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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8105
- Running time: 90 minutes
- Year: 1986
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 21 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English, German
- Subtitles: 14 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.78:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailer
Director:
- Michael Ritchie
(Cops and Robbersons, The Couch Trip, Divine Madness!, Fletch, Fletch Lives, The Golden Child, Midnight Sting, Semi-Tough, A Simple Wish, Wildcats)
Producer:
- Edward S. Feldman and Robert D. Wachs
Screenplay:
- Dennis Feldman
Music:
- Michel Colombier
Cast:
- Chandler Jarrell: Eddie Murphy
Sardo Numspa: Charles Dance
Kee Nang: Charlotte Lewis
The Golden Child: J.L. Reate
The Old Man: Victor Wong
Til; Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb
Doctor Hong: James Hong
There was a time when Eddie Murphy was funny and he hit the good times with the first two Beverly Hills Cop films, plus Coming To America, 48 Hours and Another 48 Hours, but his candour slipped with The Golden Child and I think it’s because Murphy was trying too hard – breaking away from the traditional straight comedy routine and linking decent action scenes together when required.
For this film, though, he completely overstepped the mark with a bollocksy convoluted plot about a man who specialises in finding missing children being given the ultimate task of searching for a special one after being kidnapped by the biggest fruitcake around, Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance), while bringing along the British Charlotte Lewis as Kee Nang, a definitely un-British name, although she did once appear in Grange Hill.
The Golden Child was a big mistake. Murphy cracks the occasional one-liner but placed here they’re too few and far between to have any impact and it all results in a very disappointing 90 minutes. Watch the trailer instead – they’re all together.
“Who do I have to kill to get in a decent movie?” The picture, in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, is mostly fine although there are some print scratches on occasion. The average bitrate is 5.53Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound quality is passable but then what do you expect from a comedy? As with many back-catalogue releases from Paramount, a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has been included but it rarely gets a chance to shine.
There are 21 chapters over 90 minutes, but the only extra is a 2-minute 16:9 non-anamorphic trailer and the menus are silent and static. Subtitles are available in 14 languages ; English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Turkish.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.