Former President Gerald Ford
“The hook now is another wealthy west coast tycoon trying to hold his status. That’s everything in Beverly Hills, unlike Detroit where Foley sniffs out a low-rent credit card forgery scheme. There, people try anything to get by; in Cali, the rich only seek to become richer. Beverly Hills Cop II maintains that lifestyle comparison, if with far less visibility than the first movie. Per sequel rules, the goal here is to recreate rather than embellish.”
Read our full Beverly Hills Cop II Blu-ray review for more
Video
Tony Scott’s touches show up throughout Beverly Hills Cop II. Intense oranges reflect the California sun. Most scenes favor this color filter, warming the visual palette. This isn’t modern digital grading, but classic color filtering. That leaves primaries enough room to shine, including natural flesh tones. Coastal exteriors show off greens, and luxury cars sport all manner of paint. It’s fantastic.
Intensified by Dolby Vision, highlights blossom. While at times a dustier-style cinematography, this doesn’t dim the end results. Exterior light pours in through windows, keeping contrast high, even clipping, although that was Scott’s style. A solid foundation of black levels complete the depth.
While failing at times, Paramount’s encode generally keeps up. The first issue comes early as Murphy enters a smokey bar. Chroma noise swarms the screen, more so than film grain. Thankfully, that’s brief and uncommon. Mostly, Beverly Hills Cop II is free to present gains in resolution over the Blu-ray. Superb texture and sharpness display true 4K material, and while the source holds things back from being a reference effort, this is still stellar. Facial definition appears in close and medium shots. Exteriors all excel.
Audio
No update here. Paramount copies the Blu-ray’s DTS-HD 5.1 track. Generally a stereo mix, a few surround moments factor into this track. An occasional bullet will move from the fronts, the score widely separates, and an active strip club employs heavy ambiance. However, the stereo split is audibly more aggressive, adding to the chaos as Rosewood drives the cement truck. Smashing metal pans across the speakers with no opportunity missed.
It’s also a well managed, pristine mix. Fidelity gives dialog pleasing crispness. Even stock gunshots lack a muffled trait common to ‘80s action. This is helped with unexpectedly tight LFE activity. Both the music and shootouts push the sub, ensuring constant weight. Club music drops a few deepened jolts worthy of notice.
Extras
Just like the Blu-ray: nothing, and to note the Blu-ray isn’t included either. This is just a UHD package.
Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided to us for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle review material, please visit our about us page to learn more.
Beverly Hills Cop II
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Movie
A sequel as slick as the original, Beverly Hills Cop II is an action comedy delight that’s pure ’80s.
User Review
( vote)The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 45 full resolution uncompressed 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD:
Matt Paprocki
Matt Paprocki has critiqued home media and video games for 20 years across outlets like Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, Forbes, IGN, Playboy, Polygon, Ars, and others. His current passion project is the technically minded DoBlu.com. You can read Matt's body of work via his personal WordPress blog, and follow him on Twitter @Matt_Paprocki.