Coming to America 4K UHD (1988)

[seagal]

Originally Posted by notops

I've been watching a lot of Eddie Murphy movies during the last week, so I figured it would be fun to rank them in anticipation of this UHD

1. 48 Hrs.
2. Coming To America
3. Beverly Hills Cop
4. Dolemite Is My Name
5. The Golden Child
6. The Nutty Professor
7. Trading Places
8. Metro
9. Another 48 Hrs.
10. Beverly Hills Cop II

I also like "Boomerang"

[notops]

Originally Posted by Kingchin

Both actor's were duel leads so Eddie Murphy wasn't going to get more screen time, it would of ruined comprised the film if Murphy got the majority of screen time or vice versa. People always think of Eddie Murphy in it but I will say Dan Aykroyd also gave a excellent underrated performance in the movie.

They got equal billing, but Aykroyd certainly has more screen time than Murphy. That's why I said it feels more like Dan's movie. We spend almost the entire first act with him and also a great deal of time is devoted to him and Ophelia. Not a slight against the movie, but Eddie feels more like a (strong) supporting character than a co-lead.

[Markgway]

I think The Distinguished Gentleman is Murphy's most underrated movie.

Still no Blu.

[mulscul]

Originally Posted by notops

I've been watching a lot of Eddie Murphy movies during the last week, so I figured it would be fun to rank them in anticipation of this UHD

1. 48 Hrs.
2. Coming To America
3. Beverly Hills Cop
4. Dolemite Is My Name
5. The Golden Child
6. The Nutty Professor
7. Trading Places
8. Metro
9. Another 48 Hrs.
10. Beverly Hills Cop II

Metro is pretty good, finally saw it on cinemax this month. From your list you are missing Bowfinger and Showtime. Id remove 5, 6, 9, or 10 to fit those

[Nightman04]

Looks like Ill be getting this and Beverly Hills Cop today from amazon. That never happens to me. Happy day.

[Brian81]

Is Best Buy carrying this or Beverly Hills Cop in store? Or any of the Paramount Presents, for that matter...

I know there is that 5 or 8 digit SKU thing, but even Blade 4K has an 8 digit and that one is available for pickup in person.

[Geoff D]

Coming to America (1988) 4K Dolby Vision review, UK Paramount UHD disc. HDR metadata: DCI-P3 colour primaries. Mastering display levels: 4000/0.005 max/min nits. Maximum Content Light Level: 1000 nits. Maximum Frame Average Light Level: 228 nits.

Oh yeah. Right from the very first shot, literally, you know you're in for a treat as the Paramount logo has a layer of fine grain despite it being an optical for the slow transition into the skies over 'Zamunda' (actually a miniature, in case it wasn't obvious). The title credits follow and even they look finely filmic, they're still opticals and haven't been recomposited or anything but Paramount have resisted the urge to DNR the shit out of them like they've been doing with several of those 'Paramount Presents' transfers like Airplane! and King Creole. And when the opening is over and we cut to first generation material, oh mai, it gets even better. Crisply detailed, grain tightly packed, it's fookin marvellous and that continues throughout the film. The other opticals like fades and dissolves harden up a little bit for range and detail but still carry some grain

There are a few moments that had me kinda puzzled, as fast-moving motion like someone waving their hand can look weirdly smeary e.g. Saul in the barber shop when he's gesticulating, and several wide shots have these random pockets of softness like when Eddie Murphy is yelling on the fire escape, in the side-on shot some of the buildings in the distance below look incredibly soft while others right next to them are fine. It's not a lensing artefact as far as I can tell because the production used brand new Primo lenses from Panavision which were "sharp from corner to corner" according to the cinematographer, and have no 1080p BD to refer to (the UK steelbook doesn't come with one and I sold the US BD I had), but thankfully it's not a common occurrence.

The movie was shot spherical, on 5294 for 90% of it which was the hellishly grainy 400 ASA stock as used on Ghostbusters, Aliens, BTTF and plenty of others in the mid '80s, and yet the grain is exceedingly fine. Now, cinematographer Woody Omens told American Cinematographer in August 1988 that he overexposed the 94 by half a stop (letting in more light than is rated for optimal exposure) in order to gain depth into the shadows and reduce grain (as more light means a thicker exposure, it excites more of the smaller grain particles than the big bastards lurking in the emulsion), but it wouldn't reduce 94's grain that much. They used some slower 5297 and slower-still 5247 for a few daylight exteriors, plus 5295 in one scene to match what was used on a VFX shot of a matte painting (5295 with its improved blue layer was still being used mainly for VFX before it was let loose on main unit work, see my Beetlejuice review).

So, given how unusually fine the grain is and the occasional smeariness, it makes me wonder if they degrained it completely and then added a layer of much finer grain over the top to give it a more uniform look. I may be talking bollox, and it's funny that I kept saying that this didn't happen with the 4K UHD of American Werewolf, but if that is what they've done here - bear in mind that this 4K HDR transfer was approved by John Landis who's done odd things with grain before on some of his transfers - then they've carried it off rather well. The grain itself doesn't gloop and smear and stick to everything as it moves, it still has that tangibly organic feel of film.

The colour looks fresh without overcooking it, skin tones have a full, warm-ish hue (again bearing in mind I've no other version for reference) and have an excellent range of tonalities. Omens noted the intricacies of lighting for such a diverse array of tones across the almost all black cast, not seeking to even out the image with filters (which they used hardly any of as Landis wanted a cleaner look) but to gently bring up the darkest skin to give it a luminous sheen while slightly softening the light on the lighter-skinned performers, and this UHD gives all those shades such depth. Primaries look fine, the greens of the Zamundan forest are suitably lush as are the multi-coloured costumes of those attending the initial wedding party in Zamunda, and the fireworks that herald that celebration look gorgeous with pastel blues and purples lighting up a jet-black sky. Colour becomes more grey, more concreted over when they get to New York, natch.

The HDR grading is right up my alley: it hardly looks like HDR at all, and I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean that it's so flippin' natural it looks like it was always meant to be this way. Unusually for Paramount the disc includes MaxCLL/MaxFALL metadata and, despite how unreliable a narrator those figures are, they jive with what I'm seeing as the average brightness is on the low side, not "dim" as such but nearer an SDR type of brightness from scene to scene, and the MaxFALL of 228 nits (brightest average frame found in the whole movie) bears that out. The speculars carry across some decent brightness but are used sparingly, the movie has more of a direct lighting style that doesn't over-elaborate things. Black levels are deep on the rare instances they're called into action, like that fireworks shot mentioned above which is a dazzler.

The movie is encoded onto a UHD66 BUT as there are only three language tracks (English DTS-HD 5.1, German and French Dolby Digital 2.0, it's weird that this isn't some multi-territory release) then there's lots of room for the compression to stretch its legs. The UHD disc does also include the previous featurettes and trailer and photo gallery from the old BD, most of it upscaled to 1080p60, but as they've been freshly encoded in HEVC (UHD spec allows for a 1080p60 encode, unlike regular BD) then they're not taking up much space. As such I spotted no major compression issues at all, areas of saturated red look a fraction untidy perhaps but only a fraction, and the inevitable full enhancement layer ('FEL') for the Dolby Vision ensures no banding is present, though the grain is a superb natural ditherer anyway.

So yeah: despite some moments where it mightn't look as natural as it seems, the overall effect is of a solid new 4K transfer of crisply-shot 35mm negative given an entirely respectful HDR grade, and they haven't murderised the opticals with DNR either. Well done Paramount.

[tyrok]

Originally Posted by Brian81

Is Best Buy carrying this or Beverly Hills Cop in store? Or any of the Paramount Presents, for that matter...

I know there is that 5 or 8 digit SKU thing, but even Blade 4K has an 8 digit and that one is available for pickup in person.

Best Buy will have both and Blade does have a 7 digit sku (stores couldn't even ring it up if it had 8).

[wildphantom]

Dammit Geoff I’m going to have to put down extra for the steel aren’t i! Seeing as we’re not getting a regular version in the U.K. yet.

[weberrygt]

Has anybody ordered from Best Buy and got it? Mine has a shipment delay, even though it looks like it is available to order and ship from the site.

I wonder if it has to do with some mix up though. The item does not say steel, but the image looks like the steel cover. Maybe...

Edit: the site now says backordered and won't come until 1/11. I had this pre-ordered though so let's see.

[garyd97]

Picked mine up in person today at BestBuy.

[dlinsley]

Originally Posted by weberrygt

Has anybody ordered from Best Buy and got it? Mine has a shipment delay, even though it looks like it is available to order and ship from the site.

I wonder if it has to do with some mix up though. The item does not say steel, but the image looks like the steel cover. Maybe...

Edit: the site now says backordered and won't come until 1/11. I had this pre-ordered though so let's see.

Mine arrived yesterday. I ordered the cheaper version that looked like the steel, but it was the regular that came.

[weberrygt]

Originally Posted by dlinsley

Mine arrived yesterday. I ordered the cheaper version that looked like the steel, but it was the regular that came.

Awesome, thanks. That's what I ordered as well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by weberrygt

Has anybody ordered from Best Buy and got it? Mine has a shipment delay, even though it looks like it is available to order and ship from the site.

I wonder if it has to do with some mix up though. The item does not say steel, but the image looks like the steel cover. Maybe...

Edit: the site now says backordered and won't come until 1/11. I had this pre-ordered though so let's see.

Mine came Saturday.

[ShawnJ]

Originally Posted by Markgway

I think The Distinguished Gentleman is Murphy's most underrated movie.

Still no Blu.

You're not the only one. That was a great movie and it amazes me that it's kind of off of the radar for most. Hope it gets a blu ray release.

[SlaughterX]

My BB order was supposed to be delivered today... and it still hasn't even shipped. On top of that I am pretty sure they about to okie doke me with the regular non-steelbook version. I think I might just put in a order for in store pick up and get it along with my Xbox on Friday.

[PRO-630HD]

Anyone else notice the extremely strange 4K UHD logo on the cover art? Very odd and looks totally out of place.

Collateral 4K BLU RAY REVIEW + Unboxing | Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx | Michael Mann - YouTube

You can see it here on the new Collateral disc as well. Go to 1:46. The dual 4K Ultra HD logos are beyond redundant.

[notops]

I've seen this movie so many times, but for the first time tonight I noticed Tobe Hooper as a guest at Cleo McDowell's party. Gotta love John Landis and his roster of cameos from directors

[babymachine]

slightly annoying, but it seems my Vudu digital copy redeemed in HDX, and not in UHD.

edit: emailed paramount support, it appears they're going to rectify. here's where to contact them: https://support.paramountdigitalcopy...s/requests/new

[kannibaliztik]

Originally Posted by babymachine

slightly annoying, but it seems my Vudu digital copy redeemed in HDX, and not in UHD.

yeah, codes arent working yet for UHD, currently waiting on paramount to replace my code