Take my rating of the fourth Beverly Hills Cop based on its backstory. I was a little too young for the original Beverly Hills Cop but all the older kids talked about it endlessly. I never saw it nor its sequel but I did see part 3 in the 90s as my first foray into the franchise. It was ok. When I cycled back around to the first two much later, they were better. They were fine. But all the hype failed to impress and they wound up being just two movies I saw, not the ’80s classics everyone talked about.

So that said, I wasn’t exactly excited about this late stage sequel… but at least I wasn’t coming from a Bad Boys level of raging indifference. But I’m not coming from nostalgia or fond memories either.

So, yeah… Axel Foley is still working the streets as the most recognized undercover cop in Detroit. Then someone threatens his defense attorney daughter in LA so he’s off to the coast again.

And, yeah, this is largely just a rather boring action/comedy to me. Eddie Murphy’s gags mostly left me stone-faced and the action surrounding the generic cops ‘n robbers plot was boring. Just a generic story with car chases and shootouts that gave everyone something to do between meh comedy. Did anyone care who the baddie was? I’d be surprised.

But if you are a big on the original two (or even three) films, then maybe it’s a different story for you? Me… it took me half the movie to realize that one dude was Judge Reinhold. So not recognizing a guy who basically existed for self-referential call-back humor might mean I missed half the pic. And if you are oozing nostalgia, all the callbacks and references might be the best thing ever.

I didn’t care for this film but maybe that’s irrelevent to stalwarts who put the original on an 80s pedestal. Newcomers to the franchise and indifferent lookie-loos like me probably won’t get much out of it. I certainly did not.

Score: 68