6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A private detective specializing in missing children is charged with the task of finding a special child that dark forces want to eliminate.
Starring: Eddie Murphy, J.L. Reate, Charles Dance, Charlotte Lewis, Victor WongComedy | 100% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Horror | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
German: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The Eddie Murphy story will invariably contain mention of The Golden Child, but more than likely in a negative context. As Murphy was starring in hit after hit in the 1980s -- movies like Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, Trading Places, and 48 Hrs. solidifying his big-screen star -- he fumbled badly with Director Michael Ritchie's (The Bad News Bears, Fletch) 1986 stinker which sees Murphy lose most of his comedy mojo while battling demons and saving a Tibetan child with magical powers in a slow, stale, and at times sadistically underwhelming film.
Paramount's work on The Golden Child does not reach perfection as do some of its more recent catalogue releases, but this is a solid enough effort in total. The picture enjoys adequate sharpness though there are many softer shots scattered throughout. Grain is fine but sometimes looks a little more mesh-y and inorganic rather than smooth and true. Fine details hold serve, generally, though with some mixed-bag results. Never is the picture purely filmic and tack-sharp, leaving some faces a little flatter than ideal. Conversely, colors are more than satisfying. The picture offers a solid, well-rounded palette that enjoys steadiness across the entire spectrum, revealing intense clothing tones and support hues against urban and natural backgrounds across the various locations seen in the film. Colors are steady, pleasing to the eye, and of neutral contrast; there's no push too warm or to faint. Skin tones are delightful and black levels are terrific; there's a natural depth to shadows and clothes that is probably the image's finest feature. There are no egregious source wear signs and the encode reveals no compression artifacts. It may not be a Blu-ray masterpiece, but there's enough here to satisfy fans.
Paramount utilizes the studio's standby Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless encode for The Golden Child, and the results are satisfying all-around. The 80s synth soundtrack delivers impressive detail with a wide-ranging sound elements across the full tonal range spectrum, from sharp highs to solid lows. It's presented with width and nice balance across the back, too, pleasantly enveloping the listener for a satisfying time travel back to the 1980s and while perhaps not one of the decade's most iconic scores, certainly one well representative of it. While most action and sound effects find good stage presence and placement, quality clarity and full bodied depth, a few examples ring a bit flatter than ideal; a fight sequence in chapter eight, with a Metal music video playing on a TV in the background, features hits, punches, and other effects sounding shallow and flat. Otherwise, there's not much of a break in the illusion, though to be sure the original elements don't exactly offer the world's most efficient and detailed listening experience on par with today's more finely engineered multichannel sound events. But modest environmental detail helps to carry a number of scenes and pull the listener into the world while dialogue is clear and pure in both positioning and prioritization.
The Golden Child includes two supplements: a two-part featurette and a trailer. This release is the 11th in the "Paramount Presents" line and
includes the
slipcover with fold-open poster artwork, in this case not really different from the outside print beyond background color and poster print elements. The
Blu-ray case is transparent and there is inner print artwork as well as a filmmaker quote. A digital copy code is included with purchase. However, a DVD
copy is not.
Eddie Murphy may have been Hollywood' "golden child" in the 1980s but The Golden Child is a stain on an otherwise brilliant decade of work. Murphy would star in more stinkers in the coming years, including Norbit and The Adventures of Pluto Nash to name two of his most infamous films. While those are subjectively (and probably objectively) worse than this, The Golden Child came at a time when Murphy was a can't miss bet whose films always met or exceeded expectations. But not this one. It's barely watchable, particularly in the wake of watching some of his best films that Paramount recently released, like Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and Trading Places. This Blu-ray, part of the "Paramount Presents" line, delivers solid enough video and audio. Extras are limited to a single featurette and a trailer. For fans and collectors only.
Unrated
2011
1980
2008
1985
Collector's Edition
1981
2004
1997
2016
1995
2018
1998-2006
2009
2008
Warrior's Gate
2016
2010
1991
2005
1988
1986
2005