AHC/WI: Eddie Murphy Has a Better Career

Here's what I know of Eddie Murphy's career in a nut shell: in the 80s, he burst onto the scene with SNL, becoming a hit, and helping his standup career (which I think most people were unaware of when he was on SNL initially) with "Delirious" in 1983 and "Raw" in 1987. Murphy's standup was raunchy and adult. He was also in many major Hollywood films in the 80s that were adult comedies or were serious films meant for grownups. "48 Hours", "Beverly Hills Cop", "Trading Places", "Coming to America", etc.
His career started to slump in the 90s, and he was making bad decisions on films, and that had the problem of dispiriting him and depressing him and making him question being comedic instead of serious which in turn made him not funny and low spirited which hurt his movies such as "Beverly Hills Cop III".
He would later make a comeback as a family friendly actor (which NO ONE would have seen coming in the 80s and early 90s), and only rarely does anything adult in this phase of his career. The problem with either family friendly Eddie or adult Eddie now is that, like a problem he faced during the 90s, he has a problem of picking poor films to star in ("Daddy Day Care", "The Haunted Mansion, "Meet Dave", etc). The critical consensus is that he squandered a potential comeback he had after making "Dreamgirls" with bad film choices. He also doesn't seem to have the same fire anymore. In short, I really can't see today's Eddie Murphy talking about his dick.


So the challenge and what if here is Eddie Murphy getting a better career. Bonus points if you keep adult humor Eddie and avoid family friendly Eddie.

If what Murphy needed was a post-Dream Girls comeback, the first thing he really needs to do is to avoid being in Norbit. Say that movie runs into trouble during development, before Murphy is cast. It goes into the giant Hollywood vaults of film ideas that never enter production. Consequently, Murphy never begins a professional relationship with Norbit's director, meaning "Meet Dave" and "A Thousand Words" never happen either. Also, there's a possibility that Murphy would have actually won the Academy Award he was nominated for in the absence of Norbit. The next key, once Norbit is avoided, is for Murphy to find another critically respected or at least tolerated role after Dream Girls. I have no idea what such a role might be. Shrek's sequels might be unavoidable, but I don't think they'd be enough to hurt Murphy's comeback if he was in the right sort of films post-Norbit.

Glass Onion said:

If what Murphy needed was a post-Dream Girls comeback, the first thing he really needs to do is to avoid being in Norbit. Say that movie runs into trouble during development, before Murphy is cast. It goes into the giant Hollywood vaults of film ideas that never enter production. Consequently, Murphy never begins a professional relationship with Norbit's director, meaning "Meet Dave" and "A Thousand Words" never happen either. Also, there's a possibility that Murphy would have actually won the Academy Award he was nominated for in the absence of Norbit. The next key, once Norbit is avoided, is for Murphy to find another critically respected or at least tolerated role after Dream Girls. I have no idea what such a role might be. Shrek's sequels might be unavoidable, but I don't think they'd be enough to hurt Murphy's comeback if he was in the right sort of films post-Norbit.

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Agreed. I remember there was a lot of talk in Holywood that Murphy would win an Oscar for his performance in Dreamgirls. Then the billboard for Norbit appeared all over LA and Murphy's hope for an Oscar went out the window. No Norbit and he might just pull it off...

Let's suppose that Norbit doesn't happen and Murphy wins his Oscar, and that he isn't in anything in 2007. That might affect the kind of roles he's offered. I think the Shrek sequels still happen for a variety of reasons, but I don't anyone would hold them against Murphy to the extent Norbit was. I think if Murphy is going to have a comeback, it's going to be in supporting roles. Murphy needs to be in movies, not "Eddie Murphy" vehicles. I think that's the lesson of Murphy's more recent career. When's he's in supporting roles, he's good, or at least he's the one of the highlights of an otherwise unmemorable film. When he's the front and center star of the film, usually that film is pretty bad.

Glass Onion said:

Let's suppose that Norbit doesn't happen and Murphy wins his Oscar, and that he isn't in anything in 2007. That might affect the kind of roles he's offered. I think the Shrek sequels still happen for a variety of reasons, but I don't anyone would hold them against Murphy to the extent Norbit was. I think if Murphy is going to have a comeback, it's going to be in supporting roles. Murphy needs to be in movies, not "Eddie Murphy" vehicles. I think that's the lesson of Murphy's more recent career. When's he's in supporting roles, he's good, or at least he's the one of the highlights of an otherwise unmemorable film. When he's the front and center star of the film, usually that film is pretty bad.

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I would agree. Nobody held Shrek, or its sequels, against Murphy. But not only did the Norbit billboard make Murphy look like an idiot but the film really was an offensive movie that actually angered critics and Academy voters. If he were to win an Oscar, look for more supporting roles that allow him to shine (I still think he was the best part of Tower Heist).

BTW, funny that nobody has brought up Pluto Nash yet....

So the focus currently seems to be on the cockblocked comeback (for which Norbit, and the subsequent junk, was the cockblocker). Is there a way to avoid Eddie's slump and career downturn of the 1990s?

What kind of roles would he have been offered? Is he getting sent the same scripts Tom Hanks and George Clooney got/are getting?

Murphy was surprisingly credible as an action hero in Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels, as well as 48 HRS -- maybe he could have taken a few more similar roles. Hm... Eddie Murphy as Lt. Murphy in Robocop? Or John McClane in Die Hard?

Andrew T said:

Murphy was surprisingly credible as an action hero in Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels, as well as 48 HRS -- maybe he could have taken a few more similar roles. Hm... Eddie Murphy as Lt. Murphy in Robocop? Or John McClane in Die Hard?

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I can't see Robocop. That is waaaay too brutal for me to see Eddie Murphy in. I can see Die Hard or something like it because there is humor in that character.

As others said, avoid Murphey's wierd facination with fatsuit movies. Can Norbit, Nutty Proffessor, Meet Dave and the rest, and you just made his career MUCH better.

Make Pluto Nash either much better or come out far sooner or not be one of the biggest bombs of all time. That did more damage to his comeback than almost anything else.

Look at various Will Smith or Denzel Washington vehicles for more Oscar baitish type roles - maybe give Murphey Denzel's role in John Q or Training Day. For other roles, look at Ernie Hudson or Wesley Snipes for examples. Especially Hudson - he and Murphey are two great balck actors from the 1980s whose careers died off in the 1990s for one reason or another.

Eddie Murphy was originally cast to be in Star Trek 4 as a professor obsessed with whale songs and aliens. Murphy turned down the role (since he wanted to play a starfleet officer instead) and the role was heavily rewritten into Gillian Taylor. I wonder if Murphy being in that film could have gotten him into more sci-fi oriented roles (much like how independence day got will smith several sci-fi film roles).

What about the horrible flop that was adventures of Pluto Nash? That film was an unmitigated disaster. After it was produced it sat around for 2 years before being released that is how little faith the studio had it. And that and Showtime were the first 2 Murphy movies which flopped. Showtime by a much smaller margin though. Same for I Spy also released in 2002. Also a flop.

He got 6 Golden Rasberry nominations in 2002 for those 3 films.

Hadley said:

Eddie Murphy was originally cast to be in Star Trek 4 as a professor obsessed with whale songs and aliens. Murphy turned down the role (since he wanted to play a starfleet officer instead) and the role was heavily rewritten into Gillian Taylor. I wonder if Murphy being in that film could have gotten him into more sci-fi oriented roles (much like how independence day got will smith several sci-fi film roles).

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I can't imagine how Murphy doesn't take over Star Trek IV if he's in it -- even if he's trying very hard not to -- and, with Murphy overshadowing the rest of the cast, I would think this ATL Star Trek IV would be definitively regarded as not a 'Star Trek' movie.

On the heels of the poorly-received Star Trek III, that probably kills the movie franchise.

Andrew T said:

I can't imagine how Murphy doesn't take over Star Trek IV if he's in it -- even if he's trying very hard not to -- and, with Murphy overshadowing the rest of the cast, I would think this ATL Star Trek IV would be definitively regarded as not a 'Star Trek' movie.

On the heels of the poorly-received Star Trek III, that probably kills the movie franchise.

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To be fair, The Search for Spock did very well at the box office, and was far from the worst installment in the franchise. In a scenario where Murphy is cast in Voyage Home, even in the worst case scenario I don't see it killing the film series.

I think, given Murphy's meteoric success in the 1980's a relative decline was all but inevitable. So it is a question of when a comeback could have happened. Indeed, in some respects, the Nutty Professor was a comeback for Murphy, at least in comparison to the films that preceded it. So the question is how brief his relative decline could have been, and what alternate comeback film he could have been in.

LongVin said:

What about the horrible flop that was adventures of Pluto Nash? That film was an unmitigated disaster.

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This was the first thing to come to my mind as well...

2 Birds with 1 stone

Give him the role of Capt. Janeway on Star Trek Voyager in 1995. (and I don't mean in drag, I mean Craig Janeway)

IT would refire his enjoyment of acting. He gets to play a starship captain. He could play it straight up with just enough added humor to be a benefit to both the show, the franchise and his career.

Corjomc said:

Give him the role of Capt. Janeway on Star Trek Voyager in 1995. (and I don't mean in drag, I mean Craig Janeway)

IT would refire his enjoyment of acting. He gets to play a starship captain. He could play it straight up with just enough added humor to be a benefit to both the show, the franchise and his career.

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Hard to imagine any actor going from blockbuster feature films to TV, particularly on a brand-new network with limited household penetration.

Corjomc said:

Give him the role of Capt. Janeway on Star Trek Voyager in 1995. (and I don't mean in drag, I mean Craig Janeway)

IT would refire his enjoyment of acting. He gets to play a starship captain. He could play it straight up with just enough added humor to be a benefit to both the show, the franchise and his career.

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Ain't gonna happen.

vultan said:

To be fair, The Search for Spock did very well at the box office, and was far from the worst installment in the franchise. In a scenario where Murphy is cast in Voyage Home, even in the worst case scenario I don't see it killing the film series.

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Well said. Although that's actually a surprisingly typical pattern with odd-numbered Star Trek films: III, VII, and (if you can believe it) even IX were all released to favourable reviews and did fairly well at the box-office, only for their reputations to erode with time (only V and X bombed out of the gate). I suspect that even if IV did poorly, Paramount might be willing to allow a concluding send-off. What's really doomed is The Next Generation, which... well, no, I won't finish that thought

Glass Onion said:

I think, given Murphy's meteoric success in the 1980's a relative decline was all but inevitable. So it is a question of when a comeback could have happened. Indeed, in some respects, the Nutty Professor was a comeback for Murphy, at least in comparison to the films that preceded it. So the question is how brief his relative decline could have been, and what alternate comeback film he could have been in.

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Agreed - Eddie Murphy had nowhere to go but down. Also, the obvious comparison if he did appear in Star Trek IV would be to Richard Pryor in Superman III

Corjomc said:

Give him the role of Capt. Janeway on Star Trek Voyager in 1995. (and I don't mean in drag, I mean Craig Janeway)

IT would refire his enjoyment of acting. He gets to play a starship captain. He could play it straight up with just enough added humor to be a benefit to both the show, the franchise and his career.

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As others have noted, that's not going to happen - and there would never be a "Craig Janeway" anyway, because a female Captain was seen as "due".