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Message
Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, Trading Places, 48 hrs...
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:17 am
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:17 am
Someone quoted Coming to America in another thread and got me thinking.....
The above were good and funny movies. and if Nutty Professor or Harlem Nights are your bag then throw them in too along with Golden Child and best defense. Murphy was perfect in these movies. Not to mention SNL.
but for each one of the enjoyable ones he has about 4-5 that are just garbage.
sooooooooo...what's the deal?
1) can someone not write for Murphy anymore?
2) can he not write anymore?
3) has he ceased to be funny?
i know you can say the same thing about sandler but sandler wasn't for everyone to begin with. some people outright hate him.
but murphy was almost universally loved and can arguably called one of the top 10 or 5 or 3 greatest stand ups of all time depending on who you ask.
someone explain to me why i'm not enjoying eddie murphy movies well into my golden years....
I want answers now or i want them eventually!!!
The above were good and funny movies. and if Nutty Professor or Harlem Nights are your bag then throw them in too along with Golden Child and best defense. Murphy was perfect in these movies. Not to mention SNL.
but for each one of the enjoyable ones he has about 4-5 that are just garbage.
sooooooooo...what's the deal?
1) can someone not write for Murphy anymore?
2) can he not write anymore?
3) has he ceased to be funny?
i know you can say the same thing about sandler but sandler wasn't for everyone to begin with. some people outright hate him.
but murphy was almost universally loved and can arguably called one of the top 10 or 5 or 3 greatest stand ups of all time depending on who you ask.
someone explain to me why i'm not enjoying eddie murphy movies well into my golden years....
I want answers now or i want them eventually!!!
7
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:19 am to TDTGodfather
after he got busted trying to frick a tranny, he started making kids movies mostly
he's expanded it somewhat (that heist movie, for example), but this happens with actors often
he's expanded it somewhat (that heist movie, for example), but this happens with actors often
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:19 am to TDTGodfather
Sold out, went cleaner, and started taking crappy children's movies roles.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:20 am to TDTGodfather
Life was his last funny movie. Coincidentally Life was Martin Lawrence's last funny movie as well.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:21 am to TheFolker
so it's a combo of the image thing and the "i'm comfortable enough not to give a frick and sellout" thing?
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:23 am to PsychTiger
quote:
Sold out, went cleaner, and started taking crappy children's movies roles.
And Martin Lawrence made the same mistake while also moonlighting as a poor man's Tyler Perry.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:23 am to TheFolker
yeah but marin lawrence didn't make bank on the shrek movies, either 
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:27 am to SlowFlowPro
i guess this is a part of the bigger problem of "none of this shite is funny these days" and you can include martin, tyler perry, or any movie where a man cross dresses as another character.
i never liked tyler perry but could see the appeal of martin lawrence especially early on.
i never liked tyler perry but could see the appeal of martin lawrence especially early on.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:32 am to TDTGodfather
Realistically, Eddie Murphy was a cross between Richard Pryor and Steve Martin, coming slightly behind their peak stand-up years, and probably a better actor in his own right than either.
Richard had a fairly narrow range where he could be funny. He also rarely stretched outside of his comfort zone (although he proved on network television during the 70s that, even severely caught up in drug abuse he could be both funny and clean).
Martin was great, early on, then faded down the stretch as an actor. He also, generally needed a strong support cast (although he was the mule in The Jerk).
I think with a funny lead, it runs out - and it runs out more quickly than for a dramatic or action lead = it ran out for Chevy (more or less after Fletch), it ran out for Martin (more or less after Planes, Trains and Automobiles, although he tried like hell with L.A. Story and Father of the Bride).
Murphy tried to hard to avoid stereotyping, and I think that hurt him. Once he started cashing in with the kid-oriented films, he was probably done for the older generation. Also, when he stopped doing stand-up, he probably started losing his timing edge right there - in comedy, timing is everything.
Just my $0.02.
Richard had a fairly narrow range where he could be funny. He also rarely stretched outside of his comfort zone (although he proved on network television during the 70s that, even severely caught up in drug abuse he could be both funny and clean).
Martin was great, early on, then faded down the stretch as an actor. He also, generally needed a strong support cast (although he was the mule in The Jerk).
I think with a funny lead, it runs out - and it runs out more quickly than for a dramatic or action lead = it ran out for Chevy (more or less after Fletch), it ran out for Martin (more or less after Planes, Trains and Automobiles, although he tried like hell with L.A. Story and Father of the Bride).
Murphy tried to hard to avoid stereotyping, and I think that hurt him. Once he started cashing in with the kid-oriented films, he was probably done for the older generation. Also, when he stopped doing stand-up, he probably started losing his timing edge right there - in comedy, timing is everything.
Just my $0.02.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 11:42 am to TheFolker
quote:
Life was his last funny movie. Coincidentally Life was Martin Lawrence's last funny movie as well.
Life and Bowfinger were his last funny movies.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:18 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
Realistically, Eddie Murphy was a cross between Richard Pryor and Steve Martin, coming slightly behind their peak stand-up years, and probably a better actor in his own right than either.
Richard had a fairly narrow range where he could be funny. He also rarely stretched outside of his comfort zone (although he proved on network television during the 70s that, even severely caught up in drug abuse he could be both funny and clean).
Martin was great, early on, then faded down the stretch as an actor. He also, generally needed a strong support cast (although he was the mule in The Jerk).
I think with a funny lead, it runs out - and it runs out more quickly than for a dramatic or action lead = it ran out for Chevy (more or less after Fletch), it ran out for Martin (more or less after Planes, Trains and Automobiles, although he tried like hell with L.A. Story and Father of the Bride).
Murphy tried to hard to avoid stereotyping, and I think that hurt him. Once he started cashing in with the kid-oriented films, he was probably done for the older generation. Also, when he stopped doing stand-up, he probably started losing his timing edge right there - in comedy, timing is everything.
Just my $0.02.
pretty good take. and i loved pryor, chase and martin as well.
maybe it's an age thing, maybe its a movie studio thing where they don't get the offers for those types of movies anymore.
all of those guys you mentioned all had great careers as well as made some shite movies but i think the ratio is more skewed to shitty movies for murphy.
i always forget pryor helped write "blazing saddles".
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:22 pm to TDTGodfather
quote:
i always forget pryor helped write "blazing saddles".
Was supposed to play the part of Bart as well until the studio nixed the idea.
Its interesting to think about. Its hard to think of anyone else playing the part, but it would have been interesting to see Pryor play that role though.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:30 pm to TDTGodfather
Eddie Murphy is still funny. He's funny in interviews (though he doesn't give many) and I think he would have tore it up as the Oscars' host if that would not have fallen apart.
Would love to see him do more, but he's at the point where he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. I think he's just as happy making his friends laugh at his house as he would be making them laugh elsewhere.
Would love to see him do more, but he's at the point where he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. I think he's just as happy making his friends laugh at his house as he would be making them laugh elsewhere.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:32 pm to TDTGodfather
IIRC, somewhere around Beverly Hills Cop III, he started getting creative control from the studios.
Harlem Nights in underrated IMHO.
Harlem Nights in underrated IMHO.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:41 pm to TDTGodfather
Unpopular opinion: Eddie Murphy is wildly overrated as a standup.
Murphy is a great comedic actor, one of the best, but he's reliant on the quality of his writing room. And once he stopped relying on his writers and started thinking he was a great writer himself... bad things happened. He's also kinda famous for being difficult to work with, which made his fall more rapid, as people weren't really willing to help him out in the business. There was some people enjoying his fall.
Murphy is a great comedic actor, one of the best, but he's reliant on the quality of his writing room. And once he stopped relying on his writers and started thinking he was a great writer himself... bad things happened. He's also kinda famous for being difficult to work with, which made his fall more rapid, as people weren't really willing to help him out in the business. There was some people enjoying his fall.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:45 pm to Baloo
Dude Murphy as a standup comedian is one of the best of all time. His stuff is awesome. Murphy's problem is that he basically decided to go mainstream and do cleaner movies.
Although Tower Heist was pretty good for his part in the ensemble as well as he and Owen Wilson in I Spy or whatever.
Although Tower Heist was pretty good for his part in the ensemble as well as he and Owen Wilson in I Spy or whatever.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:51 pm to Rittdog
quote:
Life and Bowfinger were his last funny movies.
you obviously haven't seen Norbit, Pluto Nash, or A Thousand Words
joking of course...
This post was edited on 4/4/13 at 12:53 pm
Posted on 4/4/13 at 12:55 pm to WalkingTurtles
To paraphrase Patton Oswalt, he's funny in a who gives a shite kind of way. Murphy never had a real point of view like most great standups, he was just a guy who stood up and told jokes. He's kind of a throwback to the era before Lenny Bruce. Outside of his skin color, he would have fit in with the old Catskills circuit comics. Murphy was always a guy who viewed standup as a vehicle to become famous and move on to other things. He wasn't a devoted student of the craft like Pryor or Carlin, who cared more about standup than anything else.
This isn't to dog him, and I'm coming off harsher than I mean to. He was really funny. But I think he was always on tier below the greats because he was just a joke machine and not someone with a "voice". I don't think he cared about standup, he cared more about getting to Hollywood, and I think it showed.
This isn't to dog him, and I'm coming off harsher than I mean to. He was really funny. But I think he was always on tier below the greats because he was just a joke machine and not someone with a "voice". I don't think he cared about standup, he cared more about getting to Hollywood, and I think it showed.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 1:08 pm to Baloo
quote:
Unpopular opinion: Eddie Murphy is wildly overrated as a standup.
Murphy is a great comedic actor, one of the best, but he's reliant on the quality of his writing room. And once he stopped relying on his writers and started thinking he was a great writer himself... bad things happened. He's also kinda famous for being difficult to work with, which made his fall more rapid, as people weren't really willing to help him out in the business. There was some people enjoying his fall.
did you not enjoy Raw and Delirious? just curious b/c i value your pop culture opinion.
imo they're two of the greatest comedy specials ever. he moves seamlessly from talkign about pop culture to women and sex to doing material on his family. and while some may say he's just either a rip off or natural progression from red foxx/pryor he really did most of it (well delirious especially)before the 80's stand up boom.
i'd listen to any argument stating that his other stuff outside of those two specials was above average and not great though. so if that's the basis for overrated i'd understand.
i'd probably put him in the latter of my top ten as a standup but there are people that put him just below carlin and pryor. so if he's overrated in that respect i agree but overall he was the first real "superstar/rockstar" of stand ups.
i do know, baloo, that we do agree on lenny bruce. so we have that i guess.
Posted on 4/4/13 at 1:14 pm to Baloo
quote:
Murphy was always a guy who viewed standup as a vehicle to become famous and move on to other things. He wasn't a devoted student of the craft like Pryor or Carlin, who cared more about standup than anything else.
in that regard i'd agree.
so far as no real voice i'm not sure i agree there. for every oswalt, cross, or maron etc there are plenty of comics i enjoy because they make me laugh gaffigan, regan, etc.
i'd tend to agree that black comics like chapelle, o neal, etc have a more defined voice but i dont' always need that to find someone funny.
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