The first half of the 1990s would not be a great time for Mr. Eddie Murphy, with big box office disappointments including The Distinguished Gentleman, Beverly Hills Cop III, and Vampire in Brooklyn. In the last half of the decade, he would find his footing, reinventing himself a family movie star with giant hits The Nutty Professor and Doctor Dolittle, mixed in with big flops like Holy Man. In 1999, he would end the decade with two well-received titles, Life and Bowfinger.

The 2000s decade would begin with the obligatory sequel Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps. It was not nearly as well-reviewed as the 1996 original, but it still performed quite well with $123 million domestically.

The summer of 2001 would bring another obvious sequel – Dr. Dolittle 2. Again, it wasn’t quite as well-received as the first, but grossed a very respectable $112 million.

The real story that summer for Murphy would be his debut as Donkey in the Dreamworks animated feature Shrek. Teaming with Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, the film’s ironic twist on fairy tales scored huge with audiences and critics. It grossed an astonishing $267 million and Murphy’s Donkey character was singled out as a highlight. Instantly becoming an animated classic (and deservedly so), Shrek would spawn several sequels and give Murphy one of his most memorable characters in some time.

While Murphy’s first three films of the decade were all high grossers, he would make three movies in 2002 and all were box office and critical disappointments. We start with Showtime, a comedy which would team Murphy with Robert DeNiro. I recall being very excited for this one and like most audience members and critics, profoundly disappointed when I saw it. Lots of potential wasted here in a by-the-numbers buddy cop formula comedy. Showtime would only earn $38 million at the box office.

If Showtime was a major letdown, The Adventures of Pluto Nash was an outright disaster. And a historical one at that. Produced on a $100 million budget, this lame sci-fi comedy took in $4.4 million. Yes, you read that correctly. It didn’t even make 5% of its budget back. Ouch. Pluto Nash would join such legendary Hollywood flops such as Howard the Duck, Ishtar, and Waterworld as cautionary tales of massive overspending when the people behind the movie should’ve realized that it wasn’t any good. Like most movies in this category, it’s probably not as awful as its reputation, but it’s still pretty weak.

Murphy would round out 2002 with another flop, the remake of the 1960s TV show I Spy, costarring Owen Wilson. Once again, the movie didn’t connect with audiences or critics, making only $33 million. Much like Showtime, I Spy has lots of potential that was mostly squandered. I will give it some backhanded praise, though. Of his three 2002 disappointments, it’s the best of the worst.

2003 would see Murphy going the family friendly route again with two features. Neither were hits with critics, but both did well at the box office. First, Daddy Day Care. Critics savaged it, but it earned $104 million and I will admit, it has its funny moments and I can see why kids would like it.

Disney’s The Haunted Mansion didn’t do quite as well, but made a respectable $75 million. It’s nothing special, but again it has its moments and did well with the kiddos. What was becoming disappointing to Eddie fans was that these family guy roles did little to challenge this extraordinary performer. Sure, he could be funny in anything, but he was definitely coasting.

Summer 2004 would have Murphy doing the Donkey thing again in Shrek 2. This installment drew raves from audiences and critics again, to the tune of an incredible $441 million at the box office. Shrek 2 still stands as Eddie’s biggest box office hit and it’s hard to see anything ever replacing it.

Eddie has been working a LOT in the early part of the decade, so we would see his longest break after Shrek 2. It would two and a half years before another movie. 

That would turn out to be 2006’s Dreamgirls, a musical drama based on the Broadway play. Dreamgirls would turn out to be a major change of pace for Murphy. It would allow him to stretch as an actor, with his first real dramatic role as a drug-addicted James Brown type singer, James “Thunder” Early. 

Murphy would absolutely hit it out of the park. His brilliant performance reminded audiences the amazing singular talent that Murphy was. He won the Golden Globe award for Supporting Actor and many felt he was one of his way to Oscar. On Oscar night, however, the statue surprisingly ended up going to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, denying Murphy his own real chance in his career to win. He should’ve won. Dreamgirls stands as the first time Murphy tackles a dramatic role and proves he should have done that more. Maybe three less boring family guy roles. Audiences would respond well too, with the film taking in $103 million.

The Oscar buzz Eddie would gain for Dreamgirls gave him a golden opportunity to expand his career. Would he use that opportunity? We’ll find out in the last installment of The Curious Case of Eddie Murphy, coming soon.

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.

When we last left The Curious Case of Eddie Murphy series, it was the end of the 80s and Murphy had experienced the box office and critical disappointment of his directorial debut Harlem Night and starred in the lackluster Another 48 HRS., where he seemed to just be going through the motions.

The nineties would bring the question of whether Murphy could stay relevant and remain a top box office attraction. After the 48 HRS sequel, he would take two years off between film projects, but he did manage to appear with Magic Johnson and model Iman in Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time” video.

He would return to the box office in the summer of 1992 with Boomerang, a romantic comedy that received middling reviews, but a decent if not spectacular box office performance ($70 million). The film itself is certainly watchable and has some very funny moments, but is overall just OK. There was certainly high hopes that Boomerang would be a return to form for Eddie, who came up with the story and was written by team behind Coming to America. Nowadays, Boomerang is more interesting because we get to see very early performances from Martin Lawrence, Halle Berry, and Chris Rock.

Murphy’s next three films would represent a tremendous slide in Murphy’s career and box office power. In December 1992 came his first undeniable flop: The Distinguished Gentleman. A mostly lame comedy about a con artist who gets elected to Congress, Gentleman is kind of a mess that switches between broad comedy and attempts at serious political commentary. It fails badly and audiences took note. Gentleman only made around $40 million box office, a severely low number for a Murphy comedy and received bad reviews.

Before we get to Murphy’s next box office failure, Michael Jackson did return the music video favor in 1993 for Murphy’s track “What’s Up With You”, a video that’s truly awful in a rather hilarious way.

This brings us to 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III. Again, there was hope to be had. The third installment re-teamed Eddie with director John Landis, who helmed both Trading Places and Coming to America. No other way to really this: Beverly Hills Cop III sucked. So much so that Murphy would denounce it in interviews years later. It’s basic premise was Die Hard at an amusement park. It was low on jokes and the action scenes were majorly inferior to other films being released at the time. More than ever, Murphy seems to be sleepwalking through it. Ten years after the original (which made $234 million), the third would gross only $40 million and was a true box office disaster. 

Murphy’s fall at the box office would get even worse the following year. However, in this blogger’s opinion, what followed was fun more interesting than either Distinguished Gentleman or Beverly III. 1995’s Vampire in Brooklyn at least had Murphy trying something different. A horror comedy directed by the great Wes Craven, Vampire comes from a story by Murphy and his brother Charlie (who we all remember from “Chappelle’s Show” and his classic stories about Rick James and Prince). It doesn’t really work, but at least it’s a chance to see Murphy try something new. Audiences, however, did not agree. At all. Vampire would be Murphy’s lowest grossing movie ever with a pathetic gross of around $14 million.

With the three box office bombs in a row, it reached the point where David Spade on “Saturday Night Live”, in his Hollywood Minute segment, showed a picture of Murphy and simply stated “Oh look, a falling star.” Rumor has it that Murphy did not take well to the joke, especially considering he was being mocked on a show he made brilliant contributions to.

Vampire in Brooklyn would mark the end of an exclusive contract Murphy signed only to do movies with Paramount. He was eager to move on to other projects at other companies and that is where one of the biggest film comebacks in recent history was made. This happened where Murphy decided to remake a Jerry Lewis comedy and that is where The Curious Case of Eddie Murphy – Part Four will begin.