‘The Films of Eddie Murphy’ (review)

Written by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
Published by BearManor Media

Anybody who has ever seen Eddie Murphy in movies, on television, or even in concert, knows that he can be absolutely hilarious and that he is also an exceptional actor.

Unfortunately, he has an exceptional track record of making poor choices for vehicles as well. Even his poor choices can be interesting, though, and reading about them more so than actually watching them.

The Films of Eddie Murphy: An Unofficial Look at America’s Favorite Comedian From 48 Hrs. to Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is an overly-named new book from Mat Bradley-Tschirgi.

Books of this type usually follow a certain format. They’re chronological, listing and writing about each of the person’s films in release order. There’s at least one photo, a cast list, a plot summary, some behind-the-scenes information, and possibly some review quotes. It’s a logical, now time-honored format that’s been used for decades. If you pick up a book entitled, “The Films of…” you can generally be assured of that familiar formatting…until now, anyway.

The Films of Eddie Murphy goes against the grain to present the reader a wide-ranging portrait of its subject without bothering to put it all into perspective. In some ways, that works, in others, not so much.

We start with a three-page introduction and then a three-page section covering Murphy’s TV years. An “interview” with Frank Santopadre (best known as the late Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast co-host) consists of a mere four questions not quite covering a page.

From there, we jump into alphabetical coverage starting with the two 48 Hours movies, followed by 22 pages going over all of the Beverly Hills Cop movies (including the TV pilot and the most recent streaming sequel).

Continuing with Eddie’s biggest successes, next we have the two Coming to America films. Followed by the Dr. Dolittle franchise.

All of the above contains summaries, reviews, trivia, box-office info and occasional interviews with folks involved. From that point on, we bounce around through Eddie Murphy’s career vehicles—The Haunted Mansion, Mulan, the Shrek franchise, the Nutty Professor movies, and, of course, his numerous lesser choices.

The latter provide some of the most interesting sections of what’s left. No one sets out to make a box office failure and the stories behind the lesser films, or even the outright losers, can be fascinating. Who even remembers Bowfinger? Boomerang? Personally, I don’t believe I had ever heard of Candy Cane Lane or The Distinguished Gentleman. If I had, I retained no memory of them, but they were fun to read about.

For some reason, one of my personal favorites, and one of Eddie’s biggest hits, Trading Places, gets only the equivalent of three pages. The highly touted (if not fully successful) Harlem Nights gets surprisingly just a tad over three pages, too.

The book offers no photos at all, not even film posters. It’s explained that the rights were prohibitive. After the author’s perceptive Afterword, however, there is a 27-page detailed bibliography.

As I said, The Films of Eddie Murphy is not a typical “Films of” book, nor is it written the way I, myself, would have written it, but I didn’t. Mat Bradley-Tschirgi did, and when all is said and done, the seemingly haphazard format still manages to give the reader a fuller perspective on Eddie Murphy, and it’s hard to deny that Murphy’s one of the funniest performers of the past few decades, as well as an excellent actor at his best.

As time goes on, Murphy’s career will certainly be scrutinized more and more by film critics and historians. Mat Bradley-Tschirgi is a pioneer, giving Eddie the respect his career deserves while it’s still ongoing.

Booksteve recommends.