Richard was a well-decorated and polished African-American artist known for his incredible stand-up comedy, acting skills, and writing. By showing vulnerability playing someone who never quit on himself, Murphy may have caught his second wind.They divorced in 1991, and after being diagnosed with degenerative multiple sclerosis, he called Lee for help in 1994. Ironic, then, that this was the movie that reinvigorated his own career, paving the way for a Coming to America sequel, a triumphant return to Saturday Night Live, and soon, another Beverly Hills Cop movie. Moore had a tough time getting others to see it, but Murphy never did.Īs a result, Dolemite Is My Name feels like a bittersweet, parallel-universe portrait of what Murphy’s career could have looked like if he hadn’t burst out of the gate as a superstar. But what the two men have in common is an undeniable brashness - an unshakeable faith in their talent. There’s something deeply touching about the way he plays Moore, finding compassion for a fellow comic who, unlike himself, wasn’t an overnight success. We watch Moore struggle to get his ultra-low-budget passion project Dolemite off the ground, but the film’s jokes about that inept production are mitigated by one of Murphy’s strongest, warmest performances. This movie turned out so strong that I figured this is a great way to come back.”ĭolemite Is My Name isn’t terribly dissimilar from a movie like Ed Wood, which also celebrated a naive, in-over-his-head artist who wasn’t going to let anything stop him from realizing his dreams. “I wanted a funny movie to remind them that they liked me. “I didn’t want to just pop back up,” he said in 2019. This return to the limelight was something Murphy had been carefully planning. How often can you have Axel Foley talk fast and get into a place he doesn’t belong?”Īfter years in the Hollywood wilderness, the Eddie Murphy Comeback began in earnest with this endearing biopic of Rudy Ray Moore, the man who brought us Dolemite. … There’s no reason to do ( Cop III): I don’t need the money, and it’s not gonna break any new ground. Cop II was basically a rehash of Cop I, but it wasn’t as spontaneous and funny. “It made $250 million worldwide, and it was a half-assed movie. “ Beverly Hills Cop II was probably the most successful mediocre picture in history,” he said in 1989. There was an edge to his comedy that was refreshing, and it opened the door to Beverly Hills Cop sequels - which Murphy didn’t like all that much. That might seem impossible to believe now, but at the time it was fairly revolutionary, and the film became a sensation, providing the ideal platform for Murphy’s pointed, irreverent humor, the actor wielding a rebellious streak that was both funny and angry. No one’s taken his crown - all these years later, there’s still no one like him.īeverly Hills Cop also encapsulated why people loved Murphy, who was trailblazing as a Black actor bringing in the kind of box office usually reserved for white stars. Now in his 60s, he doesn’t have the same combustible energy of his youth, but he’s still revered as a titan. Before or since, there’s no comparison to what Murphy achieved in such a short amount of time, influencing generations of comics to come. But SNL was only the beginning, with Murphy quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest draws. When he arrived on the scene with Saturday Night Live in 1980, all the usual clichés applied: It was like he was shot out of a cannon, you couldn’t take your eyes off him, etc. Some comedians are stars, and then there’s Eddie Murphy. If you’re looking for a sense of a comic in all his or her complexity, here’s where to start. Mind you, these aren’t necessarily their “best” movies - rather, these are the five films that best represent different aspects of their talent, their ambition, their persona and the artistic risks they’ve taken along the way. Welcome to “Five Absolutely Essentials,” an overview of the greatest comedians’ most memorable moments.
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