Sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F had been released on Netflix this week, following literally decades of stop-start development, cancellation, revival, and even a shift in studio. Martin Brest’s original Beverly Hills Cop was a smash hit for Paramount Pictures in 1984, and led to two sequels of varying quality in 1987 and 1994. This new instalment comes 30 years after its immediate predecessor, with Australian commercials director Mark Molloy making his feature debut. Most of the original’s leading cast return, including Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot.

In Axel F, veteran Detroit police detective Axel Foley (Murphy) returns to Los Angeles when the life of his estranged daughter (Taylour Paige) is put in danger. In addition to reconnecting with old friends, Foley teams up with Beverly Hills detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to investigate an L.A. narcotics captain (Kevin Bacon) who may be masterminding his own criminal enterprise.

The widespread availability of popular 1980s movie franchises across streaming services has given these older properties an unprecedented ability to be revived and continued, since they have continued to be exposed to fresh audiences many years after the fact. In an age when a production’s brand is critical to finding commercial success, these so-called legacy sequels are effectively pre-packaged slices of nostalgia: the audience knows what they like, and can feel reassured of a familiar experience.

To its credit, Axel F does not follow the route of recent Ghostbusters films (for example) and spend half of its focus on establishing a new ongoing franchise of sequels. Instead this is a simple – and broadly enjoyable – exercise of making another film with the same characters, story beats, and aesthetic. If viewers enjoyed the original film there is a chance they will find appeal in the new one. If viewers expect something particularly original or groundbreaking, it is really a question for them as to why they went looking for it in Beverly Hills Cop sequel. This is comfort viewing for a pre-specified audience.

The story is not particularly complex nor ambitious, but it does provide an avenue for Foley’s patented combination of bluffing, mockery, and old-fashioned detective work. Returning characters are feel rather older and slower, but in a fairly charming manner. New recruits Levitt, Bacon, and Paige all do a decent job of fitting into the well-rehearsed schtick of the original. The pace is a little slow, but then in all honesty so was Brest’s original film. Visually speaking, Mark Molloy seems to draw more from Tony Scott’s over-produced Beverly Hills Cop II – which is a good thing. Thankfully that sequel’s odious misogyny has been left behind, as has any resemblance to John Landis’ risible Beverly Hills Cop III. In the end, that is all the viewership needs to know: not as good as the first one,  slightly better than the second – with better and worse elements between them, and miles beyond the third. Anybody else really has to question why they are cold-watching the fourth film in a series.