Boiling Point: Less Eddie Murphy, More Originality

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 7, 2008

Now as angry as I can get, I often try to direct it at general themes or movies rather than just a single individual. I also don’t want to just plainly retread over anything, so I’m sort of merging things. I’ve already demanded more originality from Hollywood (lets face it, that’s not coming) and I want to bash Eddie Murphy a little bit, so to soften the blow I’ve mixed them, because they’re really the same thing. If Hollywood gives me less Eddie Murphy, they would give me more originality.

I’m talking about Meet Dave. First of all, what the fuck is that shit? Mini-Eddie Murphy pilots big robo-Eddie Murphy? Isn’t that just combining The Nutty Professor or Norbit with Men in Black or something? Murphy used to be comedy gold, now he does the same schtick over and over again, namely “Look how many characters I can play!” Well I’m tired of it. Give me something new. And by new I don’t mean make him bigger or smaller or more robotic. Unfortunately there is a lot of this going around. They ol’ “stick (Noun) into this situation and have him do the same thing as in (Movie Title).” That fits any recent Eddie Murphy movie, but it also fits with other character-type actors like Larry the Cable Guy or Will Ferrell. Thankfully, Step Brothers looks to be a bit different, but I’m pretty sure Will Ferrell played the same character for like 5 movies in a row there.

Perhaps the guiltiest of all is Michael Meyers, who has somehow gotten away with playing Austin Powers about 6 times, which is amazing considering Austin Powers is just a rehash of his Saturday Night Live days. So you take this guy, who is just doing the same thing over and over again, and you drop him in a different sound stage. You put on a different coat. Switch out his leisure suit for a basketball jersey or his crushed velvet for a turban. Why?

If you really think a film merits a sequel, give it a damn sequel. Which you were probably going to do anyways! Like Anchorman. Funny. Next up, 3 Ron Burgundy movies where they just call him something else. Now we head back to calling him Ron Burgundy for the legitimate Anchorman sequel. It’s enough to boggle the mind.  Really, I’m getting burnt out on these movies and I don’t even watch all of them.  If I see Eddie Murphy playing 8 roles in the same film one more time, I’m going to lose it.  Forget Beverly Hills Cop 4, something I may have had interest in, even if it is a cash-in decade late sequel.  It’s like we’re in the galley of the Nebuchadnezzar and they keep feeding us gruel.

So maybe I’m the only one pulling my hair out over this, going crazy at the sight of a giant Eddie Murphy head full of little Eddie Murphys, but maybe I’m not.  Maybe someone out there feels the same, maybe someone out there will not see this movie in a small act of defiance, begging for something new, surging past their boiling point, just like me.  Amen.

Are you planning on seeing Meet Dave?  What actors do you know of that keep playing the same role in different films?

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