EDDIE MURPHY IS DONE WITH KIDS STUFF AND AXEL FOLEY (ON THE BIG SCREEN…)

 

Oh come the fuck on, Eddie.

 

Everything one ever needs to know about Murphy and his career is contained in the look on his face during that one moment in Dreamgirls where he decides to go back to the drugs.

Right now, a TV show would actually be a good career move.    A guest role on "Breaking Bad" or  "Damages" would be fun if he wanted to do more dramatic stuff but I just don't see his ego suffering being part of an ensemble or even doing TV full time.   I still think that's the best avenue for edgy Eddie Murphy these days.

I love these quotes. Yeah, I might go back to giving a shit. Some day. It would be good for me.

 

Also, if you've heard him talk lately, Murphy sounds a lot like the he did in that legendary SNL sketch where he learned how white people spoke by studying Hallmark cards.

Yes, human beings are full of contradictions.  Amazing I know.

 

I don't give a fuck what Murphy does, it's his life.  If he starts being entertaining again, I'll watch.  I'm not his fucking manager or publicist.

The problem with BHC sequels is that you can really only exploit the central appeal of the concept, the fish out of water element, once. After the first film, Foley essentially has a handle on how this very movie fantasy version of Beverly Hills works, so there's virtually no push and pull and it becomes about a smart ass cop who could be from anywhere.

 

 

I don't know, since it's been, what? twenty years since the events of the last film, you could still do the fish out of water thing, only this time Eddie thinks he knows Hollywood, but it's all changed up. I'd have Zack Gallafankis as the lead villain.

As long as he stays out of a fat suit, it's a step in the right direction.

I usually hate action/comedy movies but Murphy was the one actor who got it right. With the BHC and 48 Hours movies he was funny and serious enough to make me laugh and enjoy the action.

Sounds like he has "made his money" and now wants to have fun again.  Let's just hope he back it up with his actions.

He sounds bored. Why wouldn't he be? He has flushed his professional dignity away.

 

He's a rich moron.

 

The man made one worthwhile film after Coming to America.

 

Bowfinger. That is all I got.

Bah. I don't even want Beverly Hills Cop Murphy back. Unless he can go back to Raw, I won't really care.

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 Really? To be honest, I thought he was better on Smackdown. *Badumching*!

I don't really get what's so objectionable or depressing about this. He comes across as pretty chilled and self aware, and doesn't seem particularly interested in trying to reclaim past glories. He says he considers himself semi-retired and seems content with that. I guess it's a shame if you're a fan of his early stuff, but it's his business really, and I'd have thought this would be preferable to him carrying on knocking out movies on autopilot. It's not that different to what Soderberg's been talking about for the last year or so.

 

I just realised I've never seen a single one of Murphy's 80's movies. How did I manage to make it this long without doing that?

Your viewing habits were wholly dictated by the Greek Communist Party?

 

 

 

- Vampire In Brooklyn
- The Nutty Professor

- Dr. Doolittle

- Holy Man

- Life

- Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

- Dr. Doolittle II

- Showtime

- The Adventures of Pluto Nash

- I Spy

- Daddy Day Care

- The Haunted Mansion

- Shrek II

- Norbit

- Shrek the Third

- Meet Dave

- Imagine That

- Shrek Forever After

 

 

I can easily understand why you haven't sought out the man's early work, given how awful his output of the past 20 years has been.

Honestly, I'm sure they suck but I don't really judge him as a whole on his kids movies and other later stuff. I think of him as a guy with two almost entirely separate careers. It just so happens I haven't caught anything from his first, better one.

All kidding aside, you really should give his 80s films a shot.  Almost all of them are more than worth it.

Eddie Murphy has turned into the Ice Cube of comedians. Discuss...

I saw his best work (as far as I know) fairly recently. I watched "Beverly Hills Cop", "48 Hours", "Trading Places", and "Coming to America" all in the past three years. I think they're quite timeless and and hold up very well, especially "48 Hrs." and "Trading Places". Having seen those, I got mad about what Eddie Murphy's career has become since them. I just kept thinking about how all the obvious talent he showed in those movies was just pissed away by him accepting so many lousy scripts.

 

I was even more disgusted after I caught "Meet Dave" on TV earlier this year. That was a good example of how creatively bankrupt a modern day Eddie Murphy movie can be. It was just an immensely shitty mash-up of "Coming to America" and "Galaxy Quest". It's so tremendously inferior to both of those movies that I feel bad putting it in the same sentence as them. It's really not worthy. That movie, despite being a comedy, made me really depressed seeing so much talent and money (not just him, but the rest of the cast as well) being wasted on something that rips off better stuff and doesn't even rip them off well.

 

Upon further reflection, I felt less sad about Murphy's career choices. Like "Meet Dave", I'm sure most of them were just worthless wastes of celluloid that were mostly forgotten shortly after their release. I don't think much of his later work is remembered by anyone besides kids with no standards for movie quality, or cinephiles who have a morbid fascination with shitty cinema or studying Murphy's career trajectory closely.

 

It's like "The Simpsons" and Weezer. You can just enjoy the classic material from each and pretend all the recent garbage that taints their legacies doesn't exist. We'll always have those first four Murphy classics to enjoy plus "Bowfinger" and any other '80s output of his I haven't seen that others may appreciate (does "The Golden Child" have fans?). Those movies will continue to exist no matter how much drivel Murphy has cranked out (and may continue to crank out). There's no need to be so disappointed that he doesn't do good work anymore or hope so much that he may do some again. Many actors never make even one movie as brilliant and beloved as his '80s classics. I say just be grateful for those. 

 

Jesus. Looking at them all together like that is like looking at an image of a mass grave. Seeing Showtime there reminds me that one, that movie actually exists, and two, that Robert De Niro has a list not unlike this one.
 

 

I don't fault Eddie for Dr. Dolittle. It was a chance for him to do a film his kids could see. Problem was, it made good money, and Eddie wanted to keep making good money. I don't consider the Nutty Professor films to be family fare. They're pretty light compared to Best Defense, or Coming to America, but not many family films have Grandma talking about their panties getting moist. Had Eddie balanced the kiddie roles with the more raunchy stuff like Sandler and Stiller have done a pretty good job with (box office-wise anyway) for years now, he would still be on top.

 

What ruined Eddie Murphy's career, was he caught with a tranny prostitute. He was. He did. That is a fact. Do I care? No. Do audiences care? Probably not, but he thought we did. So he threw his career in the toilet over something he never needed to. Compared to the stuff Mel Gibson pulled the last couple of years, getting caught with a dude is downright tame. I hope he realises this, and just kills as Oscar host.

Absolutely! It's a terrible film, but Murphy just lights up the screen. What was so exciting about him in those early days was the extreme HUNGER he had in his roles. He's just tearing up the screen in "48 Hrs," in a performance that I think could be argued is the best granted to a film in the action genre over the last thirty years. What's depressing is that the fire is gone, completely extinguished. His half-hearted desire to take some risks is disingenuous, because others already know he'd be doing it for shits and giggles. You think Bill Condon wants to make a Richard Pryor biopic that could win Oscars with a guy like Murphy, who has an attitude of, "Sure, yeah, whatever"? Dreamgirls was an ensemble, but does Murphy have the humility to do that sort of thing again?

 

'The Golden Child' has its moments, but it's really the beginning of the end of his quality run. He's phoning it in completely. Egg Shen and Charles Dance are entertaining and the babe is hot, but that's about it. It's a classic compared to his later output. For me, the only thing worth a damn from the past twenty years is 'Bowfinger', and I honestly think that's one of the best films that he's ever done.

I revisited "Beverly Hills Cop II" last summer. Not the best work of either Murphy or Tony Scott, but damn if it's not miles better than what either of them have cranked out in longer than I'd care to consider.

I still maintain that after Crimson Tide, Tony Scott was replaced by a pod person who churns out a good film on occasion................but generally just makes mediocre action thrillers.

 

Early Tony:

1983 - The Hunger

1986 - Top Gun

1987 - Beverly Hills Cop II

1990 - Revenge

1990 - Days of Thunder

1991 - The Last Boy Scout

1993 - True Romance

1995 - Crimson Tide

 

Latter Tony:

1996 - The Fan

1998 - Enemy of the State

2001 - Spy Game

2004 - Man On Fire

2005 - Domino

2006 - Deja Vu

2009 - The Taking of Pelham 123

2010 - Unstoppable

 

 

I rest my case.

I like these films. Not the rest though.

No love for Revenge or True Romance?  For shame!  They are easily my favorite Tony Scott flicks.

I can see why people like True Romance. Outside of Stowe's lovelies I just can't understand Revenge.

What's wrong with "Enemy of the State"? As far as I can tell, it's the last really strong movie Will Smith did. I didn't watch "I, Robot", "Bad Boys II", "Hitch", "I Am Legend", or "Hancock", but somehow I doubt they're all better than it. I recently skimmed through "The Pursuit of Happyness" (I couldn't bear to watch the whole thing), and despite being based on a true story, it came across as insufferably cloying melodrama. "Ali" had a great performances in a mediocre movie not up to the standards of other movies Michael Mann made before it.

 

Will Smith reminds me of Eddie Murphy in a way. Many of his early movies made his movie career and transition from TV to film look quite promising (i.e. "Six Degrees of Separation") and if not quite classics like the first Murphy comedies, they were at least reasonably well-made and entertaining (i.e. "Bad Boys", "Independence Day", "Men in Black", "Enemy of the State").

 

Since "Wild Wild West", the quality of his output has been mostly poor. It's just that he's only been stinking it up for a little over ten years instead of twenty. Like Murphy, he broke up the mediocrity with the occasional strong performance (i.e. "Ali" is to him as "Dreamgirls" was to Murphy, except I hear "Dreamgirls" is a legitimately good movie), but while he's been consistent as a box office draw, his script choices have been increasingly 'safe' and lackluster.

Not a fair comparison. Smith hasn't even made anything as good as The Distinguished Gentleman!

Anyone who loves sheer cinematic insanity needs to watch Bad Boys 2 at least once in their life.