Can you imagine the Beverly Hills Cop movies without their most hilarious scenes? Believe it or not, the 1984 original — one of the absolute best ‘80s movies — was, at one point, going to be a gritty crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone before SNL star Eddie Murphy stepped in as Axel Foley, ensuring it would become the highly quotable comedy classic.
The long-awaited fourth installment, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, is finally available with a Netflix subscription. And, as reflected by the solid critical reception of Mr. Murphy’s latest, it has contributed a lot to the slate of funniest moments from the Eddie Murphy movies’ shared history. In that spirit, let’s revisit all of the times Axel Foley made us laugh the hardest during his adventures in 90210.
Axel Checks In At Beverly Palm Hotel (Beverly Hills Cop)
One of the details that makes Axel Foley one of the best Black detectives in movies or TV (or one of the most iconic fictional detectives in general) is that he’s a cop who doesn’t always play by the rules. That’s evident by how he manages to get a room at the Beverly Palm Hotel in the original 1984 installment of BHC. He poses as a Rolling Stone reporter interviewing Micheal Jackson who has already booked a room but, when the front desk attendant claims he has no reservation, he accuses the hotel of racial discrimination. The façade humorously works, but his luxury suite still ends up costing him more than pretty penny.
Axel Meets Serge (Beverly Hills Cop)
It’s clear how Serge (whom Bronson Pinchot reprised most recently as part of the Axel F cast) became a staple of the franchise, thanks to his first interaction with Axel. The flamboyant art gallery salesperson of indeterminate European origin can’t seem to pronounce the cop’s first name (“Achmed,” “Akwell,” etc.) and practically engages in a contest of who can project their voice to the highest pitch when discussing his recent dealings. Now, anytime someone might say, “Get the fuck outta here!” what other response is there than an even louder, “No, I can’t!”?
Axel Puts Bananas In Taggart And Rosewood’s Tailpipe (Beverly Hills Cop)
There is not a single moment from the Beverly Hills Cop franchise more famous than when Axel pulls a fast one on Sgt. John Taggart (John Ashton) and Det. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), who have been ordered to tail him. While distracting them with curbside food service by a hotel attendant, Axel stuffs a couple of bananas in their vehicle’s exhaust pipe, stopping them in their tracks when they try to follow the Detroit cop as he leaves to follow a clue. Reinhold later told Rich Eisen that it was originally going to be a potato until Murphy rightfully suggested the banana would be funnier.
Axel’s “Super Cops” Speech (Beverly Hills Cop)
After foiling an attempted robbery at a strip club, Axel, Taggart, and Rosewood return to the Beverly Hills Police Department to an angry Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox). Axel subsequently claims that the arrests were completely the work of the other two “super cops,” who only found themselves there after following him inside. However, Taggart decides to “fuck up a perfectly good lie” by recounting the truth.
Axel Poses As Victor’s Lover (Beverly Hills Cop)
Another one Axel’s funniest tricks occurs when he tries to have a conversation with Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), whom he suspects is the drug pusher responsible for his friend’s murder, while he is dining at a “members only club.” He tells the maitre’d to tell Victor that he, calling himself “Ramon,” learned he has “herpes simplex 10” and Victor should get himself checked out before “things start falling off on the man.” The maitre’d then agrees that the clever cop should be the one to deliver the message in the brilliantly off-the-cuff moment.
Axel Steals A House Under Renovation (Beverly Hills Cop II)
Apparently, having learned his lesson about the cost of a hotel in Beverly Hills, Axel decides to find a place to stay in a less costly way in Tony Scott’s 1987 sequel. He pulls up to a luxurious mansion being renovated and, posing as a building inspector, informs the crew that the “plans have changed” and that everyone should leave until further notice. Taggart catches on to the con when he and Rosewood meet him at the house, which Axel claims belongs to his uncle.
Axel Convinces A Strip Club Taggart Is Gerald Ford (Beverly Hills Cop II)
Axel, Taggart, and Rosewood’s investigation into Bogomil’s shooting in Beverly Hills Cop II leads them to visit yet another local strip joint called 385 North, where Axel comes up with another way of receiving special treatment. He tells the bouncer that he and Rosewood are from the Secret Service and are escorting Gerald Ford, whom he identifies Taggart as. When the sergeant asks Axel if he really looks like the 38th President, he tells his white buddies that they both do.
Axel Pops In At The “Illegal Chop Shop” (Beverly Hills Cop III)
As per tradition, 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III (which marked Murphy’s reunion with director John Landis after Coming to America, which has great BTS facts) opens in Detroit, where Axel and his task force plan to bust an illegal chop shop. The fast talker makes his entrance by simply knocking on the front door and addressing the place as an “illegal chop shop” and asking to have his wife’s Buick destroyed to get back at her. This is one of the few moments (if not the only moment) in the otherwise widely reviled threequel that is considered funny.
Axel Steals The “Meter Lady’s” Buggy (Beverly Hills: Axel F)
One of the highlights of the latest installment — as mentioned in our CinemaBlend’s review of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F — is the bevy of action sequences, which are equally as thrilling as they are funny. One of the best examples is the first chase that Axel finds himself in in Beverly Hills, when he is forced to steal a buggy from a “meter lady,” who manages to hold on to the side while blasting him with mace for an impressively long time. The sequence also ends with one of the funniest lines, in which a cuffed Axel jokes about being detained in a “Fisher Price-looking cop car.”
The Beverly Hills Cop III Call-Out (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F)
Even Eddie Murphy views Beverly Hills Cop III as a misfire, which is made clear by a clever callback in the fourth installment. As Det. Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is reviewing the department’s file on the veteran cop, he tells Axel that his last trip to Beverly Hills in 1994 was “not your finest hour.”
Axel And Bobby Steal A Helicopter (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F)
During their first interaction, Axel learns that Bobby was part of the LAPD Air Support, which later gives him the idea to escape the police department by taking a helicopter from the roof. Unfortunately, Axel learns a little too late that Bobby is not the best pilot, and even crashed a helicopter before becoming a detective. What ensues is a thoroughly ridiculous, low-altitude chase through the city that ends with a crash landing on a golf course.
It looks like Eddie Murphy still has it what it takes to play Axel Foley just as we remember him. Could this mean that we could soon add more funny moments to this collection in a Beverly Hills Cop V? We’ll see but in the meantime, you can stream the first two films in the franchise alongside Axel F on Netflix. As for the panned threequel, Paramount+ subscribers have access to that in addition to the first two installments.