Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a blast playing Eddie Murphy’s sidekick in ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’
REBOOTS are par for the course in Hollywood. But it doesn’t happen as often with a returning franchise after several years.
That said, we’ve witnessed the latter with franchises like “Bad Boys”, “Austin Powers” and “Ghostbusters”.
And now, fans of “Beverly Hills Cop” are over the moon to find the latest instalment, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F”, dropping on Netflix.
In Eddie Murphy’s close-to five-decade career in Hollywood, he has put out some unforgettable gems. His role as Axel Foley is up there with the best.
The new action comedy, which sees Mark Molloy making his directorial debut, boasts all the hallmarks of the previous films. First, Murphy doesn’t look like he aged in the 30-year gap between “Beverly Hills Cop III”, which was released in 1994, and this film.
He is a heady mix of funny and serious.
And the camaraderie between the Detroit Axel and his best friends – Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who is now a private investigator, and Chief John Taggart (John Ashton) – remains endearing even though they do have their differences.
In the fourth instalment, a few familiar faces join the cast, among them Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective Bobby Abbott, Taylour Paige as Jane Saunders, Axel’s estranged criminal defence attorney daughter, and Kevin Bacon as Captain Cade Grant, who heads the narcotics task force at Beverly Hills Police Department.
In a press junket before the film’s debut on the streaming platform, Gordon-Levitt, whose accolades are nothing to sniff at, opened up about joining the franchise.
He said: “The ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ title is meaningful to a lot of people. I know it was for me. I remember watching it when I was a little kid (probably too young to be watching it, to be honest).
“But my elder brother loves Eddie Murphy on ‘Saturday Night Live’, in his stand-up and his movies like ‘Beverly Hills Cop’.”
As such, he understood the hype around the franchise’s return and the expectations of fans.
With Beverly Hills known for being the Mecca of wealth and glamour, the franchise has a bit of fun with it.
The “Mr. Corman” actor added: “Beverly Hills deserves to be made fun of. It’s a neighbourhood of Los Angeles that centres on the flaunting of wealth. This is not a good part of human society. It’s the kind of neighbourhood that exists in every big city in the world.
“The more that we worship money for money’s sake, the more we perpetuate inequalities and tragedies that go on in the world, so, obviously, this is not what ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ is about on the surface.
“But underneath, part of what resonates with people is getting to take the piss out of these ultra-wealthy neighbourhoods.
“Eddie plays a cop out of Detroit, who comes to Beverly Hills and is a fish out of water. People resonate with him.”
Gordon-Levitt added: “When I got the chance to be the new sidekick opposite Eddie Murphy in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’, I was thrilled and they are big shoes to fill.”
In the film, there is tension between Axel, who returns to Beverly Hills to help protect his daughter as she is representing a guy accused of killing a cop, and Bobby, who knocked boots with her in the past.
On working alongside the legendary actor, who is known for going off script, Gordon-Levitt held his own.
He added: “Eddie and I got along really well. Some comedians are always on and feel the need to make people laugh. He’s very much a laid-back dude, which is frankly more my vibe, and we would just shoot the breeze about music and movies and then when the camera would roll, of course, we were on, but it was a magical experience.”
As for a memorable scene, he laughed: “Well, there is this scene where my character is supposed to be flying a helicopter and he is not doing a very good job of it.
“First of all, the way they shot the scene was extraordinary for today. Nowadays, a lot of action movies use digital visual effects, where you are basically watching something that is not real.
“That was not the case with the helicopter scene. There was a real stunt pilot. All of those things happened. It looks real.
“Being next to Eddie and going back and forth in our scenes inside the helicopter, that heightened energy, that was pretty memorable. It was fun and intense.”
Reflecting on the shoot, he shared: “One moment that stands out for me was when we finished. We were done shooting and everyone was clapping and Eddie gave me a big hug and said to me: ‘We did a good one.’
“And that meant a lot to me because, as I said in the beginning, these were big shoes to fill.
“Of course, I want to please audiences and for the movie to do well. But for me, the most important person that I would want to be happy is Eddie himself, and the fact that he felt that we made a good one of these movies was satisfying to me.”
∎ “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is streaming on Netflix.