BEVERLY HILLS COP: 4K Blu-ray (Paramount, 1984) Paramount Home Video

In the Spring of 1984, comedian, Eddie Murphy was very much poised to explode on the scene as a Hollywood heavy-hitter. His legendary 4-year tenure as part of the ensemble in Lorne Michael’s wildly popular television skit franchise, Saturday Night Live, had just come to an end. And in the interim Murphy, signed to Paramount Studios, appeared to great effect in 48 Hrs. (1982), and Trading Places (1983). A valiant successor to Richard Pryor, whose particular brand of bathroom humor Murphy idolized and emulated early on in his own career, albeit, with his own inimitable originality that seemed to suggest he had invented such schtick from scratch, Murphy’s career was about to be catapulted into the stratosphere with his next big screen project. Martin Brest's Beverly Hills Cop (1984) is a film very near and dear to my heart. I was thirteen when I first saw it with a live audience at my local theater. And rather instantly, it was impossible not to be impressed by Murphy’s naturalistic acting style.  He seemed, in fact, to be making most of his dialogue up as he went along – shooting his pistol, alongside witty – if slightly blue – barbs as quickly discharged from his mouth as the bullets from his holster. Then and there, I decided Eddie Murphy's comedic genius was tailor-made for the movies and I became a huge fan. The passage of time has not altered my snap assessment of Murphy’s talents some forty-plus years later, although I will concede Eddie's made some terrible movies since.

Now, movies from the 1980’s generally get a bad rap as being high camp disposable puff art. Those who have not seen enough movies from the decade are too quick to point out the tacky hairdos and flamboyant fashion trends (padded shoulders, mesh tank tops, pastel Don Johnson suits, etc. et al), and the uber-glam-bam of consumer materialism run amok (lifestyles of the rich and famous, here we come), the impossibly feather-weight quality of scripts and finally, the whole laissez faire attitude toward acting then, more artificially over-the-top, transparent or, on the flip side, just plain dull. Truer still, there is no shortage of 'bad' movies from the 1980’s (although the same might be said of any decade in film). And, I have no doubt that if either Sly Stallone or Mickey Rourke had accepted the challenge of playing Axel Foley (both were initially offered the role), Beverly Hills Cop would be wedged into the bargain basement bin of our collective consciousness alongside other forgotten whack-tac-u-lar relics from this period. How refreshing then to discover that with Eddie Murphy in the driver's seat, not only has Beverly Hills Cop not dated, it seems to have avoided all of the aforementioned pitfalls. The concept for Beverly Hills Cop had been kicking around Paramount since 1977, the year executive producer, Don Simpson pitched its proverbial ‘fish out of water’ scenario about a police officer from the gritty streets of East L.A., suddenly transferred to the chichi and moneyed playgrounds of Beverly Hills. Hiring Danilo Bach to write the screenplay, the concept morphed into ‘Beverly Drive’ – the cop, then named Elly Axel – now, an even more remote figure, hailing from Pittsburgh. However, executives at Paramount were underwhelmed by Simpson’s pitch and the property quietly faded into obscurity. But then came Flashdance (1983), Simpson’s runaway hit nobody saw coming. Its clout afforded Simpson the cache to pursue his dream project and ‘Beverly Drive’ was revived, with Daniel Petrie brought in to refurbish the script.

The main character became Axel Elly – and finally, Axel Foley from Detroit, with producer, Jerry Bruckheimer signing Mickey Rourke at $400,000 to do the film. Alas, delays encountered forced Rourke to drop out of the running. Bruckheimer then turned to Sylvester Stallone as his second choice. Stallone saw the role as a straight actioner and proceeded to aggressively darken the overall tenor of the piece, changing the lead character’s name to Axel Corbretti, and, even killing off Axel’s playful sidekick, Billy Rosewood mid-way through the story. He also envisioned a costly finale to have included a ruthless game of ‘chicken’ – a Lamborghini versus a freight train. Paramount balked at the budget and Stallone withdrew from the project a mere two weeks before principle photography was to begin. From here, Paramount bandied about such names as James Caan, Al Pacino and even Richard Pryor for the lead, before Bruckheimer convinced the studio to consider Eddie Murphy in their stead. Although Murphy had proven a hit maker for Paramount, their executive brain trust was still reticent to spend $14 million on an action/comedy, with $4 million alone allocated for Murphy. Ultimately, Brest and his crew managed to shave an additional million off the budget, and Paramount gave the go-ahead to commence. The rest, as they say, is history.

Beverly Hills Cop opens in the slums of inner-city Detroit. Undercover cop, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is attempting to bust a ring of smugglers by pretending to fence stolen cigarettes when the squad cars move in. One of the smugglers gets cold feet, steals the semi with its contraband while Axel is barely clinging to its siderails, leading police on a harrowing chase through the city’s gritty back alleys. The smugglers get away, leaving Axel to face the wrath of his superior, Inspector Douglas Todd (Gilbert R. Hill). That evening, Axel hooks up with his old pal, Mikey Tandino (James Russo), once a cop too, but who left the badge for a mutual ‘friend’, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) who has since worked Mikey into a gig, working security for L.A. high roller, Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff). One problem: Mikey stole bearer bonds from Victor's private stash. Now, it gets him murdered. After narrowly escaping a similar fate, Axel informs Todd he will be taking a leave of absence for a presumed vacation. Todd warns Axel not to pursue Mikey's homicide. Instead, Axel makes his way to the City of Angels. Almost immediately, he is met with Victor's violent opposition. A troop of Maitland’s goons sucker punch, then toss Axel through a plate glass window. Axel is placed under arrest for ‘disturbing the peace’ and confronted by Lt. Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) and his two officers, Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sgt. John Taggart (John Ashton). Although all three sympathize with Axel's predicament and promise to look into Mikey's murder, they absolutely refuse to invest themselves in anything except procedural by-the-book investigative practices. Naturally, this conflicts with Axel's more intuitive powers of deduction. Axel finds Jenny working as the curator in one of Victor's art galleries. As their friendship rekindles, Axel and Jenny begin to realize Maitland is involved in illegal narcotics smuggling. But Axel must find the evidence to prove his case in order to establish a motive for Mikey’s murder while dodging Bogomil and brokering a truce with the impressionable Billy and more hard-assed Taggart. Ultimately, the comedy gives way to a slam-bang finish with Axel arriving at Maitland’s Beverly Hills’ mansion for a shootout in which no one – save the principals - is spared.

Daniel Petrie's screenplay deserves the real credit here. In as much as Eddie Murphy proves the master of adlib, it is Petrie's clever shaping of the buoyant buddy-buddy relationship between Axel, Taggart and Rosewood that really keeps the film's pace lively and electric. The male-bonding chemistry here is very good indeed; Rosewood’s immediate willingness to buck up Axel’s investigation, and Taggart’s stern giddiness, effortlessly dovetailing into Axel’s devil-may-care cleverness to conduct an investigation on his own terms.  Reportedly, director, Martin Brest flipped a coin to decide whether or not to do the film. After it became a smash hit, Brest had the quarter framed and hung on his wall as a good luck piece. In retrospect, Beverly Hills Cop had everything going for it. In reality, it might just as easily have been a disastrous flop. In the original script, Jenny Summers was Axel's lover and Mikey, his brother. When Eddie Murphy became cast in the lead, major rewrites became necessary - all of them in service to making the film an action/comedy instead. The 'cut and paste' work done on the final draft was still incomplete when cameras began to roll. To fill in the gaps, Brest relied on Murphy's genius for improvisation; Murphy, literally creating dialogue and situations on the spot and from scratch; diverting vignettes that only enhanced the overall structure and joy of the piece.

But no one could have anticipated the runaway success of Beverly Hills Cop, both critically and financially, a high-water mark of the 1980’s with the lion’s share of praise heaped upon Eddie Murphy for his ‘ghetto charm.’ Indeed, even British novelist, Christopher Hitchens considered the picture ‘flawless’. In its first 5 days, Beverly Hills Cop grossed $15,214,805, attaining the #1 box office spot for a whopping 13 weeks, and returning to the top slot one week later, tying Tootsie (1982) for the most weeks at the top. By the end of its U.S. theatrical run, the picture had grossed a staggering $234,760,478 – the biggest and brightest money maker of the year and the third highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made – falling just behind The Godfather (1972) and The Exorcist (1973). Eager to capitalize on the picture’s success, Paramount proposed a television franchise based on the movie – an offer Eddie Murphy balked at outright. He did, however, agree to a sequel, and thus the studio began assembling the necessary assets to launch big screen follow-up. Producers Simpson and Bruckheimer returned to the fray, contracting Tony Scott to direct. Scott was numero uno hot stuff on the Paramount backlot, thanks to Top Gun (1986). Alas, the production was not without its creative differences and behind-the-scenes calamities. For starters, plans to shoot a bigger, glossier production in London and Paris were scrapped when Eddie Murphy absolutely refused to work outside of the continental United States, pointing out that the franchise’s title alone suggested a return to the moneyed playgrounds of Beverly Hills. Hence, the screenplay by Larry Ferguson and Warren Skaaren took its cue from story ideas from Murphy and Robert D. Wachs.

The graver concern involved Don Simpson, whose recreational drug use and wanton lifestyle was gradually eroding his abilities to contribute to the production in meaningful ways.  Since the early eighties, Simpson’s cocaine habit had been common knowledge in Hollywood. Colleagues, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg tried to get Simpson into rehab but to no avail. It would not be until 1995, the year before his death, that Simpson would take their offer seriously. Alas, he chose the unorthodox ‘recovery’ program instituted by Dr. Stephen Ammerman whose own theory about using alternative drugs – including morphine – to combat withdrawal failed, even to save him; Ammerman, found dead in Simpson’s pool house from an overdose of cocaine, Valium, venlafaxine and morphine. That same year Bruckheimer, tired of making excuses for his producing partner, terminated their alliance shortly before work on The Rock (1996) began. Ultimately, the picture would outlive Simpson, who died on Jan. 19th, 1996. His death, initially attributed to ‘natural causes’ was later revealed in an autopsy, as heart failure brought on by a deadly combination of 21 different drugs, including antidepressants, stimulants, sedatives, and tranquilizers.

Shot photochemically on 35mm, Paramount’s new 4K release of Beverly Hills Cop leaves little to complain about and provides, by far, the most refined image quality yet attained on this catalog title. Paramount did a new 4K scan from an original camera negative, color graded in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision.  Dirty little secret: their previous Blu-ray edition was derived from this same 4K scan. But in native 4K everything improves as it should – and not just marginally.  Colors mark a real ‘wow’ factor. Detail is razor sharp, with only a handful of shots looking soft. Aside: these likely looked this way theatrically too. So, no aspersions ascribed to this 4K image. The only shortcoming here – and, it remains a minor one - is shadow delineation – more often than not, bang on deep and velvety, but again, in a few shots, slightly crushed. Not going to poo-poo it any further. The image is stellar for the most part, and only lags – marginally – when its source isn’t altogether up to snuff. Aside again: it’s amazing how discerning we have become about our viewing experience since HD came along. And, if you are only watching movies to see how good they look in HD, then you are only getting half the enjoyment from your viewing experience. Enough said! Paramount favors us with a 5.1 DTS audio, identical to Paramount’s remastered Blu-ray. The pop-tune-infused soundtrack sounds exquisite. Dialogue is clear and crisp. The surround channels are used mostly for sound effects, and ambient noises. 

Paramount has gone the extra mile, including Martin Brest’s audio commentary, Harold Faltermeyer’s isolated score, deleted scenes, interviews, the BHC Mixtape ’84 and theatrical trailer on the actual 4K release. Well done, indeed! However, as this barely scratches the surface of what was available on the Blu-ray, Paramount has also included one of those too, containing the nearly ½ long featurette on the making of the movie, almost 10-mins. about the casting, another featurette on the music, and finally, a location map to the real/reel Beverly Hills locations. Bottom line: if you loved Beverly Hills Cop back in the day, prepare to be dazzled by this new 4K incarnation. If you haven’t re-visited the movie in a very long while, you will be very pleasantly surprised, not only by the advancements in image quality, but also to note that while times have decidedly changed, the charm of this slice of Americana, circa the 80’s, remains perennially appealing. Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

3