The movie Eddie Murphy wishes he never made: “I didn’t dig it and I hated doing it”
I think you can divide the world into two categories of people: those who think Eddie Murphy is funny, and those who would happily see him retire from Hollywood.
Now, I’m not saying that one category is better than the other, and I don’t think we can bring Donkey from Shrek into this equation (he’s great), but let’s just consider some of the biggest cinematic crimes Murphy has committed.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash, released in 2002, managed to become one of the most shocking instances of a movie failing to scrape a box-office return. Believe it or not, the movie cost $100 million to make, but it made just $7.1m. Murphy’s luck didn’t fare much better the following year when his next two movies, Daddy Day Care and The Haunted Mansion, were panned by critics. Rightfully so.
We’ll give Murphy some credit for Dreamgirls, of course, which – to the surprise of many – earned him an Academy Award nomination, but the year after that, he was back to committing more cinematic crimes in the form of Norbit. Donning a fatsuit to play an obese woman was bad enough, but he even portrays a Chinese character, too. The movie is an abomination, and it must have got most of its revenue from DVD sales as kids flocked to watch it at birthday sleepovers during the mid-2000s. Who else would want to watch it?
While we’re sure that Murphy looks back on many of his films and feels proud, there are a few that he’s not so keen on, including his directorial debut, Harlem Nights. He starred in the film as well as writing, directing, and executive-producing it, and he soon realised that he was spinning too many plates at once.
Harlem Nights also starred the likes of Richard Pryor, Danny Aiello, and Redd Foxx, with the movie transporting viewers to 1910s-era New York. Sadly for Murphy, it did not fare well at all, and he walked away from the movie with a ‘Worst Screenplay’ accolade from the Golden Raspberry Awards, while also earning a ‘Worst Director’ nomination.
Murphy regretted committing to juggling too many commitments at once, and he admitted to the New York Times that he did it for the “wrong reason”.
He explained, “All my peers started doing movies where they were directing and producing and starring. So I said, let me see what it’s like. And I didn’t dig it and I hated doing it throughout the whole trip, and it affected my performance.”
Interestingly, it was his writing and directing, not his acting, that earned him recognition from the Razzies. Some actors are great at directing, look at Clint Eastwood or even Gary Oldman, but Murphy falls into the category of those who really should have been told sooner that directing simply isn’t for them. Luckily, he found this out himself, and he has never directed a movie since the failure of Harlem Nights.
While the movie grossed $60.9m, it wasn’t enough to tempt Murphy to have another go at directing. I think that’s for the best.
