MovieChat Forums > Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Discussion > Eddie's Peak?

Eddie's Peak?

posted 13 years ago by tedchaynes
19 replies | jump to latest

I remember the ride like this,
Saturday Night Live: 1981 Wow, who is this young kid?
48 Hours: 1982 Wow, he can act, too
Trading Places: 1983 Even funnier
Delirious: One of THE best stand ups ever. Fall Down, holdin your ribs, Rollin on the floor, can't breath Funny!
Beverly Hills Cop: Walks into a role intended for Syvester Stallone DURING filming, and after a really quick re-write, mostly improv's most of the character... WELL, I might add. A perfect movie.
What happened after this? Ok, Golden Child, Bev Hills II, Raw... eh.. ok, at best. Coming To America was a huge promise in the line... But he never came back up to this glory... ever.
What happened? What are your thoughts, Hobson?

The more complex the mind.. the greater the need for the simplicity of play"

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] michiganst2003 13 years ago

Yeah I agree... "Beverly Hills Cop" is Eddie at his best.

Eddie is at his best when he plays a serious role with a little bit of comedy sprinkled here and there like... 48 Hours and Beverly hills Cop.

In these roles as a convict and a cop the comedy was pretty much kept to a minimum ... he may of said or did some funny things here and there... but for the most part he showed that he could "act".

Like the bar scene from 48 Hours... he played that scene perfect. But if he had to do that scene now in 2012... I'm sure he would over do it and try to be too funny or start talking in that "Exaggerated Angry Black Guy" voice that he does in a lot of his movies... and ruin that whole scene.

It seems like when comedian/actors make it to a certain level of success they think anything they do is funny... and they start relying on their comedy instead of trying to do a good job as an actor.

Those early Eddie Murphy movies were funny but Eddie did a great job as an actor too. Not one time while watching "Beverly hills Cop" did I say... "Man... this guy can't act!".

Hopefully Eddie can get back to making some more classic movies.

[–] tedchaynes 13 years ago

I really hope so. I was just watching Bev Hills Cop II this morning, and was struck by how forced all the comedy is. When he tries too hard, it just isn't as funny. Golden Child is the same way. Now Raw... is funny in fits and starts, and that's the truth. He revisits the routine about his father and Uncle Gus, and it goes on far too long, and it's nothing we haven't heard before.
Coming To America was the only other movie to work almost as good as this one in terms of laughs, and those were more silly humour, and we saw that warning marked on the box pretty early, and we were good with it.
Harlem Nights only really works best during moments of serious undertones. It's great seeing all those legends, who do work well together, but they deserved material that was sooo much better!
Later, Eddie just seem to get lost in the heavy disguise roles. Enough is enough of that! Such a thing as too much of a good thing.

The more complex the mind.. the greater the need for the simplicity of play"

[–] okwong-e 13 years ago

Murphy peaked with COMING TO AMERICA but the success of BHC in '84/85 was an accomplishment neither he nor any other movie star has achieved since.....perhaps the last true time a picture became the top grossing movie of it's release year domestically solely on the popularity of it's lead actor.

So in that sense the OP's question has a point. He never could top it afterwards and indeed no one (not Cruise or Will Smith) has since.

[–] bill_kilgore 13 years ago

He did peak with Coming to America, but you have to admit he was absolutely fantastic in Dreamgirls. One of his best performances and one he deserved an Oscar for. He was pretty damn great in Bowfinger, also.

[–] Caulk_Rocket 13 years ago

He was paid $14 million for this movie. That's over $28 million in today's dollars.

Was he the highest paid actor at the time?

[–] king_of_bob 12 years ago

He had kids and started going for more family friendly roles. At least that's my opinion of what happened. Chris Rock seems to share this point of view as well.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

[–] blaque108 12 years ago

I watched Beverly Hills Cop yesterday its been a long while since I saw that movie. I think the 3rd poster mentioned how Eddie play a serious role with a little bit of comedy here in there in this movie. I agree it does work best when he do that and make him an outstanding actor. His acting is just amazing in this movie. That is why Eddie is one of my favorite actors. Most think Eddie fell off after the movie LIFE I think....like King said his movie became more family friendly he had kids and wanted to change up some for his kids. Which is understandable. Kid movies were doing quite well then I think he did a very good job in Shrek I don't hear people giving him much credit for Shrek.

[–] Henahey41 12 years ago

He was awsome as Donkey in the Shrek films

[–] ficoce 10 years ago

He also quit, (or at least slowed down), the drug use just prior to BHC. He kind of typecast himself into a brand with SNL. During that time he spent 110% into that show, this was for literally years being "in character", and carried the show. It's a lot to ask of anyone. I'd like to see him perform more now, but it's probably hard when everyone only wants to see him perform his "Eddie Murphy" character. Pissed me off when the SNL anniversary show threw him out there cold, just expecting him to perform ab-lib.

[–] king_of_bob 10 years ago

I don't get your logic. On SNL he played a lot of diverse characters, so I don't see how he was typecast. Gumby was quite different to Mr. Robinson which were both quite different to Buckwheat which is also quite different from his Stevie Wonder.

And they didn't expect him to ad-lib anything on the reunion show. Lorne is known for hating ad-libbing. He's banned actors from the show for going off script.

I also think you're wrong. I think the main problem was his move towards family friendly comedies. His attempt to clean up his act resulted in him not being as funny.

The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/

[–] ficoce 10 years ago

You prove my point - Thanks! Why do you think he wasn't funny after the move to family friendly comedies? Could it be he didn't live up to your typecast opinion of the Eddie Murphy brand before he make the change? You've got a great opinion, but I agree that your logic needs work.

[–] king_of_bob 10 years ago

I don't think you know what the word "typecast" means. Typecasting means he would become so well known for a specific character that he only ever gets those types of roles. But this doesn't apply to Eddie since he played a verity of different characters. The brand of humor was similar, but the characters were different from one another. So the term "typecast" does not apply here.

Coming to America is very different to Beverly Hills Cop. 48 Hours is very different to Trading Places. All of which are VERY different from Eddie's standup act.

He wasn't funny when he moved to family comedies because family friendly was never his brand of comedy. His best jokes almost always came from a darker place than he's allowed to go in family films.

The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/

[–] ficoce 10 years ago

I stand corrected - both your opinion and logic need work.

He wasn't funny when he moved to family comedies because family friendly was never his brand of comedy. His best jokes almost always came from a darker place than he's allowed to go in family films.

Could it be a certain part of the market actually liked his family humor more than his "Raw" humor? Like it or not, humor doesn't always revolve around what we feel is funny. That idea lends itself to a lot of things. Just because you can't understand what I mean doesn't mean I'm wrong, it just might mean you live life stumbling down a very narrow hallway where all the doors are unlocked, but can only be opened by pulling - bad place to be if one only knows how to push.

[–] Wuchakk 10 years ago

Could it be a certain part of the market actually liked his family humor more than his "Raw" humor? Like it or not, humor doesn't always revolve around what we feel is funny. That idea lends itself to a lot of things. Just because you can't understand what I mean doesn't mean I'm wrong, it just might mean you live life stumbling down a very narrow hallway where all the doors are unlocked, but can only be opened by pulling - bad place to be if one only knows how to push.

Well said. 

My 150 (or so) favorite movies:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070122364/

[–] king_of_bob 10 years ago

Could it be a certain part of the market actually liked his family humor more than his "Raw" humor?

Look up his "family" projects on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes and tell me what the consensus is. His family films are critical failures.

Like it or not, humor doesn't always revolve around what we feel is funny.

I'm well aware that humor is subjective. However, quality in film is not.

Edit: Also, good job not addressing a single thing I said in my previous post.

The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/

[–] Doc110894 11 years ago

A lot of his humor in most of those movies seemed ahead of its time.

[–] baran_erik 10 years ago

Being a smart a$$ is nothing new.

[–] Wuchakk 10 years ago

Coming To America was a huge promise in the line... But he never came back up to this glory... ever.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. "Coming to America" is as good or better than any Murphy movie. It's one of my all-time favorite comedies and it grossed close to $300 million worldwide (including the US), which was an incredible success in 1988 and only $21 million less than "Beverly Hills Cop" (worldwide).

But I get what you're saying -- the mid/late 80s were the pinnacle of Murphy's success.

My 150 (or so) favorite movies:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070122364/