BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F
A slick, nostalgic sequel drowned in profanity.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the honest tension. This is a well-made movie. Eddie Murphy's raw, infectious humor is intact, Jerry Bruckheimer is back producing, and Netflix's money is on the screen — the production values are high, the action pleases, and the nostalgia lands. There's even a genuinely moral spine: Axel Foley is upstanding, incorruptible, and driven by a real sense of justice.
None of that is enough. The film is buried under an almost incessant barrage of foul language — so pervasive it becomes boring — including several uses of the "n" word. It celebrates sex outside marriage and homosexuality, carries racially charged statements, and stages some very strong, bloody violence.
So craft and content pull hard in opposite directions, and the content wins. A well-made movie can still be one to skip, and this is that movie. If you loved the franchise, this is one to leave on the shelf. Our answer is no.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESForty years after the first film, fast-talking Detroit detective Axel Foley is pulled back to Beverly Hills. His longtime boss is leaving the Detroit PD, his estranged daughter is in danger, and a close friend — Billy Rosewood — has vanished trying to help her.
Axel jumps into action, as always. But his gung-ho approach to police work leaves him with plenty to learn about how to relate to his daughter and her former boyfriend. Can he, with help from friends old and new, crack the case, catch the bad guys, and repair a broken family relationship?
Is It Any Good?
Three stars, and the craft earns them. This is a big blast of nostalgia with a few new tricks — explosive at times, genuinely funny, and built to please fans old and new. The cinematography is memorable and fitting. The writing is snappy. Judge Reinhold and other original cast members return alongside strong new blood in Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the "take it to the limit" action scenes are crowd-pleasers. The soundtrack fuses the classic themes — "The Heat Is On" and Bob Seger's "Shakedown" — with a 2020s vibe, and the winking references to the franchise's own history mostly hit home.
It isn't flawless. The film drags in places; twenty or thirty minutes of characters trash-talking each other could have been cut, and the father-daughter thread — meant to add heart — falls a little flat. Solid entertainment, but padded.
The Worldview
There's real good here, and it deserves naming first. The film carries a strong moral worldview: Axel and most of those around him are upstanding, incorruptible, and moved by a genuine hunger for justice — even when they bend the rules to reach the truth. That instinct toward justice is something Scripture prizes.
But the film pulls hard the other way. It takes a positive view of sex outside marriage and of homosexuality, treating both as simply fine. It leans on racially charged statements, including several uses of the "n" word. And the moral of the father-daughter story never rises above the truism that family matters — it says nothing meaningful about what it actually means to be a father or a daughter.
Then there's the language, which is less a worldview position than a posture. The dialogue assaults the ear almost incessantly with obscenities and profanities that abuse the name of God — so pervasive it grows boring, and reveals a creative team as short on wit as it is on vocabulary.
The film wants restored family relationship without the harder work of humility — neither father nor daughter will admit their failures. Scripture puts confession at the center of reconciliation: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral worldview where the title characters and most of those who support him are upstanding and driven by a genuine sense of justice, though they often bend rules to get to the truth, but marred by strong Romantic elements, including a view of sex outside of marriage being just fine, some racially charged statements (including several uses of the “n” word), and a positive view of homosexuality
Foul Language
At least 88 “f” words, 48 other obscenities, 26 strong profanities abusing the name of God or Jesus), three obscene gestures, several uses of the “n” word
Violence
Some very strong violence with blood and lots of strong and light action violence with some blood, some of it comical) includes a robbery takes place, and a policeman makes an arrest and interrupts another part of the same armed robbery (obvious peril with guns pointed and brandished), a shootout ensues and a rundown in a snowplow (shots fired and many cars and other property destroyed), a criminal fires an automatic weapon at police in pursuit while trying to escape and is clotheslined (impact and fall shown), a woman is locked in her car by masked marauders and pushed off the edge of a parking garage (she is okay but is left hanging from a several story building for an indefinite time), a cop sprays three suspects with a fire extinguisher and brains them with it to escape a tight situation, a man and woman examine a car with dried blood all over the front seats and dashboard, a man and woman are attacked in L.A. traffic, and a fellow police officer helps them defend themselves (several criminals gunned down with impact and minimal blood, cars ram into each other, and much peril for many motorists), two men are tazed and captured by a crooked cop, a man sets a trap for another to fall from the ceiling, and he slips and bangs his head on a table and is knocked unconscious; a man drives a truck into a house, and a massive firefight with automatic weapons and hand guns breaks out (many killed with impact and some blood spattered on walls, stairs and other rooms), a man shoots a man in the knee and in the head as he falls (blood flow from both shots); a man shoots a man in the gut and head (blood spurts from both shots); a man is shot in the shoulder point blank (blood sprays from the wound and slow motion fall), and a man shoots a man point blank in the head (impact, bullet hole and blood spray are shown in slow motion)
Sex
Some sexual references, a man talks about a young man having intercourse with his daughter, a man asks another how much he and his wife “make love,” and references to homosexuality
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Some social drinking
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking, but plot involves a drug cartel, and a man snorts cocaine in one scene;
Miscellaneous Immorality
A man has a strained relationship with his daughter, and neither is willing to admit their failures and wrongdoings.
Talk About It
Four questions for the couch, the commute, or the couple bingeing it together.
Axel is driven by justice, yet he routinely bends the rules to get there. When does a good end start to excuse wrong means — and where does Scripture draw the line?
Micah 6:8 · Romans 12:21The film's father and daughter want a restored relationship, but neither will own their failures. Why does real reconciliation require confession, and what does honest confession look like?
James 5:16 · 1 John 1:9This movie treats profanity as a comic reflex, until it's just noise. What does Scripture say about the weight of our words — and the abuse of God's name?
Exodus 20:7 · Ephesians 4:29The story celebrates a longing for justice while glorifying things Scripture calls sin. How do you hold on to what a story gets right without swallowing what it gets wrong?
Philippians 4:8 · 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22The Final Word
There's genuine skill here — the laughs, the action, the nostalgia all work. But skill isn't the whole question. Between the relentless profanity, the racial slurs, the bloody violence, and a worldview that blesses what Scripture won't, this one is excessive and unacceptable. So our answer stands: skip it. Looking for something for the whole household instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.
