The awful 2015 sci-fi movie that convinced Eddie Murphy to make a comeback: “That’s when we got the dot”
Having been rich enough to theoretically never work again since the 1980s, you’d have thought Eddie Murphy might have been more judicious with his choice of roles when he ended his self-imposed exile.
The reason he stepped away from Hollywood in the first place was that he realised he’d been making far too many shitty films, and being constantly inundated with Razzies was the driving force behind an absence that stretched from March 2012 to April 2016, so there was hope his batteries would be recharged.
The former date was the release of A Thousand Words, another family-friendly flop that was savaged by critics and got him on the shortlist for ‘Worst Actor’ at the Razzies again, while the latter marked the premiere of Mr Church, and even though it wasn’t especially good, it was still a low-key dramatic picture.
It would be another three years before Murphy headlined another movie, and Dolemite Is My Name gave off the false impression that it could be a comeback for the ages. The star was on scintillating, showstopping, Golden Globe-nominated form, but it turned out to be a false dawn, and he immediately reverted to type.
Since then, his credits make for woeful reading. Coming 2 America was a streaming-only legacy sequel, You People was a flat, streaming-only comedy, Candy Cane Lane was another flat, streaming-only comedy, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was a streaming-only legacy sequel, The Pickup was yet another flat, streaming-only comedy, and while Shrek 5 is at least releasing in cinemas, it’s still a legacy sequel.
One thing that’s always been clear about the former Saturday Night Live sensation is that Murphy and sci-fi don’t mix. The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Meet Dave are two of the worst things he’s ever been in, and he’s been in an awful lot of crap, so in a perverse way, it’s almost fitting that the mind-numbing Terminator Genisys, of all things, was the impetus behind his full-time return to cinema.
Having been toying with the idea of a Coming to America follow-up for years, Murphy saw a de-aged Arnold Schwarzenegger in the tedious blockbuster disowned and trashed by virtually all of its key creatives, and suddenly, his mind sparked into action, and his return to Zamunda started gaining traction.
“That’s when we got the dot to connect,” he explained. “If we take that technology and me and Arsenio [Hall] young, we can continue the scene in the club, then the whole story just started writing itself.” It’s enough to make you wonder: had he been inspired by something that wasn’t shite, would we be getting significantly better Eddie Murphy movies than the ones we’ve been subjected to since Dolemite?
With a Pink Panther reboot also on the cards, it looks like we’ll never know, and having wasted no time in returning to the insipid form that made him turn his back on the industry in the first place, it wouldn’t be unfair to point the finger of blame squarely in the direction of the awful, awful Terminator Genisys.
