This summer has seen the rejuvenation of the aging action hero. Not Ryan Gosling. He’s perfectly fine as The Fall Guy. But the box office recently was dominated by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, two guys who first started playing the Bad Boys in 1995. And this Fourth of July, a period that ironically once was dominated by Smith, we will be returning with Eddie Murphy to the glamorous neighborhood of Beverly Hills for a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie, subtitled Axel F. It’ll be available on Netflix, one of the best streaming services available.
But what if it was called Shaq-sel F? That’s the premise of an hilarious new promo video that the ever-entertaining Shaquille O’Neal recorded for Netflix in which he donned Axel Foley’s iconic Detroit Lions jacket and pretended he was auditioning for Beverly Hills Cop. Shaq is gold. This is hysterical.
Shaquille O’Neal never was considered for the role of Axel Foley in the original Beverly Hills Cop. But do you know who was? Sylvester Stallone! Which makes sense on a certain level. Axel Foley is a Detroit Cop who follows a lead out to California when his close friend is murdered. With Stallone in the lead, that becomes way more like Cobra. Cast Eddie Murphy, fresh off of 48 Hours and Saturday Night Live, and you end up with something far more fresh, funny, and long-lasting.
I also kind of love, in the Shaquille O’Neal promo video, that he uses a banana as a gun that’s hiding out in his pocket. It instantly calls to mind the prank that Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley pulled on two cops in the original Beverly HIlls Cop who were supposed to be tailing him. The old “banana in the tailpipe” routine. Classic.
Will audiences be primed for Eddie Murphy to return to Axel Foley in the fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie? A lot of time has passed since 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop 3, but that movie left a bad taste in the mouth of franchise fans, as it didn’t live up to the standard set by the original movie and its superior sequel (directed by the great Tony Scott). We have a lot of familiar faces rejoining Murphy in this sequel, including Judge Reinhold, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser, and Johns Ashton. But we also get new characters joining the series… including an interesting new villain. Look for the latest Beverly Hills Cop story once it lands on Netflix beginning on July 3.