10 Recent Movie Sequels NOBODY Expected To Be Good

10. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Belated sequels to beloved comedies have an atrocious batting average, and so it was incredibly easy to believe that Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was set to be an abject misfire.

Releasing direct to Netflix a full 30 years after the risible Beverly Hills Cop III put the series on ice, and long since Eddie Murphy's A-lister status evaporated, ensured it was near-impossible to expect anything above mediocrity.

The fact that the film was also the feature debut of director Mark Molloy only furthered the iffy feeling that many fans had about Axel F, only for it to deliver solidly above expectations.

No, this wasn't a Top Gun: Maverick-tier surprise, but it did deliver a decades-later follow-up which retained the R-rated wit of the first two films, with Murphy slipping effortlessly back into the title role that made him a star.

Though there's an inherent fan service appeal to seeing Murphy share the screen with original co-stars Judge Reinhold, the late John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot once again, Axel F is surprisingly restrained on the nostalgia-bait front, instead functioning as an earnest update which does its material and characters firm justice.