Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Slipped in a Great Little Bogomil ‘Cameo’ — Did You Happen to Spot It?

Beverly Hills Cop franchise vet Ronny Cox was nowhere to be seen in the made-for-Netflix sequel, Axel F , that premiered on Wednesday. But if you looked closely during one fleeting moment, an iconic bit of Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil’s handiwork was on display.

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About 28 minutes into Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F , Beverly Hills PD Detective Bobby Abbott (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sits down a freshly arrested Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) for a review of the veteran Detroit police detective’s previous visits to Los Angeles.

Leafing through the Beverly Hills PD’s file on Foley, Abbott remarks, “This is a lot ” as he recaps but a few of the scrapes that Axel got involved in in 1984, 1987 and then 1994 (“Not your finest hour,” heh).

In 1984 aka the first Beverly Hills Cop movie, Axel with help from detectives Taggart and Rosewood (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold) uncovered a scheme by art collector Victor Maitland to smuggle into the States both untraceable bearer bonds and cocaine. That case culminated in an epic shootout at Maitland’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Once the dust cleared, the Beverly Hills Police Department’s Chief Hubbard called Bogomil on the carpet in Maitland’s driveway, to ask 1) what the hell happened and 2) how the increasingly pesky Detective Foley was involved.

“Well, sir, Miss Jeanette Summers, the manager of Mr. Maitland’s art gallery, accidentally discovered large quantities of a substance she suspected was cocaine in the art gallery’s warehouse. She immediately communicated her discovery to Detective Axel Foley of the Detroit police force,” Bogomil began, engaging in a level of bit of bulls–t that was atypical for the by-the-book Beverly Hills PD. “Detective Foley was at the time cooperating in a joint Beverly Hills/Detroit investigation of narcotics trafficking.”

When Bogomil completed his slightly fabricated account of events, including flattering spin of Taggart and Rosewood’s own police work, Hubbard harrumphed, “You expect me to believe that report?” To which Andy affirmed, “That’s the report I’m filing, sir.”

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And as seen in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F ‘s file on Foley, that indeed was the report Bogomil filed in 1984, word for word:

Cox’s Bogomil does not appear (or even merit mention) in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F , whereas Ashton and Reinhold reprise their roles as Taggart and Rosewood.

Cox also missed out on Beverly Hills Cop III , as did Ashton, whose Taggart character had recently — and apparently unsuccessfully! — retired. The official explanation for those two franchise vets’ absences in the second sequel is unclear.

By some accounts, delays in the production of III moved the start date to a degree that neither Cox nor Ashton were still available. But there’s also the fact that Cox, in a 2012 Random Roles interview with The A.V. Club, said, “They wanted me to be in Beverly Hills Cop III , but… I read the script,” after which he then laughed.

Did you spot Bogomil’s police report in Axel F ? Or were you too busy wondering who could have possibly taken that photo of Axel being wrongfully arrested (for “trespassing”/eing hurled through a ground floor window) outside Mailtand’s office?

TVLine’s review gave Axel F a grade of “C+,” while the average grade from TVLine readers is currently a “B.”

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