Michael Scott

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Beverly Hills Cop: 3 Movie Collection


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Movie: :3.5stars:
Video: :4.5stars:
Audio: :4stars:
Extras: :1.5stars:

Final Score: :4stars:


WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM ALL 3 FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW


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Movie

Ahhh, Beverly Hills Cop. The series that really put Eddie Murphy on the map acting wise. Up until this point he’d had an excellent stand up career, but this is the film that really shot him to superstardom over night. Paramount had released the first film several years ago on Blu-ray, but sadly has not seen fit to put the 2nd and 3rd movie out on high definition till this point. Honestly, I’m a little saddened that they didn’t give this the full royal treatment like with a lot of their catalog titles and give it the full 4K UHD/Dolby Atmos/HDR/Dolby Vision treatment. However, I can’t be too picky as the original release of Beverly Hills Cop was kind of sub par and the two sequels haven’t had a release on high def ever. I’m guessing that this is to coincide with the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop 4 that is finally happening. Supposedly the 4th movie has been in the works for quite a few years, but Paramount finally dropped the project and sold the rights to Netflix, who is producing the 4th film with Eddie Murphy. Either way, I’m happy to see full 4k remasters for all three films, as they look fantastic on Blu-ray.

Beverly Hills Cop :4stars:
I’m going to say it straight out. As a movie, Beverly Hills Cop is nothing special. Yes, I said it. The movie itself is a rote and traditional comedy cop movie that has a paper thin plot, solid support actors, and just enough intelligence to make it reasonably fun. However, I still love the movie to death and that is all on the shoulders of Eddie Murphy himself. Eddie elevated Beverly Hills Cop to stardom through his charisma, unique laugh, and pure star power. He’s the man behind the mask, the man behind the box office, and back in 1984 he was just becoming a super star. Looking back on the film some 36 years later, I’m not sure this would have been the cult classic it is today WITHOUT Eddie Murphy. Kind of like how Bad Boys would be just another Michael Bay action movie if it wasn’t for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s chemistry and star power.

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is your typical no nonsense movie cop. You know, the hot heat who does a great job of bringing in the criminals, but tends to off his superiors to no end due to his disobedience and flippant attitude. The rough and tough cop that doesn’t play by the rules, only his own. Well, his career is on the verge of collapse until he finds someone in his apartment. Turns out it’s an old friend of his named Mickey (James Russo) who’s fresh out of prison. Mickey’s been working out in Beverly Hills where he’s had a great job that’s led him to thousands of dollars worth of German bearer bonds, and wants to let Axel in on it. Only thing is, Mickey is murdered in Axel’s own apartment. Instead of being allowed to work the case, Axel is sidelined and told to lay low.

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Axel decides to take some vacation days and heads out to Beverly Hills to do a bit of snooping. It doesn’t take long for Axel to get into hot water with the police chief of Beverly Hills (Ronny Cox), who puts a couple of cops on Axel’s tail to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble (played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton). As you would expect, Axel isn’t going to play by their rules either, looping the rookie cops in on the case against their will and going full bore ahead to finding his buddy’s murderer.

Beverly Hills Cop is a movie that revels in disaster. Axel Foley is a one man 80s wrecking machine who just so happens to save the entire movie with his charisma and comic timing. The movie teeters on the ridiculous more than once, and there are times where you think the whole thing is going to fall apart, only to have Eddie Murphy just steal the scene. There’s some solid acting from the supporting villains, and yes, this is all pure 80s cheese, but Axel Foley is pure magic and you’re really watching this film for him. I’m actually not dogging on the movie as much as I’m pointing out it’s technical flaws. In fact it’s really the opposite. I’m marveling how Eddie Murphy’s star power saved this movie and actually made it a BLAST to watch, DESPITE these technical flaws. It’s one of the rare times where the actor really made the movie, and really elevated it WAY past where it should have been with any other person in the starring role.

Beverly Hills Cop 2 :4stars:
Not 2 short years later, Axel Foley is back in the saddle once more, as Paramount was pretty much begging Eddie Murphy to come back and make magic twice. This time with a decidedly better director (Tony Scott) and a better script. Instead of Axel being the instigator for the whole thing, officers Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) are the ones who are a bit baffled on a case. A big jewelry heist is one of but many crimes known as the “alphabet crimes” in the city of Beverly Hills, and they off the top brass when they go outside of their authoritative measures and contact the FBI for help. Now they’re busted back down to beat cops and told by Chief Bogomil (Ronny Cox once more) to go nowhere near the case. However, when Chief Bogomil is gunned down by he criminals, the two beat cops take matters into their own hands by contacting an old friend and bringing him into the loop to catch the criminals.

Yup, that old friend just so happens to be Axel Foley, and he’s more than happy to take a trip down to sunny old California and get out of Detroit. Like usual, this is not some typical crime spree. Axel, Billy and Taggart soon sniff their way to a conspiracy that is much more vast and sweeping than they imagined, and goes far behind simple robberies and murders.

While the first film survived on Eddie Murphy’s charisma, this one is just enhanced by it. Tony Scott is a much better director here, and he creates a darker and more cerebral film that is wildly kinetic, yet still gritty and vicious as well. Axel is a more trimmed down and darkly humorous character than he is slapstick. Luckily Billy and Taggart play off of each other in a Laurel and Hardy esque way, adding the lighthearted humor to some of the more grim and grungy aspects of the film (yes, with Tony Scott always expect it to be a bit gritty). As a sequel it almost surpasses the original in fun. Yes, it’s not AS humorous or loose as the first one, but it’s a much better script and has a more cohesive flow to the story. I love this every bit as much as the first, but for wildly different reasons, and that’s certainly ok.

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Beverly Hills Cop 3 :3stars:
Now we come to the black sheep of the Beverly Hills Cop universe. After Beverly Hills Cop Eddie decided to pursue other film projects, and most people thought that a third movie would never happen. However, 7 years later, money talks and we got a third film. This time with Eddie Murphy still giving it his all, as is Judge Reinhold, but the rest of the cast and crew didn’t seem to get a good grasp of what made it a Beverly Hills Cop movie. I know I’m in the minority here, but I at least find the 3rd movie as decently entertaining. It’s nowhere near the quality of the first two, but it’s a reasonably entertaining 90s action movie. Just not one that really fit into the ecosystem of the first two.

Detective Foley (Eddie Murphy) is on the tail of some chop shoppers and is just about to catch them when he’s intercepted by the feds. The feds don’t want Axel to catch them, but rather get him out of the way so that they can follow the criminals back to their boss, who they’re REALLY after. Axel naturally doesn’t take no for an answer, and decides to follow the thugs anyways. This leads him back to Beverly Hills once more, where their boss ends up being Ellis Dewald (Timothy Carhart), an upstanding community businessman, and a pillar of Beverly Hills community, and who is running a family theme park there. Foley has his man off the bat, but sadly he can’t seem to nab him, which means that he has to rope in officer Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and his new partner Jon Flint (Hector Elizondo) to catch Ellis and expose him to everyone.

I was actually shocked that Beverly Hills Cop 3 failed as much as it did back in 1994. It was directed by the infamous John Landis (Trading Places, Coming to America) who had worked with Murphy before, but sadly it just was a shell of the former two movies. Axle goes through the motions, but sadly it’s just not nearly as funny and nearly as charismatic. There’s some fun to be hand, but the villain is kind of weak, and the stakes not nearly as high. Eddie Murphy tries his best, as does Judge Reinhold, but the film is one of the very obvious reasons why Beverly Hills Cop 4 has been buried for so long.




Rated R by the MPAA (all 3 films)




Video: :4.5stars:
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Beverly Hills Cop :4.5stars:
The 2011 release of Beverly Hills Cop had an OK transfer, but it was really nothing great. Satisfactory for the time, but there was a lot of room for improvement. While the tech nerd in me is really disappointed that the 4K UHD disc is nowhere to be seen being that all 3 films were remastered in 4K, but the Blu-ray certainly doesn’t disappoint at all. This is a fantastic remaster that looks extremely organic with natural film grain and excellent detail levels. There’s that slightly grainy and slightly soft look that a lot of 1980s films had, but it is very VERY natural looking, and the burnished and dulled colors look fantastic. The neon lights of the strip club where Axel goes perusing for clues flashes with bright lights, but much of the film is bathed in night time as Axel pokes around. Daylight shots are bright and cheery, with great skin tones and very balanced contrast levels. All in all, this is a FANTASTIC upgrade over the old disc for sure.

Beverly Hills Cop 2 :4.5stars:
Beverly Hills Cop 2 is the odd one of the bunch, the only film of the trio to be shot in 2.39:1 scope (2.35:1 for the home video release), and this remaster looks every bit as good as the first movie. That same slightly dingy 1980s film stock is used and the colors are a bit more bronzed and dulled than the first movie. Bright daylight sequences still look excellent, but Tony Scott’s trademark bronze offset with garish lighting crops up throughout the movie. Black levels are still excellent though, with great shadow detail and no major artifacting that I could see. The grain sometimes spikes during some of the really dark night shots, but once again, this is is a fantastic looking remaster and the best I’ve ever seen the film look

Beverly Hills Cop 3 :4.5stars:
Out of the three films, Beverly Hills Cop 3 is probably the cleanest and shiniest of the trio. It has the most consistent grain structure, and it certainly is more colorful. Take that as a directorial choice, or just from using better film stock in the 1990s, but this is a gorgeous looking film. Axel has aged a bit by this time, but the rest of the film looks fantastic. Colors are bright and vividly saturated, with the theme park being the most copious with the colors. Details are exquisite, showing the age lines on Murphy’s face, as well as the individual cracks and notches in the theme park’s wood doors, or the backdrop of Beverly Hills itself. Blacks are deep and inky as one would expect, and outside some very mild black crush in the opening take down scene of the chop shoppers, this disc looks just about perfect.








Audio: :4stars:
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Beverly Hills Cop :3stars:
Sadly, the one thing that hasn’t been upgraded in this package is the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that Paramount used for the original pressing of Beverly Hills Cop. It’s not a bad track per se, but it’s very uneven and not always perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Dialog is well placed and intelligible at all times, but volume raises and lowers at will, with crispness and clarity suffering the same fate. Some scenes are fantastic, with good low end, and sharp audio clarity. But then there are others where things get a bit muddled and soft. LFE is clean and punchy, but not overly abundant, and surrounds are moderately active. A decent track, but not an overly exuberant or powerful one.

Beverly Hills Cop 2 :4.5stars:
Now here’s an upgrade! Beverly Hills Cop 2 blasts onto the scene with a powerful and aggressive mix that fits nicely into the action genre mold. The opening firefight is punchy and wickedly aggressive, with potent gunfire and roaring of engines. The dialog is always well placed in the mix without any issues of being drowned out by the loud and hot action sequences that pepper the movie. Dynamics are more than suitably wide, with quiet dialog driven scenes that are punctuated with brash and brutal action sequences that tax the surrounds as well as the subs more than a few times. The score is wide and spacious, flowing throughout the movie with ease and never sounding too loud or too quiet for the mix. Overall, this is what I remembered as child. The massive thundering bass, the crazy action sequences, and the exhilaration of a great audio mix. Well done Paramount.

Beverly Hills Cop 3 :4.5stars:
Beverly Hills Cop 3 doesn’t slow down at all in the audio department, and is just as energy filled and exciting as the one that came before it. The opening shot with the train rumbling down the tracks is awe inspiring, filled with power and a nuance of little clacking noises that fill the sound stage. The rest of the track is pretty much what you’d expect from the series. Moments of quieter dialog interpsersed with tons of action and (sometimes overly aggressive) gunfire. The 90s score is clean and clear, flows throughout the movie like it should, and I really have no complaints there. The movie is great with the dynamics, shifting us from a moment of quiet calm to full on action gunfire in a split second without seeming out of place. The hilarious “alien” attack near the first 1/3rd of the movie is probably the best part of the whole mix, as it has a ton of nuances and surround activity that makes it a blast to listen to. LFE is nothing to be ashamed of, but rather a powerhouse that just grabs you and doesn’t let go (this track is mixed HOT with the bass).








Extras: :1.5stars:
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Beverly Hills Cop
• NEW Two never-before-seen deleted scenes
• NEW Four new behind-the-scenes featurettes incorporating vintage 1984 interviews
• NEW An isolated audio track of the original score by Harold Faltermeyer
• NEW "BHC Mixtape '84" - which allows viewers to go directly to the scenes featuring the hit songs "The Heat Is On," "Neutron Dance," "New Attitude," "Stir It Up," "Do You Really," and "Nasty Girl."
• Audio Commentary by director Martin Brest
• Beverly Hills Cop—The Phenomenon Begins
• A Glimpse Inside the Casting Process
• The Music of Beverly Hills Cop
• Location Map
• Theatrical Trailer

Beverly Hills Cop 3


Beverly Hills Cop 3






Final Score: :4stars:


This is really a great set if you’re a fan of Eddie Murphy and 80s/90s action movies. There’s a few hiccups in the set, but mostly minor. The original film’s mediocre audio is still present (I have zero idea if it’s source related or could be redone), the third movie is NOT great, and there are no extras for the 2nd and 3rd movie. HOWEVER, all three films have been digitally remastered and look fantastic on Blu-ray, and the original film has gotten some brand new extras as well, so being that this is the first time that Beverly Hills Cop 2 and 3 have been domestically released (they did get released over seas a few years back), this is one enticing set. Brand new 4K masters, a nice slimline 3 disc case, and just in time for the Netflix production of Beverly Hills Cop 4 to drop soon (hopefully). Easily a no brainer if you like the films. Grab it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox, Jurgen Prochnow, Brigitte Nielsen, Joey Travolta, Jimmy Ortega
Directed by: Martin Brest / Tony Scott / John Landis
Written by: Daniel Petrie Jr. / Larry Ferguson, Warren Skaaren / Steven E. de Souza
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC (1 and 3), 2.35:1 AVC (2)
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1 (all 3), French, German, Spanish, Spanish, Italian, Japanese DD 2.0, German, Italian, Spanish Japanese, French, Italian DD 5.1
Subtitles:
English English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R (all 3 movies)
Runtime
: 105 Minutes / 103 Minutes / 104 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 14th, 2020

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Recommendation: Worth Getting




 

tripplej

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Thanks for the review. I greatly enjoyed watching this franchise and will have to get it. :)
 
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