April 3, 2013

Happy Birthday: Eddie Murphy (1961 - )

Eddie Murphy used to be one of the funniest men on the planet. Some villagers may remember his appearances on Saturday Night Live or his performance in the original '48 Hours' (1982) or 'Trading Places' (1983) 'Beverly Hills Cop'(1984) or 'Coming to America' (1988).





Other villagers may recall how remarkable Eddie Murphy was in his stand-up comedy routines ... especially 'Raw' (1987). At the time of its release Eddie Murphy Raw contained more uses of the "f" word than any other feature-length film, surpassing Scarface for the distinction.

Somewhere along the way he made some poor career choices that caused his star to dim in my eyes. There isn't much entertainment from him in over 20 years that is of any redeeming value. In any case, I join other villagers in wishing a happy birthday to Eddie Murphy.

7 comments:

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

You're right. Eddie Murphy used to be one of the funniest men on the planet. I wonder if he's gotten "soft". Eddie gets paid extremely well even if his movies flop because he gets a percentage of the box office take.

Back in the day, when Eddie was on "Saturday Night Live," I remember rushing to the TV on Saturday nights to make sure I wouldn't miss one skit.

Eddie has demonstrated that he can handle drama and musicals. I give him high marks for his role in "Dream Girls."

As for his use of the F work in "Eddie Murphy Raw": Surpassing "Scarface" (and mob movies like "Goodfellas" and "Casino")is an awesome achievement!

Unknown said...

Deb - He deserves all the money from that run of great work in the 1980s. I have to admit that I haven't seen Dreamgirls yet. It is in my Netflix queue at the moment...

He also did some good voice-over work in the Shrek series...

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

About Shrek: Definitely! I still watch it every chance I get.

Monica Roberts said...

I still love 'Coming to America'

Unknown said...

Monica - I saw Eric La Salle on the series finale of ER the other day. I thought about his jheri-curl in 'Coming to America' movie. I bet he cringes everytime he sees clips of his role in that film (smile)...

Monica Roberts said...

Villager,
Every time I see an ice cream truck, I start cracking up and thinking about Eddie's 'ice cream' routine.

Unknown said...

Monica - I almost posted the ice cream man routine as the video in this post. It was a classic. "...you on the welfare; you on the welfare..."