The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991)

[BarnDoor]

Released under the title of 'Boomer - Uberfall auf Hollywood' as part of Ascot Elite's Cinema Treasures series:



The Taking of Beverly Hills

This minor early 90s action classic has never even been released on DVD before, so to see it on Blu-ray was a real pleasant surprise. I thought the transfer rather good on the whole, considering this was never going to be reference quality. I'm just happy to see it available on something other than VHS.

[Andrew Woo]

Yes, the picture and audio quality is quite solid for such little and unknown (almost forgotten) film. Far better than one could expect.

[Crom1]

I'll be importing this one, can't wait.

[Dunemoon]

Sadly, it's region locked.

Always liked it but it was weird seeing Wahl play a happy go lucky type of character. Especially, after Wiseguy.

The Treasure of Yankee Zephr was also released by the same company.

[Crom1]

Originally Posted by Dunemoon

Sadly, it's region locked.

Good to know, I'll still get it because I can play region locked discs.

[Dunemoon]

Originally Posted by Crom1

Good to know, I'll still get it because I can play region locked discs.

As of last week, me too! So glad I bought the blu months ago.

[DMRI2006]

The English audio is also in mono

Something sadly becoming more common on some German Blus.

[Leslie Dame]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

The English audio is also in mono

Something sadly becoming more common on some German Blus.

Truly mind blowing the more you think about it. According to IMDb The Taking of Beverly Hills was shot with Dolby audio. I assume stereo or surround.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Leslie Dame

Truly mind blowing the more you think about it. According to IMDb The Taking of Beverly Hills was shot with Dolby audio. I assume stereo or surround.

Yes, it's a stereo film -- but the English track on the German Blu is plain, flat mono. There's no stereo separation, and it's obvious when you put on the German dubbed track, which IS in stereo!

This has happened several times recently on titles I've purchased -- MALONE (with Burt Reynolds), the Robert Englund PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN all have flat, mono English tracks...and all three of those are also stereo films. (On the latter, I ended up getting the Japanese Blu-Ray for cheap and its English track is stereo. )

I wonder if this is an intentional thing meant to dissuade people from importing them...either way it's becoming a trend and it's not a good one.

[Dunemoon]

Just watched it again and am liking it more as the years go by. Owned the VHS since the 90s. Heh. Even the crappy video game.

[Markgway]

So, in the US/UK we get 5.1 remixes of mono films and in Germany they get mono downmixes of 2.0/5.1 films?

The wacky world of home video!

Just out of curiosity is TAKING uncut on BD?

I saw an NTSC LD rip which dubbed over SOME of the strong language despite still being rated 'R'. Very odd.

[Dunemoon]

The cussing remains intact.

[Metalbeast]

Originally Posted by Dunemoon

The cussing remains intact.

Are you sure? The american Blu-ray dubbed over some but not all of the profanity. One of the ways to tell it's a dubbed version is the scene with Matt Frewer in the car. In most versions he says "Famous Beverly Hills" instead "****ing Beverly Hills" like in the original version. I have not been able to find any version that has all of the profanity intact.