Damien Diaz Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,’ starring Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot and Kevin Bacon

July 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise from left: Eddie Murphy, Taylour Paige, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bronson Pinchot in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Directed by Mark Molloy

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Beverly Hills, California, and briefly in Detroit, the action comedy film “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African Americans, white, Latin and Asian) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Detroit police officer Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills and investigates a murder case involving the jailed client of his estranged daughter, who is the defense attorney of the accused suspect.

Culture Audience: “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Eddie Murphy, the “Beverly Hills Cop” movie series and action comedy films that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Eddie Murphy, John Ashton and Kevin Bacon in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Because sequels usually aren’t as good as the first film, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” should meet expectations for most viewers who aren’t expecting this fourth movie in the series to be as fresh and original as the first (and still best) movie in the series: 1984’s “Beverly Hills Cop.” “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” relies heavily on nostalgia and a transparently predictable plot. However, this lively sequel overcomes its weaknesses with some funny moments, well-cast new characters, and plenty of expected action spectacles.

Directed by Mark Molloy, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” was written by Will Beall, Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten. The previous sequels in the series are 1987’s “Beverly Hills Cop II” and 1994’s “Beverly Hills Cop III.” “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is better than the abysmal “Beverly Hills Cop II” but it’s not as entertaining as “Beverly Hills Cop II.” The concept is essentially the same for every movie in the series: wisecracking and rebellious Detroit police detective Axel Foley (played by Eddie Murphy) gets pulled into an investigation that requires him to go to Beverly Hills, California, to solve the case.

The beginning of “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” shows Axel in Detroit at a hockey game with a co-worker named Detective Mike Woody (played by Kyle S. More), who hasn’t been able to solve a case in the five years since Mike has been a Detroit police detective. Mike is an eager admirer of Axel, but Mike is socially awkward and slow to pick up on clues.

At this hockey game, Axel informs Mike that they’re not spending leisure time at this hockey game. They’re really on a stakeout for a major robbery that will take place during the game. The robbery an inside job involving a security guard named Junior Bollinger (played by Kenneth Nance Jr.) and several other people. If they can thwart this robbery and have the criminals arrested, Axel wants to help Mike by giving Mike some credit for helping crack this case.

Axel and Mike make their move to prevent the robbery, but they are outnumbered by several thugs. It all just leads to car chases and shootouts, including Axel stealing a large construction truck and crashing it. You know where all of this is going: The criminals are caught, but Axel leaves a trail of car chase destruction as part of the mayhem.

Back and police headquarters, Axel gets scolded by his supervisor Jeffrey Friedman (played by Paul Reiser), who tells Axel that the police department no longer tolerates the types of irresponsible shenanigans that Axel has been getting away with for years. “They don’t want swashbucklers. They want social workers,” Jeffrey says.

Jeffrey also tells Axl that Jeffrey is retiring so he can spend more time with his family. Axel is upset by this news and asks Jeffrey to reconsider. Jeffrey has already made up his mind though, and he gives this piece of advice to Axel about reconnecting with family: “Talk to your daughter.”

Who is Axel’s daughter? She is Jane Saunders (played by Taylour Paige), an outspoken and independent defense attorney who works for an elite law firm in Beverly Hills. Jane is a 32-year-old bachelorette with no children. She has not spoken to Axel in several years because she chose to cut off contact with him.

It’s later revealed that Jane has a lot of bitter resentment toward Axel because she felt that Axel neglected her after her parents’ divorce. Jane’s mother/Axel’s ex-wife is mentioned in the movie as still being alive, but she’s never seen in the movie. Because Jane has refused to communicate with Axel, he has stayed away from her too and gave up on contacting her. It should come as no surprise that all of that is about to change as Axel finds himself in Beverly Hills again.

Jane represents a low-level criminal named Sam Enriquez (played by Damien Diaz), who has been arrested and is in jail for the murder of an undercover narcotics officer named Lieutenant Copeland (played by David Rowden), who worked for the Beverly Hills Police Department. Sam admits he was a short-lived drug mule, but he denies being a killer. When Jane visits Sam in jail, he can’t believe that this high-priced attorney wants to represent him.

However, Jane tells Sam that she thinks he’s innocent of the murder charge, she’ll represent him for free, and she wants a chance to prove that Lieutenant Copeland was a dirty copy who might have been killed by someone working with the Beverly Hills police. The person who gave her this tip and asked her to take Sam’s case is none other than Billy Rosewood (played by Judge Reinhold), who recently quit the Beverly Hills Police Department over. Fans of the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies know Billy as the earnest, bungling sidekick who has a history of helping Axel. Billy was also in the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” movies.

During a courtroom appearance, Jane says her “dirty cop” theory in open court. And not long after that, a group of three or four masked thugs ambush Jane in a high-rise parking garage while she’s in her car. The masked goons force her car out of the garage window, but leave it dangling with some cable wires. It’s an obvious threat but also an indication that Jane has made certain people very nervous with her theory. Billy comes to the rescue (presumbly because he was following Jane), and he calls for help to get Jane (who isn’t physically hurt) and her car back into the garage.

Billy then calls Axel and asks him to come to Beverly Hills to help with this case. When Axel goes to Billy’s former office, he finds two hoodlums named Kurtz (played by James Preston Rogers) and Silva (played by Joseph Aviel), who are searching the office. Axel, who is quick to invent personas when he’s in tricky situations, says yes when the thugs asks if their boss Beck (played by Mark Pellegrino) is the one who sent him.

Of course, the thugs find out that Axel is lying. It leads to another destructive chase scene. Axel ends up getting arrested and right back at the Beverly Hills Police Department. The police detective who questions him is Bobby Abbott (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is fairly easygoing but tough when he needs to be. It’s the first time that Bobby has met Axel, but Bobby sees that Axel has a history of getting into trouble in Beverly Hills, going back to 1984.

Axel calls Jane for help in baling him out of jail, but she hangs up a few times until he tells her he knows about the case she’s working on and has valuable information to share. Bobby knows Jane already and finds out after Jane shows up at the police station that Axel is Jane’s father. And what a coincidence: It’s revealed later in the movie that Bobby and Jane used to date each other, but she ended the relationship because she told Bobby that she couldn’t date a cop. Bobby still hasn’t gotten over the breakup.

Axel is able to get off the hook for this arrest because he knows police chief John Taggart (played by John Ashton), a no-nonsense leader who was in the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” movies. John explains that he came out of retirement because he doesn’t want to be at home with his wife. John scoffs at the idea of the deceased Lieutenant Copeland was a corrupt cop.

John also introduces Axel to Lieutenant Copeland’s former boss Captain Cade Grant (played by Kevin Bacon), a smirking character who’s in charge of the police department’s interdepartmental narcotics task force. Cade use to be a Beverly Hills Department police detective and was personally trained by John. Cade also backs up John’s statement that Lieutenant Copeland was a trustworthy and honest cop.

The rest of “Beverly Hills Cop” is about Axel helping a skeptical and often-hostile Jane in investigating this case. And you just know that Bobby is going to help too. Bronson Pinchot, who played scene-stealing Serge in the first “Beverly Hills Cop” movie, makes a brief but amusing appearance in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” as a real-estate agent who helps Axel, Jane and Bobby get access to a certain mansion they want to investigate. Luis Guzmán has a small but hilarious role in the movie as Chalino Valdemoro, a drug dealer who likes to sing karaoke.

“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” lays it on very thick with the nostalgia by re-using the same best-known soundtrack songs from the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies: Harold Faltermeyer’s instrumental “Axel F” theme song. Glenn Frey’s “The Heat Is On,” the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance” and Bob Seger’s “Shakedown,” a hit that was on the “Beverly Hills Cop II” soundtrack. As for re-using “Beverly Hills Cop” characters, the return of Serge is unfortunately too short (less than 10 minutes), while Billy is no longer a wide-eyed rookie but is now a disgruntled former cop.

Axel’s jokes and impersonations are hit and miss. Murphy still has good comedic timing and can bring charisma to some dialogue that would otherwise fall very flat. “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” has the most emotional authenticity in the scenes where Axel tries to mend his broken relationship with his daughter.

As Jane, Paige gives the best and most difficult performance in the movie because she’s the cast member who has to do the most to balance the comedy and the drama. Her delivery looks natural, not forced or phony. Gordon-Levitt capably handles his role as dependable but somewhat bland Bobby.

Even if it’s very obvious who the chief villain is, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” can keep viewer interest because the cast members have believable chemistry with each other. Some of the action sequences are very unrealistic but people don’t see “Beverly Hills Cop” movies for complete realism. It’s got a heavy dose of 20th century ideas updated in a 21st century setting but using a very tried-and-true familiar formula.

Netflix premiered “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” on July 3, 2024.

Review: ‘Hard Miles,’ starring Matthew Modine, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, Damien Diaz, Zach Robbins, Leslie David Baker and Sean Astin

April 19, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Hard Miles”

Directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna

Culture Representation: Taking place in Colorado and Arizona, the dramatic film “Hard Miles” (based on true events) features a racially diverse cast of characters (white, African American and Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A social worker at a youth penitentiary for teenage boys recruits four of them to be on an informal bicycling team and leads them on a bicycling marathon from Denver to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Culture Audience: “Hard Miles” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted movies about athletic challenges that test physical strength and result in personal growth.

Jahking Guillory, Damien Diaz, Matthew Modine, Jackson Kelly and Zach Robbins in “Hard Miles” (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

“Hard Miles” is not going to be considered a classic movie about underestimated marathon bicyclists. However, this sentimental drama has good acting performances and an inspiring message that outweigh many of the corniest moments. Because the movie is based on true events, it makes the story much easier to take as an overall life observation, even though there are scenes that were obviously fabricated for the movie.

Directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna, “Hard Miles” was co-written by Hanna and Christian Sander. “Hard Miles” (which is a vague and bland title for this movie) had its world premiere at the 2023 Bentonville Film Festival. The outcome of the movie is entirely predictable, but the journey is watchable, even though it sometimes drags with repetition.

“Hard Miles” begins by showing social worker Greg Townsend (played by Matthew Modine) at a court hearing for one of the inmates at a youth penitentiary in Denver called Ridgeview Academy. (In real life, Greg Townsend worked at a youth penitentiary Ridge View Academy Charter School, in Watkins Colorado.) Greg, who works at Ridgeview Academy, is in this courtroom to advocate for leniency for a 16-year-old inmate named David Alvarez (played by Jesus Venegas), who’s in trouble for getting into a physical fight at Ridgeview.

Greg tells the magistrate (played by Jerry Boyd) that the fight would’ve been worse if David had not intervened to help stop the fight. The magistrate is not moved by Greg’s testimony and orders that David get transferred to another penitentiary, with six months added to his sentence. David is not seen or heard from again in the story.

This opening scene exists to show that Greg firmly believes in rehabilitation and reform with compassion but without coddling. It’s then shown early on in the film that Greg has a passion for marathon bicycling. One of his favorite marathons is the Tour de Grand, which is cycling to the Grand Canyon. (“Hard Miles” was actually filmed in California.)

A penitentiary social worker named Haddie (played by Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), who is one of Greg’s co-worker friends, jokes with Greg: “Only in this job would someone think that a 1,000-mile bike ride is a vacation.” Greg corrects Haddie by saying that the bike route from Denver to the Grand Canyon is actually 762 miles.

Greg does this type of verbal correction a few more times in the story, including to his co-worker friend Skip Bowman (played by Leslie David Baker), who is the manager at Ridgeview. Greg’s nitpickiness is an indication of what type of personality Greg has: He is enthusiastic about what he believes in, but he can also be self-righteous and stubborn. Greg can also get caught up in forcing his views on other people instead of really thinking about how they feel.

Flashbacks in the movie show that Greg had an unhappy childhood, when his father Scott Townsend physically and verbally abused Greg, who feels like he never really got his father’s approval. Greg has a younger brother named Doug. It’s implied that Doug probably got abused too, but Greg got the worse abuse from their father. The mother of Greg and Doug is not seen or mentioned in this story.

In these flashback scenes, Jaxon Goldenberg portrays childhood Greg, Judah Mackey has the role of childhood Doug, and Charles Ambrose depicts Scott as a young man. Ambrose also has the voice role of adult Doug, who is never seen on camera. Doug is incarcerated at a state prison in Sacramento, California, and he is only heard when he calls Greg from the prison.

In the present day of the story, Scott (played by Patrick Anthony Mullen) is now an elderly man with dementia and living in a hospice. Doug calls Greg to ask what Greg wants to do about visiting their father and making the necessary end-of-life arrangements. Greg (who is a bachelor with no children) has mixed feelings about it all. Greg is reluctant to visit his father and avoids returning calls from hospice workers who have already told Greg that his father Scott is very close to dying.

Meanwhile, Greg has something that ends up consuming his attention for most of the story: doing the Tour de Grand with four of the Ridgeview Academy residents. He teaches a machinist class, where he has four students: tough Atencio (played by Damien Diaz), brooding Rice (played by Zach Robbins), nerdy Smink (played by Jackson Kelly) and volatile Woolbright (played by Jahking Guillory), who is the most “antisocial” one in the group. Smink is the most mild-mannered and is unlikely to start a fight.

One day, Greg is inspired to bring four stationary bicycles to the class to share his interest in marathon biking with these students. Greg has a friend named Speedy (played by Sean Astin), who owns a bike shop. Greg convinces Speedy to donate professional bikes for the students to use.

Greg decides that these four students could all be on an informal Ridgeview cycling team that should do the Tour de Grant marathon with him. Greg chooses roles for each student on the team: Smink is the climber, Atencio is the puncher, Rice is the sprinter, while Woolbright (who is the only one reluctant to join the team) is assigned domestique duties, which is another way of saying it’s a rider who isn’t in the competition but is just there for support, such as carrying water bottles. Woolbright quickly changes his mind and joins the team because he doesn’t want to be a lowly “water boy.”

Greg also gets a company called Banda Di Cantene to sponsor the trip. And although Greg gets some skepticism from Heddie, Skip and some high-level bureaucrats in charge, Greg gets permission for this team to go on this trip by saying it’s part of inmate rehabilitation. This part of the story looks very “only in a movie” rushed and too easy for Greg. All of the movie’s performances are good, but Modine and Guillory are the obvious standouts in their roles as two people who seem to be complete opposites and clash with each other but find some common ground that changes each of them for the better.

“Hard Miles” wisely sticks to having just four people for Greg to lead on this marathon, in order for the movie to not be cluttered or confusing with too many characters. (It’s also a low-budget movie that probably couldn’t afford a large cast anyway.) However, very little is told about the young guys on the team, since most of the focus is on Greg being their role model.

Atencio opens up a little and says he was arrested for gang-related activities and that the gang he belongs to expects him to continue gangbanger crimes after Atencio is released from prison. Woolbright, who has a lot of anger issues, is serving his current penitentiary sentence because he was sent back to prison for driving without a license. The criminal records for Smink and Rice get little or no mention.

This team didn’t start out a friends. All of them have some type of conflict with each other before and durng the journey. Near the beginning of the movie, Atencio and Rice get into a physical brawl in a penintiary hallway. Haddie is nearby and accidentally gets injured in this fight. It results in Haddie having a sprained left foot and needing to use a walking boot and crutches. Inexplicably, despite these injuries, she volunteers to be the driver of the backup van that follows this biking team in case of an emergency.

As an example of how tone-deaf Greg can be, when he sees Haddie for the first time wearing her walking boot, he asks her in genuine surprise: “You have to wear that?” She sarcastically replies, “No, it’s a fashion statement.” Although Greg and Haddie like and respect each other, they have very different opinions on many things.

In this very male-dominated movie, Haddie is the only woman who has a significant speaking role. Her character is written in a way that is baffling and sometimes annoying. She is often depicted as a nag who doesn’t add much to the story but getting into arguments with Greg over how he’s handling the marathon.

The movie never gives a believable explanation for why someone with a sprained foot and in need of crutches would want to driving a van for several hours a day, for weeks, for this grueling marathon. For a long stretch of the movie, Haddie does nothing but limp up to Greg and the team to scold Greg for pushing the team members too hard. And then, after being the Debbie Downer skeptic for most of the movie, Haddie suddenly has a cheerleader attitude at a certain point. This abrupt transformation looks very fabricated for a movie.

It’s revealed early on in “Hard Miles” that Smink (who is very skinny) actively has an eating disorder. This is another part of the “Hard Miles” that comes up short in credibility. Why would Greg put someone with this serious health issue in a very risky health situation, where Greg pushes this team to the point where they vomit from exhaustion? Dehydration and heat stroke also major dangers, since the movie makes a big deal of showing how much desert territory is part of this marathon, which takes place during intense daytime heat.

Haddie likes to remind Greg that she has a college degree in psychology and Greg doesn’t, so Haddie thinks she’s the better person to know how to deal with Smink’s eating disorder. However, there’s no evidence that Greg or Haddie has any real medical training to deal with the risks of someone doing this type of marathon while in the throes of an eating disorder. There are a few scenes in the movie where Smink refuses to eat, which means he isn’t really in recovery. It seems medically irresponsible that Smink was approved to be in this marathon, no matter how much Smirk wanted to do this marathon of his own free will.

It’s perhaps the biggest failing of the movie not to address these health issues that are casually brought up and then sort of ignored when these health issues get in the way of the narrative that Greg is supposed to be the knight in cyclist uniform, determined to “save” these wayward young people. And as soon as Greg clutches his heart during a certain part of the marathon, you know what’s coming. But even that health scare is sort of glossed over in a way that looks very fake.

“Hard Miles” has the expected “push through the pain” pep talks and the predictable bickering among the team members. And it should come as no surprise that the person on the team who appears to be the “hardest” is the first one to have an emotional breakdown during the marathon. Greg also makes a decision about his father in one of the more poignant scenes in the movie. “Hard Miles” is not a movie to watch if you want a realistic and detailed look at the physical and health realities of doing this type of marathon. It’s a movie that works on the level of showcasing the belief in “mind over matter,” overcoming challenges, and surpassing expectations.

Blue Fox Entertainment released “Hard Miles” in select U.S. cinemas on April 19, 2024.