Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F review: A : Pleasing nostalgia trip, writes BRIAN VINER

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (15, 115 min)

Verdict: Pleasant nostalgic trip

Judgement:

Since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the benchmark for a major world event has been whether we can remember where we were when we heard the news.

For my generation, Diana’s death and 9/11 were the ultimate “JFK” moments.

Less dramatic, but just as vivid, I have the same memory with movies. I can remember in almost every case which theater I was in and who I was with when I first saw an important film.

For example, I went with my mother to the Palace in Southport to see the double bill Ring Of Bright Water and The Plank in 1969. In my childish way I realised then how masterful it is to follow an almost hysterical fit of crying with hilarious slapstick.

And about 15 years later, my girlfriend and I saw Beverly Hills Cop at the New Picture House in St. Andrews.

From the start, I was hooked by the potent mix of action and comedy, and of course the contradiction of Eddie Murphy’s street-smart Detroit detective operating in pampered Beverly Hills.

But what I enjoyed most was Murphy’s pitch-perfect performance in the title role, which has reportedly — and now almost unbelievably — already been offered to Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford and Mickey Rourke.

I’ve had an abiding admiration for that film ever since, and I went into the sequels with some trepidation.

None of them can match the original, and that goes for this latest Netflix film as well. It’s the fourth installment in the series, but the first in 30 years.

And yet it’s a genuinely fun film, and an ideal platform for Murphy, an evergreen 63, to show that, like the self-assured Axel Foley, he still commands the screen, with that unparalleled ability to deliver humor and suspense simultaneously.

Foley initially busts criminals in downtown Detroit, but leaves for Los Angeles when he hears that his estranged daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) is in mortal danger.

Jane is a fair-minded young lawyer who defends a man accused of murder by a corrupt cop.

Naturally, she has stumbled upon a grand conspiracy, inevitably involving a drug cartel.

With the tense father-daughter dynamic as a subplot, this could all be tiresomely predictable material, but somehow the predictability is actually an advantage.

The story is very 80s, but that means we can sit back and enjoy the nostalgic trip.

Plus, there’s room for ’80s goodness, as well as several original actors, including Paul Reiser and Judge Reinhold.

Overall, debutant director Mark Molloy smartly adheres to Murphy’s Law: give the villainous Axel enough funny lines (co-writer Will Beall is a former Los Angeles detective himself) and wacky escapades (here involving a stolen helicopter, golf cart and 10-ton truck) and he’ll keep the series going.

Murphy also gets solid support from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jane’s ex-boyfriend, another rare honest detective, and from Kevin Bacon as the main villain, who admittedly doesn’t have to do much more than grin wolfishly throughout the film.

Still, it’s a nice change to see Bacon actually in action, rather than advertising cell phone networks, Hyundai cars or recyclable paper clips.

I can’t be the only one who decided a while ago that whatever he sells, I won’t buy it.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is on Netflix

MaXXXine (18, 104 min.) Rating: Slasher pastiche

Judgement:

But in another twist of those six degrees of Kevin Bacon, he also pops up in MaXXXine, who expertly plays a shady private detective in Ti West’s latest slasher horror starring British actress Mia Goth as Texan porn actress Maxine Minx.

Anyone who has seen X (2022) and the prequel Pearl from the same year knows that Maxine, a survivor of the ‘porn star massacre in Texas’, is desperate for fame.

Set in 1985, this third film opens with an ominous quote from Bette Davis: “In this business, you’re not a star until you’re known as a monster.”

In the gritty Los Angeles of the Reagan era, Maxine wants to get out of the porn world and auditions for a horror film called The Puritan II. This film could give her the stardom she craves and is directed by an authoritarian British actress, played by Elizabeth Debicki.

Meanwhile, a satanic serial killer known as the Night Stalker is on the loose, terrorizing young women.

West keeps these two storylines connected in a deft and not-so-sly way, with repeated nods to Hollywood of old, as when Maxine stubs out her cigarette on the sidewalk star dedicated to Theda Bara, the original silent film vampire.

At times the film verges on what might be called ‘slasher pastiche’, and also features one of the most laughably ‘Yorkshire’ accents you’ll ever hear. Lily Collins plays a horror film actress who is said to be from the North of England, thus accentuating the ‘ha!’ factor in Harrogate.

Still, it’s an imaginative and energetic album, with a great 80s soundtrack, ending beautifully with Kim Carnes’ hit Bette Davis Eyes.

MaXXXine is now in theaters

50 Years Later, Gene Hackman is at His Best

The conversation (12A, 113 minutes)

Judgement:

Gene Hackman has given countless great performances throughout his glorious acting career, but his most understated and introspective performances are, in my opinion, also his best.

The conversation is back in theaters today, restored in honor of its 50th anniversary.

If you’ve never seen Francis Ford Coppola’s brilliant psychological thriller on the big screen, you should definitely check it out.

Hackman is stunning as crack surveillance expert Harry Caul, a paranoid loner whose job not only makes him but also breaks him once he becomes entangled in the lives of the people he eavesdrops on.

Coppola wrote and directed the film, and was clearly influenced by the Watergate crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon just months after the film’s release.

The Conversation offers a fascinating glimpse into America at that time while showcasing some of the best acting, not only from Hackman but also from a supporting cast including John Cazale, Robert Duvall and, in an earlier role, Harrison Ford.

The nature of love (15, 110 minutes)

Judgement:

The Nature of Love is also definitely worth seeing. It is a hugely engaging French-Canadian film about a philosophy professor who falls hopelessly in love with, and lusts after, the laborer hired to renovate her lake house.

But can sheer physical attraction replace the intellectual battle she wages with her long-time partner, whom she left to pursue her affair?

It’s a funny, smart and sexy movie.

Both films are now in theaters.