The Curious Case of Eddie Murphy – Part Four

Eddie Murphy had experienced three box office bombs in a row in a two and a half year period from 1992 to 1995, with The Distinguished Gentleman, Beverly Hills Cop III, and Vampire in Brooklyn. By the summer of 1996, it had been eight years (Coming to America)since he’d had a critical and commercial hit.

This would change when Murphy decided to remake a 1963 Jerry Lewis hit, The Nutty Professor. The film would reunite Eddie with makeup artist extraordinaire Rick Baker, who did brilliant work on him in Coming to America. Eddie would play multiple roles, including Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, and the rest of the Klump family. His performance in Professor is nothing short of astonishing. By the end of 1996, a number of critics were pleading for the Academy to honor Murphy with a (deserved) Best Actor nomination. It didn’t happen, but The Nutty Professor earned $128 million in the United States and was a crowd pleaser and critical hit. It reinvigorated Murphy’s career. 

Professor is also important in another way: it was Eddie’s first “family film”, rated PG-13. The enormous success of the movie would greatly alter his career choices over the next few years. It would also alienate many of Murphy’s biggest admirers, but that didn’t start with Nutty Professor, which was a major success on all levels. 

Eddie wouldn’t exactly capitalize immediately on its success. Just six months later, he headlined Metro, an action comedy where Murphy plays a hostage negotiator. Clearly meant as a 48 HRS/Beverly Hills Cop type flick, it’s not bad at all. However, it’s not memorable in any way. On the bright side, Eddie doesn’t look bored like he did in Beverly Hills Cop III, but Metro was a not a hit, taking in only $32 million.

The summer of 1998 would bring much better news. Metro was filmed before the massive success of Professor, so his two choices in ’98 would reflect Murphy’s decided upon trajectory with his career. First, he would make his debut in animated films with Disney’s Mulan, which grossed a respectable $120 million (solid number, but nothing incredible for Disney animation).

More importantly, Eddie would remake another 60s-era film, Doctor Dolittle. Here, Murphy plays a doc who can talk to animals. Family audiences were more than ready to watch him in this type of film again and Dolittle outgrossed Professor, making $144 million. It did not, however, receive the very positive reviews that Professor did, something that would begin a trend for awhile. 

The fall of 1998 would bring Murphy one of his biggest box office flops: Holy Man. In the film, Eddie plays “G”, a mysterious faith healer who’s given his own TV show. Simply put, it’s a bad movie and audiences and critics noticed. It earned a pathetic $12 million (its budget was $60 million). Murphy would later admit Holy Man was a dud. Even worse, he said in later interviews that he turned down the massively successful Rush Hour with Jackie Chan to do Holy Man. Ouch.

1999 would bring another two movies for Murphy, geared more towards adult audiences. First, there’s Life, co-starring Martin Lawrence, in which the pair play 1930s era New Yorkers who are wrongly framed for a murder in the South and sentenced to life in prison. Yes, it’s a comedy. Life would perform decently, earning $64 million. It was not really a critical hit, but it’s a pretty decent comedy and the two leads do a nice job.

Murphy’s second feature that year would be his most critically acclaimed movie in a while, Frank Oz’s Bowfinger, written by and co-starring another brilliant comedic star, Steve Martin. In the film, Eddie plays two roles and is equally brilliant in both as the huge movie star that desperate producer Martin tries to get in his movie… and the nerdy guy that kinda looks like him. Bowfinger earned a solid $66 million and if you haven’t seen it, it’s one of Murphy’s best roles and greatest movies.

So the 1990s would end on a pretty positive note. Murphy had reestablished himself as a family comedy star with massive hits Professor and Dolittle. Bowfinger showed he could still give a great performance in an adult-themed comedy, too. Yes, there were flops like Metro and especially Holy Man. 

Murphy would enter the 2000s decade with sequels to make and an animated donkey to come that would serve as Murphy’s ATM machine for a decade. And Oscar attention would come too. That’ll all be covered in part five of the series.