The “stinking” role Eddie Murphy had no interest in reprising: “Not all that and a bag of chips”
Every actor has at least one movie they regret making or a role they regret playing, but Eddie Murphy has taken things to another level by torching a hefty percentage of his filmography.
In his defence, he’s not wrong. His meteoric rise to the top of the Hollywood tree was characterised by films that hit box office gold and won critical acclaim, but once the 1990s began, his track record became increasingly spotty, even if Best Defense was an early indication that he could sniff out a dud.
If it wasn’t for The Nutty Professor, a rare bright spot in a sea of shite that Murphy has repeatedly called his finest hour in front of the camera, the entire ’90s might have been a washout. He’s blasted the second and third Beverly Hills Cop films, Another 48 Hrs., Vampire in Brooklyn, and Holy Man at various points, and so many flops in such a short space of time took some serious shine from his star.
Things didn’t get any better after the turn of the millennium, to be fair, the Shrek franchise excepted. The Academy Award nominee has lamented The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Meet Dave, Imagine That, and more, even if he remains the only person on the planet willing to defend Norbit from the ire it deserves.
One of Murphy’s favourite things to do onscreen is play multiple characters in the same picture, and he’s not averse to playing the same character twice. He’s voiced Donkey in four Shrek flicks with more to come, with four outings as Axel Foley, and two apiece as John Dolittle, Prince Akeem Joffer, and Reggie Hammon.
However, he draws the line at Jim Evers. Does that ring a bell? Anyone? That was the name of the protagonist in Rob Minkoff’s risible 2003 Disney film, The Haunted Mansion, which inexplicably made a tidy profit in cinemas despite being crap. It’s become a staple of the Halloween viewing schedule, sure, but so have a lot of rubbish movies.
Because everything old is eventually new again in a business that loves nothing more than rehashing recognisable properties, the ‘Mouse House’ mounted a new Haunted Mansion two decades later. Justin Simien’s version was slightly better, which still means it wasn’t very good, and it lost a fortune at the box office. It had a star-studded cast of its own, but Murphy had no interest in getting involved.
Responding to speculation that Disney might enlist him for a key-jangling appearance in Haunted Mansion V2.0, he shut it down unequivocally. “I did a Haunted Mansion movie, and it wasn’t very good, so I don’t know if they want to bring the old baggage and have me stinking up the new one,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “My Haunted Mansion was not all that and a bag of chips.”
Neither of them was all that and a bag of chips, in all honesty. Murphy’s was woeful but made money, while Simien’s was slightly less egregious but lost a fortune. There’s a reason why so many blockbusters based on theme park attractions have tanked, and it’s not as if bringing in the star of the original would have been able to polish a steaming supernatural turd anyway.
