What has happened to Eddie Murphy's Career?

[TheIncredibleSk]

He needs to stand up. Thats the only way.

 

[Boom]

He still has a career? I thought he retired and the last few years have just been a running gag.

 

[Asgard]

He cant get away from awful scripts.

I dont know why he continues to do these awful movies. It cant be a money issue. He mustve made serious bank with the Shrek movies.

He should do more movies like Bowfinger and get away from the fantasy genre.

 

[Gold Samurai]

But Adam Sandler was never funny or entertaining. Unless I missed something.

Half of his latest movies just involve gathering up whatever actor wants to make a cameo

IMO I liked "Spangilish" and "Big daddy" and "Mr Deeds"

 

[CGHulk]

Eddie Murphy's A Thousand Words: is this the worst reviewed film of all time?
Actor's latest comedy rated at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, ranking it alongside such epic fails as Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/12/eddie-murphy-thousand-words
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a-thousand-words/

 

[Jordacar]

From My Year of Flops: The Adventures of Pluto Nash (The AV Club):

Eddie Murphy’s career is a quiet tragedy. He’s managed to steer clear of many of the traps that ensnare superstars—drugs, alcohol, violent rages, jail, nervous breakdowns, a compulsion toward self-destruction—only to become a victim of his own apathy and ruthless lack of creative ambition. It’s the saga of an almost preternaturally gifted young performer who has found myriad ways to squander his prodigious talent. “President Orders Brando To Gain 250 Pounds: Star’s Raw Sexuality Too Dangerous at Present Weight, Ike Says” screams a headline from The Onion’s Our Dumb Century. The idea, of course, is that Brando was too impossibly pretty and virile for the buttoned-up world of 1950s America. I feel the same way about the young Eddie Murphy. Only Murphy didn’t get fat or go crazy; he just got lazy.

There was a time, however, when Murphy was almost too perfect. He’s been a bland fixture of sub-mediocre family entertainment for so long that it can be easy to forget what an electrifying, original presence he was at the beginning of his career. When he debuted on Saturday Night Live at 19 in 1980, he boasted a confidence and polish years beyond his age. He was stunningly handsome, a gifted improviser, and confident enough in his sexuality to strut around in a tight red leather suit while making homophobic jokes. He did amazing impressions, and boasted both a million-dollar smile and the world’s most distinctive, infectious laugh.

Murphy got so big so fast that he became the first—and to date, only—Not Ready For Prime Time Player to host the show while he was still a cast member. Saturday Night Live quickly became The Eddie Murphy Show, Featuring Joe Piscopo And Some Other Guys. Murphy’s unstoppable momentum carried over to the critical and commercial hits 48 Hours, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop. The world prostrated itself before him, and he was one of the most famous people in the world.

But after the failure of his 1989 directorial debut, Harlem Nights, Murphy seemed to stop trying. The manic energy of his early films and Saturday Night Live stint gave way to a glazed indifference. On a profound level, Murphy just didn’t seem to care. Inertia, crass commercial calculation, and naked greed ruled his career. He had apparently ceded control of his life to his accountant, though we all know those matters are handled better and more efficiently by the good people over at the Church Of Scientology.

Murphy set his personal bar so low that he was praised to the high heavens every time he exerted himself past the least possible effort. He was praised for uncharacteristically not phoning it in while playing a dual role as both an Eddie Murphy-like movie star and his hapless look-alike in Bowfinger. He was pegged as a surefire Oscar-winner for his performance as a James Brown surrogate in Dreamgirls. (Then, a little movie called Norbit presumably made the Academy think, “You know, on second thought, maybe Alan Arkin would be a better choice after all.”)

Check the link for more, but you get the idea.

 

[Gold Samurai]

I feel the same way about the young Eddie Murphy. Only Murphy didn’t get fat or go crazy; he just got lazy.

I'm suddenly reminded of Chris Tucker.

2002- Rush Hour 2

2007- Rush Hour 3

Yeesh

 

[Thundercrack85]

Okay, in defense of Eddie Murphy, he has had at least a few decent to good movies. Certainly nothing great. But he isn't Chris Tucker or Adam Sandler.

 

[Liam_H]

Eddie Murphy has had some great movies. Isn't this just about the decline of him and seeming to choose terrible movies again and again.

 

[Thundercrack85]

What was the last decent thing he was in? Last thing I saw was Tower Heist. And that wasn't a good movie. But certainly better than some of the other ones listed here.

 

[Liam_H]

Dreamgirls as far as I can tell, if your not counting voice work in the Shrek films or Mulan. I was mostly referring to his movies in the 80s that were great.

 

[DCnightwing23]

I personally thought he was awesome in Tower Heist, that movie overall wasn't that good but to me he stood out. What he needs to do is grab Dave Chappelle and Jonah Hill (we've all seen Jonah be really gangster and hilarious) and do something really epic. Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle are kinda on the same boat, i would love to see them team up seeing as they have a lot of history and do a movie together (and hey why not bring in charlie murphy for a supporting role?) It's not over for Eddie Murphy, he just needs to pick the right roles. There was a point where Dwayne Johnson was becoming Disney's bee-autch for a little while off and on, mostly on, being on Hannah Montana, Tooth Fairy (seriously?) and some other Disney tv stuff. But he grabbed his balls back from Disney and started doing Other Guys (what a bad-ass with Samuel Jackson) to Fast Five, now he's getting seriously bad-ass roles. Eddie just needs to man up and do the same thing, take control of his career, i mean within the past ten years he hasn't done THAT bad, i think his worst movie was Meet Dave or Imagine That. Other than that it's really been either a lot of Shrek stuff which is over now and a couple of small movies that are very different. Compare that to Adam Sandler whose movies within the same time frame have pretty much been the same old same old stuff Sandler dishes out with his best being Anger Management which was awhile ago, not to mention his upcoming movies look like utter crap. Sandler's last funny movie was Funny People, which wasn't even funny because of him all that much, he had a great cast of funny current comedians it had seth rogen, jonah hill, aziz ansari, and oh not to mention it was a Apatow film. Apatow has had a ton of good comedies lately. Sandler was just playing the same character he's been playing for the last 10 years. Sandler was smart to work with current funny people, Murphy hasn't been all that smart with who he's working with with the exception of Tower Heist really. He needs to get his act together and do a great comedy that's raunchy and has dirty humor. Something like a Hangover ya know? It would be hilarious if he teamed up with Chappelle and someone like a Jonah Hill, idk i just think that'd be gold pretty much immediately.

All in all i think people are people a little too ridiculous saying his career is over.

 

[Octoberist]

I personally thought he was awesome in Tower Heist, that movie overall wasn't that good but to me he stood out. What he needs to do is grab Dave Chappelle and Jonah Hill (we've all seen Jonah be really gangster and hilarious) and do something really epic. Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle are kinda on the same boat, i would love to see them team up seeing as they have a lot of history and do a movie together (and hey why not bring in charlie murphy for a supporting role?) It's not over for Eddie Murphy, he just needs to pick the right roles. There was a point where Dwayne Johnson was becoming Disney's bee-autch for a little while off and on, mostly on, being on Hannah Montana, Tooth Fairy (seriously?) and some other Disney tv stuff. But he grabbed his balls back from Disney and started doing Other Guys (what a bad-ass with Samuel Jackson) to Fast Five, now he's getting seriously bad-ass roles. Eddie just needs to man up and do the same thing, take control of his career, i mean within the past ten years he hasn't done THAT bad, i think his worst movie was Meet Dave or Imagine That. Other than that it's really been either a lot of Shrek stuff which is over now and a couple of small movies that are very different. Compare that to Adam Sandler whose movies within the same time frame have pretty much been the same old same old stuff Sandler dishes out with his best being Anger Management which was awhile ago, not to mention his upcoming movies look like utter crap. Sandler's last funny movie was Funny People, which wasn't even funny because of him all that much, he had a great cast of funny current comedians it had seth rogen, jonah hill, aziz ansari, and oh not to mention it was a Apatow film. Apatow has had a ton of good comedies lately. Sandler was just playing the same character he's been playing for the last 10 years. Sandler was smart to work with current funny people, Murphy hasn't been all that smart with who he's working with with the exception of Tower Heist really. He needs to get his act together and do a great comedy that's raunchy and has dirty humor. Something like a Hangover ya know? It would be hilarious if he teamed up with Chappelle and someone like a Jonah Hill, idk i just think that'd be gold pretty much immediately.

All in all i think people are people a little too ridiculous saying his career is over.

First off, Dave Chappelle isn't in the same boat as Eddie, because he left showbiz on his own. Now he's just living in Ohio, doing random stand-up here and there, but he's just living on his wealth. (Personally, I think one day we'll see him in the spotlight again IF he chooses to do so.)

I'm with you to think Eddie's career is over, but that's subjective. You can say Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career is still going strong with his direct to DVD films, but let's not kid ourselves. Murphy hasn't had a hit in years. At least Sandler still has momentum to make studios some cash, no matter how bad he is now.

I also have the feeling that Eddie is just totally disconnected or desensitized by the business, that even a good decision on his part would take the wrath of God to help our his career.

So it's not so simple to say Eddie needs to hook up with Jonah Hill or whatever; Eddie is just in his own little world and sadly, until he wakes up, his career is now stagnant.

 

[The Morningstar]

He's probably got some form of brain damage from the bare amounts of coke he ingested back in his hey day.

 

[dark_b]

1. he needs t do a R rated stand up. for months
2. he needs to do a R rated comedy

then lets see if its over.

 

[jaymes_e06]

But Adam Sandler was never funny or entertaining. Unless I missed something.

QFT The Waterboy and Happy Gilmore are classics man.

Eddie too had his far share of great movies that seemed to be out ranked by his less then great film stifles. That being said Eddie I think might come back easier because he's not just a comedian turned actor but a good actor and comedian in general.

 

[OsGom]

But Adam Sandler was never funny or entertaining. Unless I missed something.

True Story^^^

 

[Brian Braddock]

1. he needs t do a R rated stand up. for months
2. he needs to do a R rated comedy

then lets see if its over.

I've said exactly that for a while now; Murphy would clean house if he did a follow up to Delirious and Raw.

It could be just the kickstart his career needs.

 

[marvelman2006]

Eddie Murphy's career has been in turmoil ever since daddy day care. People were saying after tower hiest that the old Murphy was back and I believed it for 5 minutes then he backs out of the oscars because his boy dropped the *** word and then goes right back to these darn kids movies that just arent funny.

Ethier its him or his agent but nethier seem to have a nack for great scripts or stories outside of the shrek movies.

His is Eddie's resume since nutty professor:

2012A Thousand Words (unwatchable)


2011 Tower Heist (pretty good)

2010 Shrek Forever After (ok)

2009 Imagine That (terrible)


2008 Meet Dave (terrible)


2007 Shrek the Third (ok)

2007 Norbit (terrible)

2006 Dreamgirls (great)


2004 Shrek 2 (great)


2003 The Haunted Mansion (terrible)


2003 Daddy Day Care (terrible)


2002 I Spy (tolerable but almost as bad as showtime)


2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash (do I have to say it?)


2002 Showtime (Dumb)


2001 Dr. Dolittle 2 (just ok for a sequel)


2001 Shrek (great)


2000 Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (Paycheck)


1999 Bowfinger (pretty good)


1999/I Life (hilarious)


1998 Holy Man (ok)


1998 Doctor Dolittle (pretty good)


1998 Mulan (ok)


1997 Metro (never saw it)



His career has just been pretty meh in general. People say go back to stand up or R-rated comedies but I dont know if that would even work.

 

[Sentinel X]

Here is a list of Eddie Murphy's salary for some of his films according to imdb:


Tower Heist (2011) $7,500,000
Shrek Forever After (2010) $4,000,000 (Back end bonus)
Shrek 2 (2004) $10,000,000
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) $20,000,000
Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) $20,000,000
Shrek (2001) $3,000,000
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) $20,000,000 (and 20% of the gross)
Doctor Dolittle (1998) $17,500,000
The Nutty Professor (1996) $16,000,000
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) $15,000,000
Coming to America (1988) $8,000,000
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) $8,000,000
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) $14,000,000
Best Defense (1984) $1,000,000

In retrospect, I can't say I really blame the guy. If they were paying me that kind of money I'd do whatever they want. But really...20 million for Pluto Nash?

 

[chamber-music]

I think Eddie should either do stand up , R rated movies or dramatic roles or just quit and enjoy his money because his over 50, times running out to keep playing leading man roles and sooner or later studios will stop giving him big paychecks for these flop movies his making outside of the Sherk franchise.

 

[Octoberist]

I'd argue that Eddie was bad in Tower Heist because he was still in 'Donkey' mode.

 

[Anubis]

......I liked Pluto Nash.

Gave me hope that black people would still exist in the future cuz you almost NEVER see black people in movies about the future.

 

[The Morningstar]

In Children of Men the saviour of mankind is a black woman!

 

[chamber-music]

Zion in the Matrix was like 85% black.

The president in Fith Element is tiny lister!