Nostalgia, when it comes to reviving an old movie series, can be axiomatic. Every so often you see a genuine great piece of nostalgia — like “Creed” or the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot or the 2014 “Godzilla.” But then there’s the kind of nostalgia represented by “ Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
” Plotted like a generic police-corruption thriller, lit with cruddy efficiency, pausing every 10 minutes or so for a “light” moment, the movie is no “Beverly Hills Cop.” But it’s better than the ballistic noise orgy that was “Beverly Hills Cop II” (1986) or the clunky retro mess of “Beverly Hills Cop III” (1994), so I guess we should be grateful. And I suspect that a lot of viewers who grew up in the ’80s will be.
Let’s be clear, though, about the level of nostalgia this movie is going for. “Axel F.” is studded with moments that are designed to be time-machine triggers, all staged to make you go, “Oh, yeah, I remember that!” Like early on, when Eddie Murphy , as the reckless and redoubtable Detroit cop Axel Foley, commanders a snow plough and speeds through the rainswept streets, smashing cop cars, leaving a trail of addled observers in his wake (“Goddamn Foley!”), the entire overlong sequence pumped up by what may be the most bombastic song ever heard in a “Beverly Hills Cop” movie, Bob Seger’s “Shakedown” (from “B.
H. Cop II”), with its cloying syncopated-cool monotony (“Shakedown! Breakdown! Takedown..
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