Review: Beverly Hills Cop (4K)

After his childhood buddy is murdered while visiting Detroit, rebellious cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) follows the leads to Beverly Hills, Calif., under the auspices of a vacation. He checks in with old friend Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) and starts to believe her boss, art dealer Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), might somehow be involved in the murder. However, Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) of the Beverly Hills Police Department does not trust Foley, and hinders his search for evidence.

Plot: A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.

Director: Martin Brest

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Runtime: 105 min

Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: The buddy cop movie continues its evolution unabated with this Eddie Murphy vehicle that’s fast, furious, and funny.

Online Ratings:

  1. Rotten Tomatoes 82% (Audience 82%)
  2. IMDB 7.3
  3. Metacritic 66
  4. Roger Ebert 2.5/4

“A great addition for fans only.”

Review:

Beverly Hills Cop was originally shot in 35 mm, and for this new release, it’s been finished at a 4k digital intermediate — that means you’ll get a native UHD presentation on this disc. On top of that, as per the norm with most UHD releases, it was also given a HDR color grade for your viewing pleasure in both Dolby Vision & HDR10. I just wrote a review on the trilogy, so check that out again and if you’re interested, grab yourself a copy right after you finish reading this review (winky face).

Taking back to my last review: “You will notice right away that this new remaster of the 1984 film is sharper than ever because of the added detail and color. This new detail will be the most obvious in the characters faces and clothing — various little details will surface that weren’t there before. Color gets a boost all the way through the film too, you will notice this especially in the various scenes under the Beverly Hills sun. You can rest assured that it’s all around solid-jump of an upgrade across the board on detail, color and contrast.”

The newest Blu-ray releases that came out a few months back was the best this series had ever looked and sounded… it was a big jump. The UHD continues that uptick, it looks top notch, but it’s not as massive of a difference. You can confirm that this new UHD release of Beverly Hills Cop has a more filmatic appearance because of the increase in quality, plus the use HDR adds detail and dimension. If the Blu-ray remaster needed to be compared to the original source I’d say it jumped a few stages in quality there — then in this release, I’d say it moved up again. (That’s why I reference this as a “fans only” type of release because I’m assuming you already have the trilogy.)

When it comes to the special features, there is nothing new — it simply holds all the same extras as previous releases. I don’t think anything new was needed, but I just wanted to note that here if anyone cared.

In conclusion —

The 3-movie collection was just released on Blu-ray not that long ago and I know a bunch of people that picked up the collection. Why? It was the remastered version alias, the best version you can get today of the loved series. For that set, it has never looked or sounded better and it’s still a must own if you are a long time fan looking for a refresh. That came with a high recommendation!

I think a nice affordable price set for the trilogy made sense, did you need all three films in a 4K set with a high price? I’m not sure how well it would have done. Having that Blu-ray set available was perfect — adding this singular film is interesting, but I’ll never give up on physical media. I’m sure there are some people out there that only like the first film and don’t need the full set — this is for you. It fits the criteria of a great UHD release.

No matter what you decide to do, you can grab a copy at your local retailer on 4K & Blu-ray this December 1st. If you’re a HUGE fan of this series and you want to appreciate the first film in the best possible format, you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Are you a fan of Beverly Hills Cop? Will you be picking it up to own? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Cheers,

Matt.

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