Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 18, 2025

Georges Lautner's "Cop or Hood" (1979) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Nathaniel Thompson, Howard S. Berger, and Steve Mitchell, and vintage trailer. In French, with optional English subtitles. Region-A "locked".

You think you're in control?

The good chemistry between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Marie Laforet is unmissable. However, like so many other things in Cop or Hood, it is undervalued and mismanaged. Several years later, Belmondo and Laforet will reunite in Happy Easter, a fabulous, truly flawless action comedy, also directed by Georges Lautner, and, together with Sophie Marceau, they will get the proper attention. See Cop or Hood and Happy Easter on the same night, and you will discover what type of film the former could and should have been.

In the beautiful city of Nice, someone guns down an honest cop working on a case involving prominent criminals and crooked high-ranking detectives. Soon after, undercover agent Stanislas Borowitz enters the city’s underworld as Antonio Cerutti, an ambitious but slightly loopy gangster who intends to carve a niche for himself. Borowitz quickly disrupts the safe, balanced, and productive business ecosystem that the criminals have established and, as they struggle to understand why their agreements are suddenly becoming meaningless, begins luring the crooked detectives who are on their payroll to reveal themselves. In the ensuing chaos, the criminals demand that the crooked detectives restore order, but as Borowitz continues to sabotage their businesses, they become frustrated with each other and go to war. When someone eventually realizes that the chaos is carefully managed, Borowitz’s daughter is kidnapped, and he is given a very tricky ultimatum.

Cop or Hood is not one of Lautner’s better films. It stretches oddly in different directions, routinely prioritizing very underwhelming material, creating the impression that Belmondo, its undisputed star, is risking his entire arsenal of tricks to save it from disintegrating. For this reason, various parts of Cop or Hood begin to look strikingly incompatible, and while Belmondo’s charm and energy help, the feeling that too much is not done right is impossible to brush off.

Lautner’s direction is almost suspiciously average. As implied earlier, there is good material with Belmondo and Laforet, but instead of building on it, or at least mimicking what makes it effective elsewhere, Lautner repeatedly downplays it. So, Belmondo remains the main attraction, with Lautner making the most of his action stunts, but, sadly, this is not enough to offset everything else that is clearly mismanaged.

The supporting cast includes wonderful character actors like Claude Brosset, Michel Beaune, Michel Galabru, Tony Kendall, and Venantino Venantini, who either struggle with disappointing material or are completely wasted in entirely meaningless material. Brosset, who plays one of the enraged crime bosses, is the only one who attempts to match Belmondo's energy, but, like Laforet, his efforts are undervalued and mismanaged.

Two fantastic action sequences provide the only praiseworthy material. The first sequence features a wild driving lesson, where the mastery of the great French stuntman Remy Julienne is instantly recognizable. The second features Belmondo, who risks his life in an incredible escape that leaves several of his clueless colleagues speechless.

Lautner worked with cinematographers Henri Decae, the only legitimate rival of the great Henri Alekan. Decae lensed such timeless films as The 400 Blows, Purple Noon, Le Samouraï, and Bob the Gambler.

Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cop or Hood arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release introduces a recent 2K restoration of Cop or Hood that is extremely disappointing. The 2K restoration has multiple issues, but two big flaws cause all of the serious damage. First, the master that was created after the 2K restoration was completed is very poorly graded. It either destabilizes or wipes out the native primaries and nuances with a digitally-looking yellowish tint, giving Cop or Hood a completely random appearance with some undeniable digital qualities. Second, the new grade compromises and collapses the native dynamic range of the visuals. As a result, large portions of Cop or Hood now look badly filtered, lacking proper delineation, clarity, and depth. (This is a very common flaw on virtually all color films from Gaumont's catalog that are redone at Eclair). Some of the worst-looking visuals are practically identical to the ones that are present on the disastrous 4K restoration of Purple Noon. All of this is extremely frustrating because it is easy to tell that the ungraded 2K master is great. It produces visuals with outstanding density levels and natural sharpness that is as good as it can be. Image stability is excellent, too. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very healthy and easily replicates the dynamic variety of the original soundtrack. I thought that all of the action footage sounded great, and the music created plenty of interesting contrasts. The dialogue was clear, sharp, and stable. The English translation is great, but the English subtitles are not big enough.

Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Nathaniel Thompson, Howard S. Berger, and Steve Mitchell.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Cop or Hood. In French, with English subtitles. (3 min).

Cop or Hood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Georges Lautner and Jean-Paul Belmondo made multiple films together. For my money, the best of these films is Happy Easter, a wild, undescribably funny action comedy in which Belmondo plays a middle-aged cheater who becomes overwhelmed by his lies while spending time with his wife and significantly younger new girlfriend. Cop or Hood is an average at best action thriller, entirely dominated by Belmondo, not an ensemble piece like Happy Easter, but I would have loved to have a wonderful copy of it in my library. Unfortunately, Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release brings a recent, very problematic French 2K restoration of it.