Immediately after the opening credits of Beverly Hills Cop 4, Eddie Murphy makes all kinds of scripted, racist comments to a white colleague, an unbelievably sycophantic beta male who takes Murphy's racist abuse like a weak female dog.  It's way beyond cringey.  The loathsomeness of the dialogue betrays the white, magnificent power of the original film, which was all about promoting a forced social agenda that had absolutely nothing to do with making money by providing the public with an entertaining film that would age so well, they'd be making sequels with original cast members 40 years later.

Here's Eddie Murphy flashing the "white power" gangsign, in deference to the people who would make him a beloved pop-culture icon for the rest of his life.

The world's most beloved Uncle Tom.

All jokes aside, Beverly Hills Cop 4 is entertaining in spite of the new product placement.  There are 3 or 4 instances of extremely insulting and patronizing comments and/or dialogue at the expense of the intelligence of the audience.  The "white man" is the ostensible butt of these jokes, but the intelligence of the audience is the actual target.  They really think we're dumb.  Worse, it's clear they don't care if we're smart.  The new product placement demands to be injected into literally everything.  At best, we're supposed to ignore it and pretend it doesn't matter. 

But it does.

Remember this?  Does anybody think "the message" will allow anyone to make fun of it, like the corporations on display in this hilarious clip?

I don't think so.

The "message," or the agenda, is the new product placement.  The toxins it contains are far more deadly than anything you could find in a bag of Doritos, or a can of Pepsi.  Even worse than high-fructose corn syrup, is humorlessness, and a demand for total behavioral compliance.

Unfortunately, Beverly Hills Cop 4 is not immune to these devices.

All that said, even though the first dumb-ass action "comedy" sequence with Eddie Murphy chasing some guys through the street while driving a snowplow was destroyed by the initial patronizing insult, to the point of being genuinely embarrassing to watch (I felt real shame at the stupid events unfolding on the screen.  As in, I was ashamed at myself, for watching it), Beverly Hills Cop 4 doesn't stay in the gutter.

In fact, I liked it.

Kevin Bacon plays a Netflix executive who controls the narrative of the pawns under his command.  His job in the movie is "police captain," but he symbolizes a Netflix executive.  His pawns in the film are the Beverly Hills police and some Mexican cartel people, but in real life, his pawns are you and me.  Bacon's executive narrative police captain has even warped the mind of Taggart, Rosewood's old partner from the original films. 

But don't worry.  I'm not going to ruin it for you. 

No spoilers here. 

All I wanted to say was that for me to actually be able to not only get through a film more than 10 seconds beyond the new product placement, but to actually finish it after having laughed out loud numerous times, is saying something.  The original cast and new people alike are all great.  The action is entertaining when it's not trying too hard to be funny, and the funny parts are funny without needing to command the audience to laugh.  The father/daughter drama is neither overwrought nor gratuitous, and even if the zeitgeist of fun 80's "action comedies" has passed, even if the reheating of the "fun" side of action movies only serves as a reminder of how much humor Western society has lost, I look forward to watching Beverly Hills Cop 4 again.  They kept the spirit of the original film as alive as possible under the current social circumstances (they even make fun of the shallow brotherhood of minorities in one scene, which is refreshing), but it's original enough on its own that you probably don't need to have been a fan of the first film to enjoy it.  Seeing the old characters reminds you how much has been lost since the mid-80s, but at the same time, seeing them reminds you that it isn't gone yet.

Don't go out of your way, but if Beverly Hills Cop 4 finds its way into your viewfinder, and you're thinking of turning it off because of the patronizing humorlessness of the new product placement in the first sequence (and a handful of other places), hold on.  It gets better.

Thanks for listening.