‘BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F’ RATED R

Sequels run the risk of ruining what was once a good thing. You could say “Beverly Hills Cop III” did a disservice to the budding franchise, but it has taken thirty years to get back on track, and that’s the good news.

“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” demonstrates that Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, a Detroit beat cop, has regained the spirit and enthusiasm of his witty, iconoclastic character that he showed us forty years ago.

That this film is streaming on Netflix and not running in theaters is a bit of a surprise. “Beverly Hills Cop IV,” to coin a reference for chronology, would be just right as a summer release at the multiplex.

The film opens with Axel Foley conning one of his colleagues into thinking they are at a Red Wings for the enjoyment of hockey, but there’s more to it than that when he drags Detective Moody (Kyle More) into breaking up a robbery.

What follows is typical Axel mischief as he hijacks a snowplow to chase the bad guys while mowing down an untold number of vehicles and property, which is his usual modus operandi that leads to trouble with the brass. Bucking for promotion, poor Moody is just collateral damage.

Axel’s former partner in the police department is Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser), now the Deputy Chief, who is turning in his retirement papers and won’t be able to shield his colleague from scrutiny from higher-ups.

This matters little as Axel is called back to Beverly Hills when his estranged daughter, lawyer Jane (Taylour Paige), is nearly killed for getting too close to a police corruption case.

Most of the old gang is still around. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) is now a private detective after a fallout with his former cantankerous partner John Taggart (John Ashton), who became the police chief.

New to the scene is Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s detective Bobby Abbott, the ex-boyfriend of Axel’s daughter who becomes a natural ally. Kevin Bacon’s Captain Cade Grant is an entirely different story, whose questionable motives are readily apparent to any sentient being.

“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is a lively and cheerfully resilient entertainment that finds Eddie Murphy in fine comedic form. The only complaint would be the repetitious arguments that Jane brings to bear on the estrangement with her father, when we can guess how this will end.

‘LEONARDO DA VINCI’ SET FOR THE FALL ON PBS

The word of the day is “polymath” because it has been applied to 15th century renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. Derived from Greek words, a polymath is basically a person of great and varied meaning.

For the first time, legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns explores a non-American subject in the two-part, four-hour “Leonardo da Vinci” scheduled to air in mid-November on PBS.

Set against the rich and dynamic backdrop of Renaissance Italy, at a time of skepticism and freethinking, regional war and religious upheaval, the film brings the artist’s achievements to life through his personal notebooks as well as primary and secondary accounts of his life.

“No single person can speak to our collective efforts to understand the world and ourselves,” said Ken Burns with his usual insight to a subject matter in the PBS news release.

“But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”

The film weaves together an international group of experts, as well as others influenced by Leonardo who continue to find a connection between his artistic and scientific explorations and life today.

As the filmmaker and Leonardo admirer Guillermo del Toro says at the beginning of the film, “the modernity of Leonardo is that he understands that knowledge and imagination are intimately related.”

Born out of wedlock to a notary and a peasant woman, Leonardo distinguished himself as an apprentice to a leading Florentine painter and later served as a military architect, cartographer, sculptor, and muralist for hire.

His paintings and drawings, such as the “Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper,” and the “Vitruvian Man,” are among the most celebrated works of all time and his art was often equaled by his pursuits in science and engineering.

“Leonard da Vinci” follows the artist’s evolution as a draftsman and painter, scientist and engineer, who used notebooks to explore an astonishing array of subjects including painting, philosophy, engineering, warfare, anatomy, and geography, among many others.

Though Leonardo intended to publish his writings, he never did, but the film delves into those he left behind to get inside his mind as he strove to master the laws of nature and apply them to his endeavors.

Leonardo’s personal story is shaped by the Italian Renaissance, and the Ken Burns documentary film will almost certainly bring true meaning to the word “polymath” as applied to the quintessential Renaissance man.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.