Actors never truly know if the movie they’ve signed on to will be a hit or a disastrous flop, even if it’s got a star-studded cast and a strong director at the helm. Sometimes, certain movies just don’t work out, while the titles that seem destined to fail actually triumph.
Eddie Murphy has appeared in his fair share of bad movies, ranging from box-office stinkers to popular yet critically-derided films. The comedian and actor got off to a good start with a long tenure on Saturday Night Live and leading roles in classic 1980s films such as 48 Hrs, Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places, but he soon showed a penchant for movies that weren’t exactly the most sophisticated.
In 1996, he appeared in The Nutty Professor, donning a fat suit for the Jekyll and Hyde-inspired movie, which won an Academy Award for ‘Best Makeup’. The movie is now hugely divisive, with some heralding it a Murphy classic and others labelling it fatphobic.
He has lent himself to a variety of family-orientated films over the years to mixed success, from Mulan and Dr. Dolittle to Shrek and Daddy Day Care. Alongside some negatively-reviewed comedies, like Showtime, The Haunted Mansion, and Meet Dave, Murphy’s career has never exactly been plain sailing.
The actor has racked up various Golden Raspberry nominations, winning six, although he did manage to partially redeem himself with an Oscar-nominated role in Dreamgirls in 2007. While the success of Dreamgirls should’ve been a sign for Murphy to take on more complex roles, he instead went back to terrible comedies, following it with the widely panned Norbit, in which he played various characters, including a morbidly obese woman, an elderly Chinese man, and the titular protagonist.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he continued with bad comedies by starring in Imagine That in 2009, which lost $30million at the box office. Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, the film starred Murphy as a dad obsessed with his work at a financial firm, only to discover that his daughter’s imaginary world and “goo-gaa” blanket might hold the key to his success. It was not received well – after all, what kid is interested in watching a stressed-out financial advisor, but what adult cares about a magical blanket?
Murphy knew the film was doomed from the very beginning. He once told Rolling Stone, “Would the 27-year-old have wondered what I was doing in Dr. Dolittle? No. Or in those Shrek movies? No. But, you know, both the 27-year-old and the 48-year-old was like, ‘Why am I in Imagine That?’”
He added, “The movie didn’t have a chance at the box office – it’s just me and this little girl and a blanket. I don’t think I’m gonna be doing a lot of family stuff for a while. I don’t have any interest in that right now. There’s really no blueprint, but I’m trying to do some edgy stuff.”
Certainly, the failure of the movie encouraged Murphy to change up his career choices, resulting in his acclaimed performance in the drama Mr. Church, as well as his Golden Globe-nominated performance in Dolemite Is My Name.
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