A bunch of cars and city property get damages because Axel can't drive the slow plow (I don't think Axel can drive any vehicle that isn't a car) and Jeffrey is furious. It't not an Axel Foley movie without Detroit or Beverly Hills getting completely destroyed (and BH will soon get its turn!) and the Chief getting angry with Axel. Jeffrey is irked that he himself was screamed at "for 45 minutes straight" by the police commissioner. He tells Axel that he's retiring and basically he won't be there anymore to help get Axel out of his jams because that's apparently what he did in the past.
Of course, there are new characters too. We find out that Axel has a daughter named Jane (Taylor Paige) who he rarely sees. She works in (or perhaps near) Beverly Hills as a defense attorney and we see a quick shot of her ID card which has her birth year as 1991. This confused me a bit because this would mean that Axel had a young child in Beverly Hills Cop 3 (which came out in 1994) and, of course there is no mention of that because they didn't know they would be making a sequel thirty years later where Axel would have a grown daughter. It's just interesting that's the year they chose as her birth year. We get some backstory that he moved his family out to Beverly Hills when Jane was a kid because it wasn't safe in Detroit because the 12th Street Mafia was out to kill him and his family. He eventually divorced Jane's mother and moved back to Detroit. We never find out who the mother is (nobody we know, presumably) or if she's still around and we never find out the story with this 12th Street Mafia. I honestly don't even think the writers know and didn't really care that much. It certainly sounds like we could use a Beverly Hills Cop 3.5 because there's certainly a movie (or two!) missing from this timeline!
Because Jane dislikes her father so much, she goes by Jane Saunders instead of Jane Foley. (I'm guessing Saunders is her mom's name.) When we meet her, she is meeting a young man in prison named Sam Enriquez who claims he's been set up to look like he killed a cop but insists he didn't. She tells him she is representing him pro bono and wants to hear his story of what happened. He says that somebody talked him into "muling one time". He was in the passenger seat with Copeland, an undercover cop, and he saw a black SUV trailing them. He tried to call someone, but his phone wouldn't work. The SUV pulled up alongside them and a gun pointed out and shot Copeland. Sam grabbed the wheel and steered them into the SUV, but lost control and hit a pole. The next thing he knew, he was waking up with the gun in his lap next to a dead body.
Jane is suspicious of Copeland and thinks he's a dirty cop. At the court hearing, she tells the judge that "the defense will be submitted a motion to subpoena Lieutenant Copeland's finical records as [they] believe he was involved in potential criminal activity."
In the parking garage, after she gets in her car, she gets a very clear message that there are people out there who do not want her working on this case. She knows this because her car, which she is still in, mind you, because she was unable to escape, is pushed off the parking garage by about four men in masks and she's just dangling there (the masked men were kind enough to at least tie her car with chains attached to poles so at least she didn't drop). However, that was just a warning, and next time she probably won't be so lucky.
The police arrive as well as Rosewood, who now has his own investigating company. Apparently, he was the one who got her involved in the case. He tells her she needs to drop the case because he doesn't want to have to tell her dad that she got killed. When she refuses to give up on the case, he tells her that she and her dad are exactly the same. Billy calls Axel to tell him what's going on and this is the reason for Axel going to Beverly Hills. After hanging up the phone, two men have their guns pointed at Billy and he is kidnapped. He was in a junkyard and had "just got the evidence [he] needed". Axel had heard dogs barking and asked him where he was and learning that he's in an impound will be a clue for later on.
Jeffrey drives Axel to the airport and tells him to "watch his ass out there" because he's "not 22 anymore." I believe that's how old Eddie Murphy was in the first movie (or at least, somewhere in his early twenties) so that was a fun little callback. Axel just smiles and replies, "They love me in Beverly Hills."
Billy was supposed to pick up Axel at the airport, but he never showed up. Axel calls him from his rental car, but doesn't get an answer, so he goes to his office of Rosewood Investigations which is set in some hotel room (interesting place for a business, a little seedy if you ask me!). When he gets there, he notices the doors has been broken into and he walks in where he sees two guys rummaging around. Being who he is, Axel immediately acts like he's also supposed to be there. He asks them what's taking them so long and acts like he's looking for something. One guy asks who sent him and he (smartly) replies, "Who do you think?" These guys must be so dumb because one guy replies with "Beck?" and Axel replies (and this made me laugh), "No, LeBron James. Yes, Beck!" They're just giving him the answer that he needs! However, one of the guys sees a photo of Axel and Rosewood and points out to Axel that it's him (which he says is Wesley Snipes). Luckily before he was caught, he had ripped a page out of Rosewood's planner and surreptitiously put it in his pocket.
Axel knows he's been made, but he's able to escape. Now there's a third bad guy and they're after him. This is when we get him wrecking havoc on Beverly Hills by driving a little scooter car through the posh shopping area while "Neutron Dance" is playing. At the end, the cart has flipped over and many tourists come up to him with their phones and start filming/taking pics of him.
Axel sees a photo of Bobby that shows he was in the LAPD Air Support, meaning he used to be a pilot. This will come back later (and if you've seen the previews, you probably know). Bobby wants to know what Axel was doing in Rosewood's office (very similiar to the first movie when Taggart and Rosewood want to know why Axel was in Maitland's office), but Axel won't answer him, instead asking if he can talk to Taggart or get a phone call to call his lawyer, meaning his daughter. It takes three tries before he can finally get through to her without her hanging up on him. When he blurts out that Rosewood called him last night and if she can bail him out, he'll tell her everything.
We get a brief scene of Axel reunited with Taggart and he asks him why he hasn't retired yet. He said he did (which is true, they mentioned it in the third movie how he retired and moved to Phoenix), but he said he got back together with his wife, Maureen, (I guess they were the Ross and Rachel of this franchise because they were always breaking up and getting back together) and apparently he moved back to Beverly Hills and now he's working again so he can be anywhere but home. Let's be honest, John Ashton wasn't in the third movie because he didn't like the script, but came back for this one.
Oh, yeah, we also find out that Jane and Bobby have a history. They used to date, but they broke up because she didn't want to date a cop. There's a really awkward moment where Axel asks them (after noticing their attitudes around each other) if they've had "intercourse" (yes, that's the word he uses). Like, dude, why would you ask your daughter that? At first, I felt a little bad that Jane was being so dismissive of him, but now I don't really blame her for not wanting him in her life! But what are the odds that those two would know each other? Yes, I suppose they do work in the same circle, but still.
When they arrive at the impound, Axel does what he does best and pretends to be someone else to get the information he needs. He tells the young man behind that counter that he's the "producer of the new Liam Neeson revenge thriller, Impound" (what a terrible name for a movie!) and that they're looking for a technical advisor. He sees a headshot of the guy on the wall and asks if he's an actor and the guy replies that he was in Jupiter Ascending which is the most random movie and one that I've never seen and don't know anyone who's ever seen it. Wanting to butter him up, Axel giddily tells him he loved him in that movie. Knowing that her father has never seen the movie, she asks him what it's about and he replies it's about Jupiter...ascending. It's so stupid, but funny. The dumb guy behind the counter is so happy he's being considered to help them with a new movie, he doesn't even pick up that Axel has never seen Jupiter Ascending and can't even tell his daughter the plot. (I certainly wouldn't know what it's about!) He quickly changes the subject back to the faux film he's working on and tells the guy "the movie starts off with Liam Neeson breaking into a police impound yard." The guy stops him to tell him they just had a break-in last night and Axel is mock shocked. He asks if they could have a look for "research" and are allowed access where they find Copeland's car and Axel quickly discovers a surveillance camera that somebody installed. The SD card is missing and he surmises that's what Rosewood was after. Janes says there's nothing about a camera in the car in the police report and thinks that's what they were looking for in Billy's office.
Axel quickly realizes they're being followed and he uses his camera phone under Jane's car to discover it has a tracker. He pulls it off and they drive away where he places it on the back of a stopped bus. They soon find out the two guys that were in Rosewood's office are following them. Axel and Jane start following them now and they go to a swanky restaurant where the father and daughter will use their magic to get into the private club on the rooftop. There they see the two goons with Cade and when Axel asks what they were doing in Billy's office, he replies that Billy "stole a crucial piece of evidence" which he needs to recover to exonerate Copeland and that he "will do whatever it takes to get it back." Sounds pretty ominous to me!
Axel checks out the home of the address he found in Rosewood's planner. He tells his daughter that there was a lot of security there "even for Beverly Hills" and that he saw the guys that were following them. They're in the car when they're having this discussing and lucky for them, Bobby is following them. I say lucky because Bobby pulls up next to a car and he hears one tattooed man say to another tattooed man to take out the people in the car ahead of them, which just so happens to be Axel and Jane. It's a good thing Bobby knows Spanish because that's the language the tattooed men are speaking. We next get a crazy moment that should have made national news, but only seems to make the local news: the two men get out of their car and start shooting at Axel and Jane who by now have gotten out of their car and are crouching down to hide from the gunmen. One of them sees Jane in a side mirror and is about to shoot her, but Bobby shoots him and the other guy. Luckily, no one is killed here except for the bad guys. We find out that they were part of a "cartel kill crew out of Adelanto." Ah! I knew it! They looked like guys who would work for Gustavo Fringe.
Apparently, Rosewood had tried to put these guys away, but somehow it never happened and perhaps that's because Cade was also involved in their case. Taggart denies that Cade is dirty and Axel questions him if he's part of this. Bobby is suspended without pay for what happened and he accuses the chief of not wanting to solve the case. Now he, Axel, and Jane are the only three people to check into the case. Jane had done some research of the mansion that was heavily guarded and they find out it was bought with drug money. The house next door to that one is for sale so they decide to recruit Axel's old pal, Serge (Bronson Pinchot), who is friends with a real estate agent (who feels like she should be on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and Bobby and Jane pretend to be a married couple who are interested in the house.
We get some fun moments from Serge who seems to be completely the same at 60 as he was when he was in his 20s and 30s. When he pulls up in his convertible, he exclaims "I'm on an undercover mission with Ack-well Foley and I'm so happy!"
At the house, we get another callback to their relationship when Axel asks how many bathrooms there are and when Serge tells him there are ten, Axel says "Get the f*** out of here!" and Serge (predictably) responds with "No, I cannot!" They're just giving the audience what they want.
While Bobby and Jane are being shown the house, Axel sneaks away to check out the shady house next door. There are lots of statues in the backyard that are very similar to the ones in the yard of the mansion in the first movie, so obvious a shoutout, but those statues just make the yard look cheap even though I'm sure they're very expensive. Of course, having lots of money doesn't mean you have good taste. We've all seen Trump's New York penthouse in The Apprentice. He sneaks into the garage and takes photos of the hood of a car parked in there. A camera catches him and one of Cade's minions calls Cade to tell him that Foley was at the house.
Axel took photos of the car because he sees paint on it that must have come from Copeland's car and he found a device that's used to disrupt cell signals. Jane remembers how Sam had tried to call for help, but wasn't able to get service. They need to find the SD card and the only person who knows its whereabouts is Billy, but where's Billy?
Axel and Bobby decide to talk to Chalino, Sam's uncle. They think he'll probably want to talk to them since Grant is trying to pin the murder on Chalino's nephew. Chalino's (Luiz Guzman) operations are in a bar-like establishment. Bobby says he's a little nervous since he knows there will be armed men everywhere and when he asks Axel if he's nervous, he replies that he's from Detroit and it will be just like going into Buffalo Wild Wings, heh. When they go inside and find Chalino singing karaoke (a half Spanish/half English "Man Eater"), he says, "This is nothing like Buffalo Wild Wings." They tell Chalino they're there because they know his nephew is being set up and is "about to go away for life for a murder he didn't commit." While pointing a gun at Bobby's head, Chalino wants them to give him a reason why he should trust them. Axel replies that his daughter is representing Sam and that the same guys who are trying to frame him almost took her out. Chalino agrees to work with them and tells them that Grant has dirty cops working for him, "protecting the cartel's interests." When ask why Grant killed Copeland, Chalino tells them "he was gonna go clean" and that he was talking to a PI that Axel realizes was Rosewood and when he asks about said PI, Chalino says "They caught him sniffing around the east basin of the port where they bring in the drugs." So now at least he knows Rosewood's last known whereabouts. I have to say, while people are concerned about Rosewood, they don't seem that concerned.
When Axel and Bobby leave the bar and walk to their car, they are surrounded by Grant and his men. They have been obviously set up when Grant opens the trunk to reveal cocaine in a hidden spot. Both are held handcuffed in the country jail, but Axel, being Axel, manages to get them both to escape, but the only way out is on the roof where there's a helicopter...and remember, Bobby used to be a pilot for the LAPD Air Support. What he didn't tell Axel is that he doesn't fly anymore because he crashed the last helicopter he flew and now has PTSD from it. He must have forgotten how to fly because he does a terrible job. He's flying very close to the ground (like, he's level with the cars on the street, that's how low!) which just seems super dangerous. Cade shoots at the chopper and it ends up crash landing on a golf course. After listening to a couple of podcasts, I guess one of the golfers they see is from Happy Gilmore, but I've never seen that movie, so I didn't even realize that the first time I watched it.
By this time, Taggart knows that Cade is behind this since he literally saw him shoot the helicopter. While Axel and Bobby are checking out the place where Billy last was and distract his captives to escape with him in a truck filled with statues that are full of cocaine, Jane is kidnapped when she gets into her car to drive home. Billy tells them he hid the SD card in his Rambo knife that's in his office and Axel calls Jane to let her know but Cade answer her phone and tells him to bring the SD card (by this time he already knows that Billy is with Axel) before he does something he "might regret" and to meet him at the Sunset Point Warehouse on Alameda in one hour. The audience clearly sees he's lying because he's at the mansion and Axel gets this confirmed when he calls Jeffrey to ask him to track Jane's phone. Billy thinks they should call for backup, but Bobby doesn't think that's a good idea since they're fugitives driving a truck full of cocaine (well, when you put it like that!). Axel sidesteps a police car that has a car pulled over on the side of the road and soon many cop cars are following the truck, but they soon lose their backup when the cars all crash into each other since Axel is driving so erratically.
The truck crashes right through the front of the house which I'm sure you've seen if you've watched the trailer. I won't lie; it was a pretty cool moment. There's lots of gunfire as the bad guys are shooting at Axel, Bobby, and Billy. A few moments later, Taggart shows up and as he's pulling a gun out of the trunk, he's muttering, "That damn Foley! Here we go again." He's such a curmudgeon; I love it! Although, this guy is in his 70s; should he really be going into a house full of gunfire? When Billy does his "Drop your weapons!" routine, a clear shoutout from the first movie (and of course it doesn't work), Taggart just shakes his head and replies, "Some things never change." This is the first time we see Taggart and Rosewood together in this movie and it just dawned on me that we haven't seen them together since the end of the second movie since Taggart wasn't in the third movie. What a beautiful reunion!
Axel spots Cade upstairs and makes his way to the second floor. We see that Jane has slipped out of her handcuff and we know that Axel taught her how to do that because they talked about it in an earlier scene. The guy watching her hears a noise and when he goes to check it out, this is when she breaks free of her restraints and smashes a vase over his head.
Axel comes across Cade and they have a standoff. Axel tells him to put his gun down and Cade compiles because he sees one of his men have a gun on Axel from behind. When Axel is about to get shot by that guy, we see him get shot by Jane who had taken the gun from the guy watching her. Cade shoots at Jane, but Axel throws himself in front of the bullet, which hits him in the front of his shoulder. Bobby arrives just in time to shoot Cade in the head. Of course, this whole sequence is done in slow motion.
Axel is taken to the hospital, but he's going to be okay and now he and Jane are on good terms. The movie ends with a callback to the first one with Taggart and Rosewood in a parked car outside the hospital to make sure Axel doesn't leave (he had already snuck out to get some food at a nearby diner). They're arguing about something and Axel slips into the backseat and tells them they're the worst surveillance team in the world (he ain't lying!).
The first BHC movie will always be the best, but I think this one is the next best. The third is just terrible and the second one has its fun moments, but is a bit of a hot mess and I felt like this one was more thought out and at least the storyline made a little more sense.
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