Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F trailer: Is Eddie Murphy still capable of doing the smartass thing at 63?

There are a number of questions raised by the new trailer for Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop sequel, Axel F, after it was released online earlier today. Some of them, admittedly, are answered pretty quickly. “How long will it take Netflix to deploy the iconic Harold Faltermeyer theme tune?” (14 seconds.) “How are Paul Reiser, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold looking these days?” (Great, tired, and “better than expected,” respectively.) “Is this where the hell Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been for the last few years?” (Apparently.)

The one question the trailer can’t quite answer, though, is the one that is going to ultimately determine whether this thing has actual juice, or if we’re stuck in another Coming 2 America nostalgia obligation thing: Does Murphy still have that smartass in him? Detroit cop Axel Foley might be the apex Eddie Murphy smartass (give or take 48 Hrs.’ Reggie Hammond), but Murphy’s post-2000 career has shown the man exhibit a real reticence to take his place as the smartest guy in the room, letting everyone else know that they’re the dumbest. The trailer for the upcoming movie (directed by first-time feature director Mark Molloy) has a few sparks of life to it, with Murphy getting off a few lines with a bit of bite to them. (To say nothing of the look he shoots Gordon-Levitt when he references the much-hated Beverly Hills Cop 3.)

But Murphy’s still also got that air of “hapless dad trying to make good” that’s haunted his comedy performances for decades at this point, and precious little sense that he’s capable of running circles around everyone else he’s talking to. Honestly, everybody else in the trailer—especially Reinhold, Gordon-Levitt, and a returning (and very jazzed) Bronson Pinchot) seem to be having more fun than Axel F, which seems like a damn shame for a revival project that must, in some way, be a manner of labor of love, because why the hell else would they be rolling it out this long after the fact?

All of which is to say: Of the two trailer for super-delayed sequels to 20th century movies about iconic wisecracking troublemakers released on May 23, 2024, this one has got to land in a distant second place.