What to watch: All hail the summer movies of '84!
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I usually don't need a good reason to talk about the 1980s – like an overly stuffed Trapper Keeper, I'm ready to just spill at any point during the day, honestly.
This week, however, is big on the nostalgia, with Eddie Murphy in a new "Beverly Hills Cop" flick, a horror movie set in 1985 and a celebration of the best summer movie season ever. So we're spending some time in the present but also hitting up the Wayback Machine for recommendations. For example, your kids want to go see "Despicable Me 4"? Make a deal that they promise to watch "The Goonies" or "The Last Starfighter" when you get home. Everybody's a winner.
Now grab your Swatch watch, turn on the Atari 2600 and let's get to the rad stuff:
Watch Eddie Murphy's return as Axel Foley in Netflix's 'Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F'
I wasn't a Detroit Lions fan back in Murphy's buddy-cop salad days. But now? Kind of envying Axel Foley's varsity jacket. Chaos follows him from the Motor City to Rodeo Drive in "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" (streaming now on Netflix), a fourth installment that's the best since the 1984 original. It plays all the nostalgic hits – figuratively and literally ("The Heat Is On," "Neutron Dance") – and Murphy strikes a fun chemistry with new cop Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Peep my ★★★ review.)
But back to the jacket. Murphy told my colleague Marco della Cava in a new interview that he originally balked at putting on Axel's signature fit again. “I was like, so he has the same jacket on from 30 years ago? I didn’t want to do it,” he says. “But then they said, ‘Axel’s clothes are iconic, like Indiana Jones.' "
Thrill to the end of the blood-soaked 'X' trilogy with closing slasher 'MaXXXine'
When director Ti West's "X" came out in 2022, it felt both familiar and fresh: The horror film starred Mia Goth as stardom-seeking actress Maxine Minx, who manages to survive a porn shoot-turned-massacre in 1979, and featured a whole bunch of gore but also explored themes of lust, longing and aging. Its prequel "Pearl" was even better, fleshing out the murderous backstory of the "X" antagonist (also played by Goth) as a farm girl during the 1918 flu pandemic.
The new slasher movie "MaXXXine" catches up with Maxine in 1985, as she's hunting her big break in Hollywood while being hunted by a killer. While not nearly as good as the previous two films, it satisfies as a trilogy closer and also reminds stylistically of the "video nasties" and psychosexual B-movies of the era. When I told West it reminded me of the sort of film I'd want to rent as a kid but my mom would nix, he said that was exactly his goal vibe, of "going to the video store and there's this endless amount of movies that look salacious and subversive and interesting."
Check out one of the great movies of summer 1984 – for the first time or the umpteenth
Who says work meetings can't be productive? During one of ours, we started talking about doing something on the best summer movie season, and it led to a super-fun roundup of some of the best movies of 1984. It was such a rich cinematic year in general – with cultural touchstones like "Footloose," "Beverly Hills Cop" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" – but the summer flicks especially were bodacious.
Here's the official USA TODAY film team's top 10: I threw in a few classics – "Ghostbusters" (obviously), "The Karate Kid" (natch) and "Streets of Fire' (a more recent fave) – and my colleagues included highlights like "The Natural," "Gremlins" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." All get the Watch Party Seal of Approval – even "Temple of Doom," which I don't love! – and if you're seeing one for the first time, let me know what you think.
Even more goodness to check out!
Looking for a new streaming movie to watch right now? I've got recs! Check out one of these 10 flicks, from "The Beekeeper" on Prime Video to Netflix's "A Family Affair."
Jenn Tran discusses becoming the first Asian "Bachelorette": "A moment that a lot of people have been waiting for."
How much TV is OK for little kids? Critic Kelly Lawler investigates that hot-button topic as well as writes an essay on why she stresses about her own child's screen time.
Have you made it through the latest anxiety-filled season of "The Bear"? We asked therapists to analyze Jeremy Allen White's perfectionist chef Carmy.
Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email btruitt@usatoday.com and follow me on the socials: I'm @briantruitt on Twitter (not calling it X!), Instagram and Threads.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to watch: 'Beverly Hills Cop 4,' 'MaXXXine' and 1984 summer films
