BACK on the beat

EDDIE MURPHY on returning to Beverly Hills for a fourth adventure, alongside new cast members KEVIN BACON and JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT

- REBELLA MAHONEY

BEVERLY HILLS

COP: AXEL F

NEW FROM WEDNESDAY 3 JULY, NETFLIX ACTION COMEDY

With its inescapable synth-pop theme tune and Eddie Murphy's trademark laugh, revolutionised the Beverly Hills Cop action-comedy genre after its release in 1985. Now, almost 40 years later, a long-overdue fourth film is landing on Netflix, with new and familiar faces joining the fray.

The plot follows fast-talking, unorthodox Detroit detective Axel Foley (played by Coming to America and Dr. Dolittle star Eddie) as he returns to the neon-drenched streets of Los Angeles after discovering his estranged daughter, criminal-defence attorney Jane Saunders (Zola's Taylour Paige), is in danger.

Joining forces with a new partner, strait-laced cop Bobby Abbott (3rd Rock from the Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Axel also calls on his old buddies, Billy Rosewood and John Taggart (Judge Reinhold and John Ashton reprise their roles), to help uncover a conspiracy and protect Jane at all costs.

'We have been trying to develop this movie for 15, 20 years, just trying to get it right,' says Eddie, 63, who's also known for Trading Places (1983) and the Shrek franchise. 'I must have read half a dozen scripts, but it finally came together when we got the original producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, involved.

Jerry knows his stuff. He did Top Gun: Maverick [2022], and he knows what a Beverly Hills Cop movie is supposed to be. He knows the recipe to put it all together.'

The recipe included key original cast members, including Stranger Things star Paul Reiser, who plays Axel's colleague in Detroit, Jeffrey Friedman, plus Chilling Adventures of Sabrina's Bronson Pinchot, better known as sassy art-gallery salesman Serge.