Avis des critiques

This is not an action movie with the slickness or invention to take on any current blockbuster franchise. It’s cheerfully old-fashioned and easy. It feels like you should be popping open a VHS case to watch it.

Like Murphy’s Coming 2 America, this feels a bit stale, and a mature guy like him can’t play the subversive anarchist comedy energy in the way he did. Murphy could still play comedy or drama with the right script, but this presumes a great deal on the audience’s brand loyalty.

Nobody hitherto unaware of the franchise would, watching Murphy, Paige and JGL squabble their way along Rodeo Drive, guess that Axel F was the latest episode in a smash comedy behemoth. But each actor is better than the material deserves.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was not created by an algorithm, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was... It’s a retread that’s better than a lot of the retreads Hollywood is determined to beam into our pupils... You can justifiably complain about its flaws, or you can accept them, relax, and groove on its recycled rhythms.

The film has the confidence to poke fun at the franchise’s infamously bad third entry, yet comes to the table with nothing to prove, nothing to say, and nothing for Murphy to work with.

In cast, soundtrack, dialogue and plot, “Axel F” is a photocopy of the original movies, only with everyone looking 40 years older. When they talk about films being “content,” this is what they mean: pure product. “Axel F” isn’t even bad. It just … is.

Despite a very baggy first act seemingly hellbent on lazy spot-the-nostalgia layups, [the film] surprisingly works. Coming together in the second half when the story actually commences, and the greatest hits indulgences are set aside, ‘Axel F,’ while seeming like a dud at first, entertains, thrills, and even feels like it holds genuine intentions.

“Axel F” only turns up the heat to a low simmer, but as breezy escapism goes, those armed with the proper attitude might find themselves doing the neutron dance, or a version of it, all over again.

Newcomers may be puzzled by the slow pace and ‘80s feel of Mark Molloy’s directed sequel. It’s not as funny as previous ones or ambitious in the way sequels for beloved franchises have gotten. But it has Murphy blowing stuff up and joking about it — all we need, really.

Sometimes you rediscover what you loved about something in the first place, and that ain’t nothing... But that can only do so much to distract from how deflated this movie is by all of the new elements it tries to introduce; nobody expected Netflix to re-capture lightning in a bottle, but far too much of “Axel F” forces you to contend with how rare that really is.

There’s little to smile about in this painfully lackluster retread desperately trying to justify its own existence... [Axel F] is a slog: The dirty cop mystery is half-baked; the visual effects are half-rendered; the action lacks any sense of physical space.

[Axel F] is a film of familiar pleasures, but like Faltermeyer’s still infectiously enjoyable synth-pop theme, they do remain highly pleasurable... For the most part, Axel F manages to feel like a genuine continuation of the character’s story rather than a slavish retread.