrupt cops behind the case.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you who the main villain of the story is, because it is so transparent to us right from when Kevin Bacon enters the screen. As virtually doing everything except having a mustache to twirl during his first scene, Bacon chews every juicy moment of his with gusto, and that surely brings some extra personality to the film.

Once it establishes Axel’s main opponents, the movie provides a series of well-made action sequences peppered with some sense of humor. There is an intense shootout scene where Axel surely shows that he is still not too old for his sh*t, and then there is a thrilling action sequence where Axel must depend on Abbott’s certain particular set of skills for getting away from those bad guys together.

Frequently predictable in terms of story and characters, the movie does not have much surprise for us, especially during the last act where lots of bangs and crashes happen occur across the screen. Nonetheless, it is constantly buoyed by Murphy’s considerable personality and talent. Because he recently had the 63rd birthday, you may wonder whether he is a bit too aged to play such a hyper-active cop like Axel, but your doubt will be instantly disappeared right from his very first scene in the film, and you will come to root for his character more even if you cannot help but think of all those collateral damages caused by Axel (How the hell did he manage not to lose his job despite causing so many troubles throughout all those years, I wonder?).

Several other main cast members in the film dutifully fill their respective spots around Murphy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt imbues his supposedly thankless supporting role with some wit and intelligence, and he also did a good job of functioning as a sensible counterpart to Murphy’s character. Although her character feels under-written in comparison, Taylour Paige, who has been more prominent thanks to her breakout performance in “Zola” (2020), is also solid, and she and Murphy ably convey well to us the long history of estrangement between their characters. In case of Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot, they gladly fill their respective familiar roles, and the movie certainly doles out a bit of nostalgia for its target audiences whenever their characters happen to be on the screen with Murphy.

In conclusion, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” may be a little too late in its arrival, but it did its job fairly well under the competent direction of director Mark Molloy, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several commercials. I must tell you that another Netflix movie “Dolemite Is My Name” (2019) utilizes Murphy’s presence and talent more effectively, but “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is still one of more enjoyable films in his rather uneven acting career, and it is certainly nice to see that he still can energize the screen as much as he did 40 years ago.