Nasim Pedrad Is the Funniest Part of ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’

The new Beverly Hills Cop movie on Netflix, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, is a treat for ’80s kids who love Eddie Murphy. But there’s a little something in there for millennial comedy fans, too: Nasim Pedrad stealing the spotlight as the ditsy real estate agent.

Directed by Mark Molloy, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is the fourth movie in Eddie Murphy’s action comedy franchise. It’s been forty years since Murphy’s character, detective Axel Foley, first found himself as a fish-out-of-water in the ritzy Beverly Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. This time around, Axel is a father hellbent on protecting his estranged daughter (Taylour Paige) from a dangerous conspiracy. Father and daughter team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton), to save the day. It’s a perfectly fine, fun comedy with some cool action set pieces, but not many laugh-out-loud moments… until Nasim Pedrad comes on screen.

Pedrad—who was in the cast of Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2014—shows up late in the movie as “Ashley De La Rosa,” a shallow, vapid real estate agent for a luxurious Beverly Hills mansion. In the name of their investigation, Axel and his daughter feign interest in buying this ridiculously lavish, eight-bedroom, ten-bathroom property. Pedrad saunters down the steps in a pink tweed jacket and shorts combo that screams “money.” She greets Murphy with an over-the-top, “Oh, well, hello, daddy,” upon hearing that Axel is wealthy, and you can practically see the effort it takes from Murphy not to laugh.

In her brief appearance, Pedrad breathes some welcome 21st-century cadence into the movie’s sense of humor. When Axel tells her that he’s going to be a grandfather, she gushes that children are a gift, “unless they’re not.”

“My own kid’s a bit of a loser,” she tells them in a matter-of-fact manner. “I mean, he’s four, but you can already tell. Glasses, the whole thing.”

Whether that line was scripted by one of the movie’s three writers (Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten), or improvised by Pedrad herself, her cheery delivery of this objectively awful sentiment surprised a genuine, heartfelt laugh out of me. And the hits kept coming. From Pedrad declaring the mansion’s columns “bitchy,” to announcing, “I’m single,” apropos of absolutely nothing, she stole every moment of her too-short scene.

Apologies to Murphy—who is quite charming as a softer version of his old persona—but Pedrad was the funniest person in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Give her a movie already!