Movies: Mr Church (Eddie Murphy) September 2016

[Jumptheshark]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Church

Looks interesting--but could turn into an Eddie Murphy vanity attempt at an oscar

Click to read more...

 

[aleshemsky83]

Eddie Murphy is too great to be sitting around doing crap like imagine that.

Now hes doing what looks like a young adult novel.

 

[Smelling Salt]

That trailer just showed the whole movie. I don't even need to see it now.

 

[Sharpshooter]

The trailer definitely gave way too much away, but I think i'm going to watch this one. Been waiting for a more serious Murphy movie, and i'm glad he's making one.

 

[bohlmeister]

I was amazed when I found out he played the mother and the daughter as well.

 

[Stealth JD]

Serious question... What was the last Eddie Murphy movie that was worth the time it took to watch it. Dude was king of the world in 1990. Since then it's been Pluto Nash, Dr. Doottle and a dozen other forgettable roles and movies. I'm sure he's mixed in a good one here and there (statistically, he'd almost had to have had)...but without IMDB'ing his filmography, I'm having a hard time remembering anything notable this millennium. Maybe that Jennifer Hudson movie?

 

[aleshemsky83]

Serious question... What was the last Eddie Murphy movie that was worth the time it took to watch it. Dude was king of the world in 1990. Since then it's been Pluto Nash, Dr. Doottle and a dozen other forgettable roles and movies. I'm sure he's mixed in a good one here and there (statistically, he'd almost had to have had)...but without IMDB'ing his filmography, I'm having a hard time remembering anything notable this millennium. Maybe that Jennifer Hudson movie?

Hes done some decent films (including Dr Doolittle) but the bad movies have just been so bad.

The last great film he did was probably bowfinger in 1999. He did Shrek and Dreamgirls after that, and I spy too which is a cable tv mainstay to this day, other than that nothing of note.

 

[JA]

The film appears to be based on a real relationship in the life of its screenwriter, Susan McMartin.

Among her best-known works are fifteen episodes of post-Charlie Sheen Two and Half Men and twenty episodes of the series Mom starring Anna Faris.

That said, Mr. Church is directed by Bruce Beresford who also directed Driving Miss Daisy. I suppose that's the type of film McMartin wants this to be. Samuel L. Jackson was originally cast as Mr. Church, but he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and Eddie Murphy took his place.

Hes done some decent films (including Dr Doolittle) but the bad movies have just been so bad.

The last great film he did was probably bowfinger in 1999. He did Shrek and Dreamgirls after that, and I spy too which is a cable tv mainstay to this day, other than that nothing of note.

Some of the children's shows are passable such as Daddy Day Care and The Haunted Mansion. Daddy Day Care, in particular, spawned a sequel starring Cuba Gooding Jr in Murphy's role. The Haunted Mansion, meanwhile, is a Disney production. Those two films are good enough to entertain children, which seems to have been the objective.

I recall Showtime being a decent film too -- a buddy cop film co-starring Robert De Niro.

Beverly Hills Cop 4 has been announced, so we shall see where that goes. Triplets, a sequel to the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito film, Twins, is also slated to star Eddie Murphy.

http://www.slashfilm.com/twins-sequel-triplets/

With Arnold Schwarzenegger doing press for Terminator Genisys, we now have an update on the Twins sequel which has been in the works since 2012. Writer-actor Josh Gad was hired to write the screenplay for Triplets, but said earlier this year that the project was now “on hold”. Arnold seems to think there is forward momentum and claims that Eddie Murphy “loves the idea” and wants to join the threequel as the third brother.

Schwarzenegger appeared on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday and revealed the following about the Twins sequel Triplets:

“Now we are talking about a sequel, where we find out at the funeral of our mother, that when we read the will, that there’s three of us. Eddie Murphy is going to be the third one and so they go, ‘How did that happen’ Theres an African American coming in here and all of a sudden he’s our brother. So we go to do the research but he can only get the money if we find him, so now we have to get him involved.”

...

Arnold also confirmed that Eddie Murphy is on board if they go into production:

“Eddie Murphy loves the idea. Danny DeVito and I had lunch with Eddie Murphy over at my house, and we talked about the thing, and we were laughing and laughing the whole meal through because it was such a funny idea. And of course, who wouldn’t like it.”

...

 

[aleshemsky83]

I actually really liked showtime, forgot about that one.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Hopefully this gets his career back on track, one of the funniest and most talented men alive IMO.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Serious question... What was the last Eddie Murphy movie that was worth the time it took to watch it. Dude was king of the world in 1990. Since then it's been Pluto Nash, Dr. Doottle and a dozen other forgettable roles and movies. I'm sure he's mixed in a good one here and there (statistically, he'd almost had to have had)...but without IMDB'ing his filmography, I'm having a hard time remembering anything notable this millennium. Maybe that Jennifer Hudson movie?

The Nutty Professor. And Dr. Doolittle is a solid family movie.

Both of those had sequels too.


But yea I can't think of anything that was more than mediocre from him that came out post-1999.

 

[Sharpshooter]

Serious question... What was the last Eddie Murphy movie that was worth the time it took to watch it. Dude was king of the world in 1990. Since then it's been Pluto Nash, Dr. Doottle and a dozen other forgettable roles and movies. I'm sure he's mixed in a good one here and there (statistically, he'd almost had to have had)...but without IMDB'ing his filmography, I'm having a hard time remembering anything notable this millennium. Maybe that Jennifer Hudson movie?

Dreamgirls
Life(1999)
Bowginger(1999)
Showtime
ISpy
Tower Heist

All good Murphy movies.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Dreamgirls
Life(1999)
Bowginger(1999)
Showtime
ISpy
Tower Heist

All good Murphy movies.

I never watched the bolded movies, which are the best of the bunch in your opinion?

 

[Bryanbryoil]

It's too bad there was never a Coming to America sequel, easily one of my favorite movies.

 

[Osprey]

I think that the problem for Murphy is that he does one character (which is, basically, himself) really well and that's it. People love that character, and it shot him to stardom in the 80s, but audiences started to tire of it in the 90s. Tom Hanks similarly played one character throughout the 80s, but, when that character had about run its course, Hanks re-invented himself, proving just how talented he is. I really think that, if Murphy were as talented as suggested, he would've found a way to re-invent or re-apply himself when things stopped working for him, rather than continuing to make the same sorts of movies for 20 years to lackluster reception.

Here, he does appear to be doing a serious role, but it's still clearly the old Eddie Murphy that we recognize. Seriously, does he do only roles that allow him to keep his usual appearance: mustache, nearly shaved head and all? At least he's trying a slightly different sort of film, but I don't think that it'll be enough to change the game for him, popularity-wise or critic-wise.

It's too bad there was never a Coming to America sequel, easily one of my favorite movies.

I agree. There seem to be so many sequels and reboots that we never asked for (I'm looking at you, Ghostbusters), even some from Murphy, himself, yet one that I've wanted for 28 years to see made hasn't been. Coming to America was a huge popular and commercial success, being Paramount's greatest earner of 1988, so it's just really puzzling that a sequel has never been made. Perhaps it's largely due to Murphy and John Landis reportedly not enjoying working with each other on the film and (this is me speculating) Murphy always nixing a sequel because the original was a bad experience for him.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I never watched the bolded movies, which are the best of the bunch in your opinion?

Haven't seen dreamgirls but bowfinger is a classic. And he definitely doesn't play himself in it.

 

[Sharpshooter]

I never watched the bolded movies, which are the best of the bunch in your opinion?

Dreamgirls is a more critically acclaimed movie, but out of those bunch, I laughed a lot at Bowfinger, and really enjoyed ISpy(with Owen Wilson) and Showtime(with Deniro). The latter two had more of the action/comedy mix, buddy cop kinda deal.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Dreamgirls
Life(1999)
Bowginger(1999)
Showtime
ISpy
Tower Heist

All good Murphy movies.

Showtime and I Spy are terrible, and Tower Heist isn't much better.

And as much as I love Life and Bowfinger, we're 17 years removed from those two. Dreamgirls is really the only thing he's does this century that was worth a damn, it's a shame he hasn't built off that performance.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Showtime and I Spy are terrible, and Tower Heist isn't much better.

And as much as I love Life and Bowfinger, we're 17 years removed from those two. Dreamgirls is really the only thing he's does this century that was worth a damn, it's a shame he hasn't built off that performance.

Implying Tower heist is better than showtime and I spy?

I actually hated tower heist but thought showtime and I spy were pretty good

 

[Sharpshooter]

Showtime and I Spy are terrible, and Tower Heist isn't much better.

And as much as I love Life and Bowfinger, we're 17 years removed from those two. Dreamgirls is really the only thing he's does this century that was worth a damn, it's a shame he hasn't built off that performance.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Implying Tower heist is better than showtime and I spy?

I actually hated tower heist but thought showtime and I spy were pretty good

Tower Heist had a fun cast and some good moments here and there, and Murphy himself was pretty funny. Showtime started out great before turning into the movie it was initially parodying, and I Spy was just bad.

I think we can both agree though that none of these three are anywhere near the upper-tier of Eddie films

Haha, well played.

 

[Philly85*]

Dreamgirls was pretty good but that's an easy role for him to play. I think his career is pretty much washed up unless he produces some new stand up material or maybe does some smaller dramatic work, and actually try acting, branch out as a performer in his middle age. All the comedies he's done in more than a decade have largely been garbage. And mostly because of the scripts. I wonder if he can still write at all.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

That trailer just showed the whole movie. I don't even need to see it now.

lol, for truth

 

[RobBrown4PM]

He was a superior product in the 90's that didn't gain a mm of traction in the 2000's.

 

[karnige]

Serious question... What was the last Eddie Murphy movie that was worth the time it took to watch it. Dude was king of the world in 1990. Since then it's been Pluto Nash, Dr. Doottle and a dozen other forgettable roles and movies. I'm sure he's mixed in a good one here and there (statistically, he'd almost had to have had)...but without IMDB'ing his filmography, I'm having a hard time remembering anything notable this millennium. Maybe that Jennifer Hudson movie?

I loved Ispy. Its hilarious with owen wilson. A heist/action movie.