Beverly Hills Cop 4: Axel F — Everything old is (not quite) new again

Beverly Hills Cop 4: Axel F (2024) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for violence, drug use and relentless profanity

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.14.24

The cinema summer of 2024 should be dubbed Return of the Ancient Franchise.

 

Six weeks ago, Garfield the cat returned to the big screen, not quite two decades after his previous appearance. One week later, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reunited (yet again!) for Bad Boys: Ride or Die. In two weeks, we’re getting Twisters, a sorta-kinda retread of 1996’s Twister. The winner’s trophy, however, goes to Michael Keaton’s return in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on Sept. 6 ... not quite four decades after he last donned that pasty make-up.

 

Having become reluctant allies, Jane (Taylour Paige) and Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
listen attentively as Axel (Eddie Murphy) outlines a plan to gain access to a top floor
private gathering.

Meanwhile, Netflix has given us Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, 30 years after Eddie Murphy last played the title character.

The good news is that director Mark Molloy and his scripters — Will Beall, Tom Gormican and Kevin Ketten — respect this franchise’s fan base. They’ve delivered a well-assembled product that ticks all the necessary boxes, and — in more ways than one — can be considered a cast reunion and nostalgic throwback to the 1984 original.

 

The soundtrack certainly hasn’t changed; the film opens with the pulsating sax grooves from Glenn Frey’s “The Heat Is On,” and it doesn’t take long for The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance” and Harold Faltermeyer’s instrumental “Axel F” to arrive. Indeed, the latter pops up, in various arrangements, throughout the entire film (perhaps a bit too frequently).

 

And — of course — Murphy takes every opportunity to deliver Axel’s signature foul-mouthed and smart-assed schtick, often while pretending to be somebody else. It’s part of the character’s charm, and no; it hasn’t worn thin.

 

The bad news is that producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s reputation precedes him, with respect to the ludicrously overblown amount of real estate, vehicles and personal property that gets destroyed during the course of this saga. Bruckheimer remains the poster boy for wretched excess, and Molloy and stunt supervisor Mike Gunther cheerfully oblige.

 

(That said, it’s nice that the original Bruckheimer/Don Simpson logo heralds this new film, by way of acknowledging his late partner’s involvement with the first one.)

 

The action kicks off one evening in Detroit, as Axel interrupts the theft of sports memorabilia from the players’ locker room during an ice hockey game. The subsequent vehicular chase finds Axel in a garbage truck-sized city snowplow, in pursuit of four baddies on peppy quad-cycles: a smash ’n’ crash sequence that destroys a good-sized chunk of the city. 

 

After which, Axel’s only “punishment” is standing back as beloved boss Deputy Chief Friedman (Paul Reiser) falls on his sword and retires, in order to keep his “favorite cop” out of trouble with the Police Commissioner.

 

(As if. One would hope that Beall and the other writers would try a little harder, but this sort of nonsense has long been a franchise hallmark.)

Dolemite Is My Name: Far out, man!

Dolemite Is My Name (2019) • View trailer 
3.5 stars. Rated R, and you'd better believe it, for nudity, crude sexual content and relentless profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 5.1.20

We love to learn about unlikely Hollywood success stories; they fuel Tinseltown’s image as the land of dreams and magic.

Writer/director Robert Rodriguez made his feature film debut, 1992’s El Mariachi, on a budget of only $7,000 (!) … half of which he raised via stipends earned as a participant in experimental clinical drug trials.

If clothes truly make the impersonation, Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) must decide
whether his outfit is flashy enough to persuade a nightclub audience that he's a
streetwise pimp.

Steven Spielberg was only 17 when he began working as an unpaid clerical assistant in the Universal Studios editing department in the summer of 1964; four years later, his first professional short subject, Ambin’, impressed studio vice president Sidney Sheinberg enough to offer Spielberg a seven-year directing contract.

Rudy Ray Moore’s saga belongs in their company.

His unlikely career is profiled — more or less accurately — in Dolemite Is My Name, an unapologetically raucous and profane biographical comedy/drama from director Craig Brewer. The Netflix original boasts an impressively nuanced performance from star Eddie Murphy: an on-the-nose casting choice, given that — like Moore — he’s also an industry Comeback Kid, having risen from the ashes of his own imprudent career decisions.

Moore and his “Dolemite” persona are likely to be recognized or remembered only by cinema buffs who devoured 1970s blaxploitation flicks. As with the concurrent kung fu phase, many (most?) such films were made on microscopic budgets, and typified by shoddy special effects, clumsy scripting and atrocious acting. Fans couldn’t have cared less; such guerilla filmmaking inevitably came with an anti-establishment attitude and visceral degree of energy that made them, well, fun.

(If only in the sense of guilty pleasures.)

Scripters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski don’t shy from the eyebrow-raising coarseness of Moore’s personality, which is to be commended; there’s really no other way to depict his unlikely career with anything approaching authenticity. Murphy, in turn, radiates the charisma and unrelenting — often foolish — persistence with which Moore pursued his improbable dreams.

Murphy also isn’t afraid to embrace Moore’s physical limitations, including the pot belly that made him the world’s least likely film star.

But that comes later.

Tower Heist: Quite a steal

Tower Heist (2011) • View trailer for Tower Heist
Four stars. Rating: PG-13, for profanity and snarky sexual candor
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.4.11


I had to check my calendar, to make sure it wasn’t 1982.

There was Eddie Murphy, as fresh, feisty and funny as he was back in 48 Hrs. and Trading Places. No preening. No mugging. No vanity turns.

Josh (Ben Stiller, far left) and his unlikely crew — from left, Mr. Fitzhugh
(Matthew Broderick), Enrique (Michael Peña), Charlie (Casey Affleck) and
Slide (Eddie Murphy) — case the luxury tower condominiums across the
street, seeking a way to evade FBI agents, police officers and regular staff
members while somehow making their way to the penthouse, where they hope
to find and steal $20 million.

Honestly, Murphy hasn’t been this entertaining in a live-action film for ... well, decades. He’s been an arrogant, self-centered glory hound for so long that I’d forgotten he could be anything else.

And Tower Heist is the perfect vehicle for this vintage, everything-old-is-new-again Eddie Murphy. In many ways, director Brett Ratner’s film even feels retro, as if it might have been made back in the 1970s or ’80s, during the glory days of heist comedies such as The Hot Rock and The Thief Who Came to Dinner.

Yep, this film is that much fun.

Ratner knows this territory, having helmed After the Sunset — a nifty, under-appreciated 2004 heist flick with Pierce Brosnan — in between Rush Hour and X-Men entries. Ratner delivers just the right breezy, light-hearted tone, while granting us a despicable villain to loathe: a guy we’re begging the heroes to take down.

More crucially, Ratner and his four writers — Ted Griffin, Jeff Nathanson, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage — pay careful attention to every member of an engaging ensemble of characters. And, in the grand tradition of such storylines, they’re the most unlikely “burglars” since Dick Van Dyke oversaw an aristocratic household of larcenous servants in 1967’s Fitzwilly.

The vintage atmosphere notwithstanding, the setting is completely contemporary: a luxury New York Central Park condominium complex dubbed The Tower, where manager Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller) commutes from Queens — rising at 4:30 a.m. each day — in order to ensure that every last little detail is perfect for each tenant.

That’s every detail, whether dog-sitting an elderly woman’s pampered pooch, warning a philandering husband that his wife has returned three days early from an overseas trip, or running interference as bank officials try to evict destitute former Wall Street broker Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick).

Josh also enjoys matching wits during chess games played via the Internet with investment titan Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), who lives in the penthouse, where his many pleasures include a daily swim in the rooftop pool.

Much as the tenants depend on Josh, he also is respected by his own staff: the beloved elderly doorman, Lester (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who shares old jokes with anybody who will listen; a feisty maid, Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe, well remembered from Precious), who takes guff from nobody; the evasive Miss Iovenko (Nina Arianda), clandestinely studying for the bar while insisting she’s doing no such thing; and newly hired Enrique Dev’Reaux (Michael Peña), a bellhop/elevator operator-in-training delighted to have traded up from his former position at Burger King.

Oh, yes: and Charlie (Casey Affleck), Josh’s brother-in-law, who works as The Tower’s concierge and isn’t nearly as savvy as he imagines himself.

Shrek Forever After: Serene green

Shrek Forever After (2010) • View trailer for Shrek Forever After
3.5 stars (out of five). Rating: PG, for mild rude humor
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 5.21.10
Buy DVD: Shrek Forever After (Single-Disc Edition) • Buy Blu-Ray: Shrek Forever After (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)


DreamWorks insists that Shrek Forever After will be the final installment of a saga that dates back to the first film's development plans in 1995, and that's probably a good thing.

The law of diminishing returns has infected this franchise. While our jolly green ogre's fourth adventure certainly isn't a bad film, the formula has grown tired, and — more crucially — the characters no longer feel fresh. The snarky banter has become obligatory, rather than inspired by circumstance; the riffs on familiar fairy tales have lost their spontaneity.

Fiona, far left, couldn't be happier with the domestic turn her life has taken.
Shrek, alas, isn't as certain; although he loves his wife and adores his three
children, he misses the "good ol' days" when he could be his rude ogre self.
He's about the learn the perils of that old warning: Be careful what you wish
for ... because you might get it!

That said, Eddie Murphy's Donkey still brings down the house, and Antonio Banderas — his Puss in Boots having undergone something of a physical change — isn't far behind. Murphy's one-liners are a hoot, as are Donkey's various attempts to carry a tune, and viewers — particularly viewers with cats — will laugh every time Puss in Boots appears.

I only wish writers Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke had worked as hard with the other characters. The irony is reflected in this screenplay's basic premise: Just as Shrek chafes at how domesticity and family responsibilities have sapped the "ogre-ness" (read: bachelor frivolity) that made him such an endearing rascal in 2001's first outing, this film's emphasis on marital harmony and baby ogre diaper duty dictates standard-issue plot points that work against the free-spirited unpredictability we enjoyed so much a decade ago.

It's the eternal dilemma: We want the rogue hero (or heroine) to become responsible, surmount all manner of obstacles and save/impress the object of affection, but — having done so — we're immediately less engaged by the new dynamic. There's a good reason so many romantic comedies and thrillers conclude with the embrace and kiss we've waited to see for two hours: That's invariably the end of the interesting part of the story.

The rest is afterthought ... which is why most films shouldn't beget sequels.

Shrek Forever After — a deliberate riff on the Frank Capra/James Stewart classic, It's a Wonderful Life — begins as Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) gradually succumbs to the lifestyle changes faced by any new parent. At first delighted to be the proud father of bouncing, puke-green triplets, his pleasure wanes as various daddy duties encroach on his few remaining pleasures: quality time in the family outhouse and his beloved mud bath.

Matters aren't helped by the fact that his home has become a popular tourist stop, or that the citizens of Far Far Away now assume that family life has 'tamed' him completely. How can an ogre be an ogre, if he can't annoy or scare people?

This deftly assembled early montage, of Shrek's increasingly claustrophobic family life, is director Mike Mitchell's finest moment ... which is unfortunate, since it arrives so early. Nothing else lives up to it.

Shrek hits full boil and finally erupts during a well-intentioned but wholly chaotic first birthday party for his children. He stalks off and unwisely allows himself to be picked up by the scheming Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn, wonderfully malevolent), a nasty, duplicitous little gnome who has worn out his welcome with everybody else in Far Far Away.

Apparently, Shrek didn't get that memo.