Beverly Hills Cop 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

Casimir Harlow

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Definitely picking this up. I remember the first time I watched this. I was at boarding school and one Saturday went to to the local shop in the village. They had a carousel of rental videos (jeez remember those days??!). But they had this video up for sale (again, remember those ex rentals??!). I'm sure it was around £10.

Sod the sweets I thought and bought this. I got back spread the word and played this to a packed common room. I was a liked kid back then, but not what you'd called admired or looked up to. But, that day, for a couple of hours, I was a God damn hero.

Still cant believe the bloke standing next to Steven Berkoff in the screen grab for the audio section, is Jonathan Banks who we all know ask Mike from Breaking Bad. He was a hard man back then too lol.
 
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Great review of a great film, thanks! I have a fond memory of Barry Norman laughing at the clip he played on Film 84, which was Bronson Pinchot's Serge scene: As great as Murphy is in the film, for me it's old Bronson who steals the movie with that scene. And, as you mention, this is the movie that lead to Midnight Run, one of my all-time favourite films. For those two films alone poor Martin Brest deserves eternal respect, and I hope the savagery that greeted Gigli didn't damage him too much even though it destroyed his career.
 
I watched this on Blu-ray last week upsampled to 4k via a Dune player. It's a great film, never a dull moment with that fabulous Alex F soundtrack.

I was allowed to watch it back in the 80s as a kid as unlike most 80s films as it had no sex in it. :laugh:
 
Great review, this is about the perfect film. It has everything, cliched bad guy, great comedy, decent action.

I feel for you Cas if you are going through the trilogy and have to review the dire 3rd effort (I actually really liked number 2).
 
Great review, this is about the perfect film. It has everything, cliched bad guy, great comedy, decent action.

I feel for you Cas if you are going through the trilogy and have to review the dire 3rd effort (I actually really liked number 2).

No trilogy 4K set at the moment, but yes I'd be up for it.

I think the second is not as good, but it at least has the same spirit as the first and has some standout moments, plus Scott's direction is sublime, which makes it a very slick, cool looking movie.

The third, I just don't understand at all. It's like the first two knew how to strike a balance whereby the comedy didn't outright undermine the drama, or turn it into a farce, but in the third they just forgot about the line completely.

Scenes like the very first death - which was supposed to be the entire catalyst for the story - where he "dies" repeatedly and just keeps coming back to say one last thing, always used to make me think they were making a parody. A Naked Gun spoof of Beverly Hills Cop, which was a million miles away from the breezier Lethal Weapon tone established in the first two.

I just don't get how people involved in the first movie could shoot scenes like that, so early on into a movie, and not question whether they were undermining the franchise they'd made so successful in the first place.

Damn you've got me dreading a 4K release of the trilogy now.
 
Surely the still excellent Trading Places is what was his breakthrough? With Coming to America clearly his magnum opus.
 
Nice Cas, nice. Once again.

Amazing to think it was almost Sly in the title role, but then of course we wouldn't have got the absolutely magnificent Cobra* from him instead.

This is still my favourite Murphy film, despite the great Coming to America and Trading Places.

Special mention for the soundtrack as well. Absolutely tremendous. I remember buying it on import CD for about £25!

*may not be an accurate assessment of Cobra.
 
Surely the still excellent Trading Places is what was his breakthrough? With Coming to America clearly his magnum opus.

Not really. By that rationale you could argue 48 Hours, which was his 'breakthrough' into Hollywood but both that and TP were not solo films for Murphy, and they didn't even break $100M. I explicitly said 'big break into superstardom'. BHC banked over $300M, and broke records (as I mentioned). It was also his first solo vehicle and it was a hell of a solo debut. It's what made him a superstar. Between that and BHC 2 Murphy basically became the biggest star in Hollywood at the time - he was bigger than the entire Trek franchise at the time.

It's a little like Sharon Stone in Total Recall - it was her biggest movie at the time, and gained her a lot of attention, but Basic Instinct, by comparison, catapulted her into superstardom.

And Coming to America 4K is on its way, I can't wait to revisit. Hopefully it stands up as well as BHC did. To be honest, I have time for Murphy in *almost* anything. Even enjoyed I Spy, although things like Pluto Nash walked the dangerous line between so bad, it's inadvertently funny, and just... so bad.
 
Nice Cas, nice. Once again.

Amazing to think it was almost Sly in the title role, but then of course we wouldn't have got the absolutely magnificent Cobra* from him instead.

This is still my favourite Murphy film, despite the great Coming to America and Trading Places.

Special mention for the soundtrack as well. Absolutely tremendous. I remember buying it on import CD for about £25!

*may not be an accurate assessment of Cobra.

Agree, this is my favourite too, but I utterly grew up with it.

Have to say, I kinda wish there was a kid-friendly 'cut' version as a disc option too.

Sacrilege as it is, but I watched this on TV when I was a kid. It was censored to hell, but I watched it as a kid and freaking LOVED it. Years later, when I finally saw it uncut, I got to love it again, but I feel sad that I have to wait a decade to share this with the kids.

Don't believe in censoring at all, but TV censoring meant I got to see a whole bunch of movies my kids won't see until they're a lot older than I was, and got to see them in a mostly safe way.

Robocop on pirate on the other hand...
 
Agree, this is my favourite too, but I utterly grew up with it.

Have to say, I kinda wish there was a kid-friendly 'cut' version as a disc option too.

Sacrilege as it is, but I watched this on TV when I was a kid. It was censored to hell, but I watched it as a kid and freaking LOVED it. Years later, when I finally saw it uncut, I got to love it again, but I feel sad that I have to wait a decade to share this with the kids.

Don't believe in censoring at all, but TV censoring meant I got to see a whole bunch of movies my kids won't see until they're a lot older than I was, and got to see them in a mostly safe way.

Robocop on pirate on the other hand...

I can remember watching this with my older sister; it's one of a handful of more grown up films that made an impression on me back then. The others were basically all Arnie films!

My mum and dad didn't care what we watched to be honest. It was very irresponsible parenting :laugh: I had many a sleepless night from some of the video nasties!

I've probably not watched this for a good 5 years or so. Maybe even longer.

Like many trilogies it suffered the curse of three as well. We don't talk about the 3rd film!
 
I can remember watching this with my older sister; it's one of a handful of more grown up films that made an impression on me back then. The others were basically all Arnie films!

My mum and dad didn't care what we watched to be honest. It was very irresponsible parenting :laugh: I had many a sleepless night from some of the video nasties!

I've probably not watched this for a good 5 years or so. Maybe even longer.

Like many trilogies it suffered the curse of three as well. We don't talk about the 3rd film!

Well if they get Coming to America 2 right, for Netflix, then maybe they'll get BHC4 right, for Netflix.

It's a long shot, I know, but even a Bad Boys 3 kinda effort would be an enjoyable way to conclude a series that really didn't end well with 3.
 
Well if they get Coming to America 2 right, for Netflix, then maybe they'll get BHC4 right, for Netflix.

It's a long shot, I know, but even a Bad Boys 3 kinda effort would be an enjoyable way to conclude a series that really didn't end well with 3.
Coming to America 2 scares me. A lot. It can't be even remotely similar to the original so where do they go with it?! BHC4 I'm more relaxed with.

But what I'm happy with is the potential of Murphy. Dolemite Is My Name has proven he still can still bring a top performance with him
 
I always wondered about the third act of BHC, it is underwhelming. Maybe they could have retooled it once the executives saw a rough cut...! I still love it, though, I remember in infant school we all hummed the Axel F tune. :D

Notice that Axel changes the other police characters. It's quite smart writing at times. None of that smartness is in part 2, though.
 
Coming to America 2 scares me. A lot. It can't be even remotely similar to the original so where do they go with it?! BHC4 I'm more relaxed with.

But what I'm happy with is the potential of Murphy. Dolemite Is My Name has proven he still can still bring a top performance with him

And that working with Netflix hasn't necessarily been bad news for him...
 
I always wondered about the third act of BHC, it is underwhelming. Maybe they could have retooled it once the executives saw a rough cut...! I still love it, though, I remember in infant school we all hummed the Axel F tune. :D

Notice that Axel changes the other police characters. It's quite smart writing at times. None of that smartness is in part 2, though.

Yes, the movies are progressively more blunt and lazy, but it only gets unforgivable in the third.

I see what you're saying about the end, but it always satisfied me and I don't know whether the planned ending (the chase, pretty-much as we saw it in Bad Boys, complete with the villain crashing) would have been all that memorable. After all, even BB works mostly for the dialogue, and BHC has that in spades.

What is interesting is watching it again knowing that all the supporting cast are laughing their heads off. Like the 'super cops' bit of dialogue. You can see everybody in the room really struggling to keep a straight face whilst Murphy is doing his thing. Judge was pinching his own thigh. Ashton was pinching his nose. It's awesome. I'd have loved to have seen the outtakes - apparently LOADS of scenes had to be shot dozens of times because people couldn't help but burst out laughing.
 
Nice Cas, nice. Once again.

Amazing to think it was almost Sly in the title role, but then of course we wouldn't have got the absolutely magnificent Cobra* from him instead.

This is still my favourite Murphy film, despite the great Coming to America and Trading Places.

Special mention for the soundtrack as well. Absolutely tremendous. I remember buying it on import CD for about £25!

*may not be an accurate assessment of Cobra.
Cobra. I so want to like it...back in the day and now. The front cover is badass! But its just so...underwhelming. I'd rather watch Chuck in all honesty!
 
Cobra. I so want to like it...back in the day and now. The front cover is badass! But its just so...underwhelming. I'd rather watch Chuck in all honesty!

No-one dislikes Cobra. It's just one of the rules of life.

Everyone must adapt.
 
Invasion USA laughs at Cobra. Never mind Commando...
Woah, woah, NOBODY laughs at Commando, otherwise, those people are going to feel dead tired.
 
Nobody is allowed to diss Cobra 😡😡 the cheesiest 80’s wonder going. And a soundtrack to die for. !! 🤣

Great review. But this will definitely be a buy when it hits the 3 for £30
 

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