Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F review – fish-out-of-water Eddie Murphy chases past glories

Murphy’s maverick cop – and his theme music – are back to fight corruption, but four decades on there’s little energy to enliven their formulaic reunion Eddie Murphy isn’t finished yet – as he proved with his barnstormer of a performance as Blaxploitation pioneer Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name . But there’s something a bit tired and formulaic about this further go-around for his iconic Detroit cop Axel Foley from the Beverly Hills Cop action-comedy franchise which 40 years ago made Murphy an explosive Hollywood star – and whose catchy Axel F theme became an 80s anthem, duly revived here. He’s back for the fourth film, yet again leaving his Detroit turf to be a scruffy fish-out-of-water in the hilariously chi-chi world of Beverly Hills, yet again wryly noticing from the wheel of his car, on the way in, a montage of all the crazy California stuff, including a car registration plate reading: PRE-NUP. Axel’s grownup lawyer daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) is in Beverly Hills, menace

Actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph: ‘Eddie Murphy taught me to pace myself – don’t blow your wad’

The Golden Globe-winning star of The Holdovers on sparring with comedy greats, switching from opera to acting, and cooking as therapy

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Philadelphia-born actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph was nominated for a Tony award for her breakthrough performance in the 2012 Broadway stage production of Ghost: The Musical. Since then, she has worked in TV (High Fidelity, Only Murders in the Building) and film, starring opposite Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name and as Aunt Pooh in On the Come Up. Last week she won for best supporting actress award at the Golden Globes for her role in Alexander Payne’s bittersweet tragicomic three-hander, The Holdovers. She plays a recently bereaved mother and the longsuffering head cook at an elite New England boarding school in the 1970s, opposite Paul Giamatti’s curmudgeonly teacher, and newcomer Dominic Sessa as a troubled student.

When you were first approached by Alexander Payne, you didn’t know who he was. How did he win you over for the role?
At the time I was shooting On the Come Up. I’m running around doing 5 million things on my day off and I was told maybe 24 hours before that I was going to have a director meeting. I was starting to vibe with him as he was describing what it was that he wanted to do. And so I asked him, can you please tell me of some of the projects that you’ve done? As he starts telling me these titles [About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants] I realise this is the man who created many movies that I’ve really loved.

Continue reading...

from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/EQhzusD
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gasoline Rainbow review – a free-ranging coming-of-age ode to the curiosity of youth

Elaha review – sex, patriarchy and second-generation identity

Shraddha Kapoor roped in as co-founder by demi fine jewellery start-up Palmonas