Beverly Hills Cop II - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Beverly Hills Cop II



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
It’s not shocking that with the news of Beverly Hills Cop IV we’d get more than just Beverly Hills Cop on 4K UHD. Personally I had hoped for a box set of the trilogy back in 2020 when the 4K of the first one came out, but hey, I can live with the sequels being individually released. In this case it’s just the second (as most people would rather slit their wrists instead of watching the known bad 3rd film), and while the completionist in me really wants to see them all together, this is a great release in terms of a STUNNING 4K UHD video score. It recycles the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from the 3 film Blu-ray collection and the lack of extras that it contained, but I still really was impressed with the disc solely due to how amazing it looks in 4K. My one continued gripe with Paramount is that they have replicated their recent pattern of of excluding the Blu-ray from the set and not making it a combo pack, which means if you want the Blu-ray for non 4K UHD capable players around the house, you’ll still want to keep your 2020 Blu-ray collection around for that.

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.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Beverly Hills Cop II was one of the best looking of the Blu-ray trilogy back in 2020, and it’s a STUNNING disc on 4K UHD today. I was actually floored by the disc, especially with the first film being only a decent upgrade. This is literally as picture perfect as you can get. The film is distinctly Tony Scott grainy, with slightly warmer pushed colors (another Tony Scott flair), but it’s so gorgeously detailed that you can’t help but marvel. Check out the final scene with Axel looking over his shoulder in the car, or the highway chase near the center. The car is bright red and with green grass all around it, and black levels are just perfect. Outside of a few mild grain spikes, this is as technically perfect an encode as you can get. The film will never look digital glossy, but this is pure Kodak film at its finest, and a fantastic 4K UHD disc.



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Audio:

Beverly Hills Cop 2 retains the upgraded lossless 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from the 2020 Blu-ray release, andblasts 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.













Extras:

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Final Score: ​

Like most home video releases these days, there's some give and take. Mostly take, though. I am slightly chapped about Paramount's dedication to eliminating combo packs (we've been spoiled since Blu-ray) AND I would have loved to have seen the DVD extras, but that video is just GORGEOUS to behold and exactly what we wanted for our demo worthy TVs. Now we can just hope Paramount releases the 3rd film soon, as the completionist in me would love to have them all together. Good movie, solid release, GREAT video. Fun buy for us Axel Foley fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Jurgen Prochnow, Ronny Cox, Brigitte Nielsen
Directed by: Tony Scott
Written by: Danilo Bach, Daniel Petrie Jr., Eddie Murphy
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DD 5.1, German, Spanish, Spanish (Latin), French, Russian DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Polish, Russian
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 17th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Buy

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. This is a good movie. Loved the series.