The 21 best (and worst) Eddie Murphy movies

Make no mistake, Eddie Murphy is a legend in several fields. His stand-up comedy showcased an energetic, ribald master of his craft that left audiences doubled over in laughter, while his  breakthrough turn on Saturday Night Live inspired countless Black TV performers and launched several remarkable characters, from Mr. Robinson to Velvet Jones. And who can forget the sheer musical power of “Boogie in Your Butt?”

But it’s in film where Murphy plied most of his trade. He’s been a movie star for 40 years, essentially from his debut in 1982 all the way into the 21st century. During his prime, Murphy was regularly commanding millions per movie, and since those flicks generally made a healthy profit, it was well worth the cost. But right before the turn of the century, Murphy began headlining a slew of interchangeable family films that alienated many of the fans who grew up admiring Murphy’s edgy side. One EW critic described his turn in the early ’90s as “a steroid parody of himself…He’d become an abstraction of celebrity — ego without joy, the strutting King of Nothing.” The results left the comedian on the outside of a changing cinematic landscape.

However, Murphy has come back to relevance thanks to a few carefully selected roles and by revisiting some of his classic characters, such as 2021’s Coming 2 America. With nearly 60 films on his resume, many of Murphy’s ventures reside squarely in the “Meh” category, so we’ll skip those and instead focus on his absolute best and worst below.

So, in honor of the accomplished actor’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment at the 2023 Golden Globes, here are the highest (and lowest) points of his varied film career.

The worst 8. Daddy Day Care (2003)

Look, there’s nothing wrong with making family-friendly films. Many actors are more than happy to make movies that their kids can see. And, for the most part, family films are profitable at the box office. Murphy certainly had a winning formula with most of his kid flicks, but Daddy Day Care exemplifies the commerce over art theory that seemed to drive most of his career moves in the early 2000s.

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Seeing Murphy flop around as a downsized corporate exec forced to open a home daycare for annoying rugrats is downright dispiriting, as you’re left wondering why he would squander his gifts in junk like this save for the salary and back-end profits. Somehow, this tepid film spawned a three-movie franchise (minus Murphy).

Daddy Day Care (2003) (L to r) Anjelica Huston, Eddie Murphy, Khamani Griffin and Regina King

7. Metro (1997)

Though one of Murphy’s biggest successes came by portraying a cop, he hasn’t always stuck the landing in other policeman roles through the years. In part, because it’s difficult to recapture that Axel Foley magic, but it’s also hard to imagine someone as unserious as Murphy ever becoming — or succeeding — as a law enforcement type. That disconnect is on full display in this woeful action-comedy.

Murphy stars as Scott Roper, a fast-talking hostage negotiator for the San Francisco Police Department who is at odds with a wicked jewel thief (Michael Wincott). Murphy’s antics are supposed to be funny, but the film strikes a sour note throughout, and the action scenes don’t do much to enliven the rote proceedings.

METRO, Eddie Murphy, 1997

6. Mr. Church (2016)

Murphy had not made a movie in four years when he signed on to this drama, one that places him squarely in tone deaf territory as he served as the guiding light for three generations of white women. And while it’s hard to begrudge Murphy going out of his comfort zone, this film does not work at all.

Murphy’s titular character is an unbelievable jack-of-all-trades that seems perfectly content serving this family as long as he maintains his own private life. Would you be surprised to learn this comes from director Bruce Beresford, whose Driving Miss Daisy set the standard for saintly Black characters? Though he was far less successful this time around, with this $8 million production grossed a mere $685,000 at the box office.

Eddie Murphy as Henry Joseph Church in MR. CHURCH

5. Holy Man (1998)

To successfully pull off a comedy satire, filmmakers must walk a tightrope where the script, acting, and direction are razor sharp — and no one involved with this toothless, unfunny film was up to the task. Holy Man is one of those films that leaves the viewer wondering what intrigued Murphy to sign on, especially when it’s been rumored that he turned down Rush Hour to do this movie.

Murphy stars as G, a robed guru of sorts who comes into the life of TV home shopping hosts (Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston) and immediately starts turning the network into a success, but at the cost of G’s aura. This was a major bomb, but it was quickly forgotten over the next couple of years as Murphy bounced back with several hits.

Eddie Murphy

4. Best Defense (1984)

Here’s how hot Murphy was in the mid-1980s: he wasn’t even in the original version of this middling Dudley Moore military comedy. But after a poor screening, some studio exec had the brilliant thought of adding more Murphy. So, they excised half the movie to insert completely new scenes featuring the rising star, at the expense of important elements like, say, continuity.

Needless to say, the film is a rambling mess. There are no scenes featuring Murphy and Moore together, and it’s as if Murphy is in an entirely different movie. Audiences weren’t fooled and they stayed away in droves. In Murphy’s return to SNL later that year, he even called it “the worst movie ever done in the history of anything.”

BEST DEFENSE, Eddie Murphy

3. A Thousand Words (2012)

You know how bad a movie must be to sit on the shelf for four years? Well, A Thousand Words is Exhibit A. This Murphy comedy was shot in 2008 but kept getting shuffled on the release schedule. But that’s understandable, given the movie is more boring than bad, making the criminal mistake of removing its star’s rapid-fire mouth for most of the running time.

The plot revolves around fast-talking literary agent Jack (Murphy), who runs afoul of a self-help guru (Cliff Curtis) who curses him with a plant that loses a leaf for every word Jack speaks. This was the kind of treacly stuff Murphy specialized in during his later films — and no one was excited about it, as a Thousand Words earned the rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

A THOUSAND WORDS Eddie Murphy

2. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Regarded as one of the biggest box office flops ever made, this awful sci-fi comedy — which has the nerve to crib from Casablanca — truly lives up (down?) to its reputation. Everyone who appears in The Adventures of Pluto Nash seems slightly embarrassed to have collected a paycheck, and that goes double for Murphy, who has two roles in the film.

Somehow, Pluto Nash cost $100 million to make, yet the sets manage to look like a second-rate Disney-themed restaurant. It only recouped $7 million at the box office and foiled director Ron Underwood’s career (though he’s since bounced back as a TV helmer). And the movie was just one of many 2002 letdowns for Murphy, as I Spy and Showtime also disappointed.

The Adventures of Pluto Nash

1. Norbit (2007)

When anyone thinks about terrible Eddie Murphy movies, Norbit justifiably comes to mind. The nadir of Murphy’s career, ironically, was a box office success, earning more than $150 million. But it doesn’t excuse the lazy writing, awful stereotypes, gross-out humor, and thinly designed characters on display.

Murphy plays the titular character, a meek man trapped in a loveless marriage to the abusive Rasputia (also Murphy), who attempts to break free when his childhood love (Thandiwe Newton) returns to town. What ensues is a downright embarrassing spectacle of fat jokes, unconvincing special effects, and actors who should know better playing along with this nonsense.

NORBIT (2007) EDDIE MURPHY (right) and EDDIE MURPHY (left)

The best 13. Life (1999)

A surprisingly touching buddy comedy-drama that both lives up to and subverts audience expectations, Life has become a cult classic over the past 20-plus years, showing the artistic range of stars Murphy and Martin Lawrence. The film is greatly aided by the steady hand of director Ted Demme, who gives his actors both freedom to shine while also reining in their overwrought impulses.

When two con men are arrested and sentenced to hard labor in Mississippi, it begins a 50 year journey of friendship and injustice in the brutal era of the Jim Crow South. Murphy does excellent work here and is aided by a game Lawrence and an equally-supportive cast. Very few Murphy movies tug at the heartstrings, but this one does that quite effectively.

LIFE, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, 1999

12. Dr. Dolittle (1998)

There’s an old Hollywood axiom that actors should “never work with children or animals,” but the industry really got excited about technology that appeared to make animals’ lips move. That’s pretty much the hook of Dr. Dolittle, a Murphy flick based on the children’s book series. This time, the comedian plays a doctor with the gift of communication with the animal kingdom, and, of course, hijinks ensue as he struggles to live with this unwelcome intrusion.

They say that much of acting is reacting, and EW”s critic noted that this kid-friendly feature “upends Murphy’s usual position as a loose live wire by making him the reactive straight man to a bunch of winged and furry wisenheimers” played by a cavalcade of celebrity voices, including Chris Rock, Norm Macdonald, Albert Brooks, and Ellen DeGeneres. Once again, a movie with Murphy at the helm was a huge success, spawning a 2001 sequel and a direct-to-video franchise that we hope Murphy got some residuals from.

DR. DOLITTLE, Eddie Murphy, 1998, TM & Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.

11. Mulan (1998)

To say that Murphy shifted his focus to family films later in his career is a wild understatement, and while those ventures varied widely in quality, Mulan is an undeniable highlight. Starting with this Disney classic in 1998, Murphy would only make one R-rated movie (Life), from here until 2019! And given Murphy’s manic qualities and rapid-fire delivery, it’s no surprise that animation would become a comfortable vehicle for the actor.

As Mushu, the dragon tasked with helping the heroine fulfill her destiny, Murphy rockets through a series of quips and gags reminiscent of Robin Williams’ work in Aladdin. Murphy seems to be having a blast, and he even got to sing in the movie (unfortunately, his song was cut, but his voice is still a steady vehicle for starpower here). The success of the film would open the door for a brand-new career for the comedian, one where his behind-the-curtain line delivery shines almost as brightly as Murphy himself on camera.

MULAN, Mushu, 1998. c) Walt Disney Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.

10. Boomerang (1992)

Murphy was an established presence when Boomerang was released, but this movie cast him in a different light — as a romantic comedy star. What’s more, this Reginald Hudlin-directed film portrayed Black glamor as a reality — not as some aspirational goal the characters were seeking. It was a rare example of a 1990s studio moving beyond tired archetypes and painting an all-Black cast as titans of industry in a film whose legacy EW has since called “ridiculously impressive” for both its cast (including Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, pre-Martin Martin Lawrence, and David Alan Grier) and its stellar soundtrack.

As advertising exec Marcus, Murphy’s first rom-com turn is as an incorrigible womanizer, living a lavish lifestyle without committing to any one partner. In some cases, Murphy gets upstaged by his co-stars — namely Halle Berry in her breakthrough role — but it’s refreshing to see him act outside of instigating the action. It’s one of the most “normal” characters of his early career and one that is fondly remembered by many.

BOOMERANG, Halle Berry, Eddie Murphy, 1992

9. Shrek (2001)

For some people, the signature role of Murphy’s career is that of a talking jackass. Over the course of several films and TV specials, Murphy’s loud-mouth, enthusiastic Donkey serves as a key element to the beloved Shrek franchise and a perfect counterbalance to the green ogre’s grumpiness. For a film that would see several cast changes (Chris Farley was the original Shrek, Janeane Garofalo was initially Fiona), Murphy was there from the start.

The film would prove to be a blockbuster and pop (meme?) culture tour de force, earning Murphy some of the best reviews of his career for his deft voice work and further establishing his family film bona fides. At one point after the various sequels, Murphy told TMZ that he “was Shrek’d out,” but there are rumblings that Shrek 5 could potentially reunite the original cast.

SHREK, Eddy Murphy as The Donkey, 2001. ©DreamWorks/courtesy Everett

8. Dreamgirls (2006)

Dreamgirls was viewed by many as Murphy’s “comeback” movie — and a chance for Oscar voters to recognize the comedian as a Serious ActorTM. Indeed, Murphy does good work as Jimmy “Thunder” Early, an R&B singer who undergoes a tragic story arc as he fades from the music scene while his background singers rise to prominence.

However, it was Jennifer Hudson who stole the show with both her voice and her acting chops, winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Murphy won a Golden Globe for his work, but the prevailing thought was his subsequent appearance in Norbit torpedoed any chance with Academy voters.

Dreamgirls (2006) Eddie Murphy and Anika Noni Rose

7. The Nutty Professor (1996)

This remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis film showed what Murphy could do with makeup, madcap characters, and juvenile humor when all done with the right amount of restraint (and ridiculousness). It was a lesson that Murphy failed to apply in future endeavors, but here it all comes together to create a touching comedy where EW’s critic said “you can feel Murphy rediscovering his joy as a performer.”.

Murphy stars as Sherman Klump, an obese professor who creates a serum that allows him to temporarily lose weight. But Klump’s alter ego, Buddy Love, is an egotistic blowhard eager to exist without Sherman’s influence. The “Hercules! Hercules!” dinner scene with the Klump family remains etched in meme culture, and the fact that Murphy plays a whopping seven characters is a feat in itself.

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR

6. Bowfinger (1999)

Murphy loves playing multiple characters, and this Hollywood send-up is one of the shining examples where he pulls it off. The comedian stars as both action star Kit Ramsey, who is unwittingly involved in a mega-low budget film helmed by conman Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin), and Jiff Ramsey, a nerdy look-a-like roped in to help the movie finish filming.

Hollywood satires are a dime-a-dozen, but few have the pedigree of director Frank Oz or Murphy and Martin, the latter of which also doubled as screenwriter. Murphy looks like he’s having a blast here, and he certainly was a good sport, since Kit’s storyline echoes several of Murphy’s well-known peccadillos and personality traits.

BOWFINGER, from left: Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, 1999

5. Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

The Murphy comeback train continued with this raucous Netflix biopic of legendary blue comedian Rudy Ray Moore, aka Dolemite. Once again, there was a smattering of Oscar talk, which would have been well-deserved, but even without awards, it’s a joy to see Murphy engaged and excited about a project.

Moore was a larger-than-life figure, and Murphy is the ideal person to bring his story to a larger audience, given he’s “a comic legend still so electrically, irrepressibly alive that you hardly doubt Ray will rise above it all to become the blaxploitation hero of the title,” said EW’s Leah Greenblatt. The movie revolves around the long and labored production of the 1975 Moore film Dolemite, which gives the movie a Disaster Artist vibe. Crude and rude in the best of ways, Name was a welcome return to form for Murphy’s adult side — and an altogether wonderful biopic.

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME!

4. Trading Places (1983)

In just his second movie, Murphy connected again, this time with a take on the screwball comedies of the 1930s with a decidedly 1980s twist. Murphy stars in Trading Places as Billy Ray Valentine, a beggar who gets wrapped up in a scheme by two conniving brothers that turns Billy Ray into a wealthy man while former golden boy Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) winds up on the streets.

The 21-year-old Murphy still isn’t fully formed as an actor, but his comic timing and ability to ad-lib serves him well, and he has a worthy scene partner in SNL vet Aykroyd to play off. Today, the film serves as a relic to the “Greed is Good” of the ’80s and as an example of the raunchy state of film comedy that would be hard-pressed to make it to the big screen in our PG-13 era.

TRADING PLACES, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, 1983

3. 48 Hrs. (1982)

Very few actors have as auspicious of a debut on their CV as Murphy does with 48 Hrs. Not only did this movie send the young comedian’s career into the stratosphere, it’s also widely acknowledged as the forefather of the “buddy cop” genre, which is still going strong today. And it was truly thrilling for audiences to see a Black character not only stand up to white authority figures but outsmart them.

The movie is built on the chemistry between Murphy and Nick Nolte as a criminal and cop, first with their disdain and eventually a slight nod of respect as they team up to, you guessed it, catch the real bad guys. But instead of trying to shoehorn Murphy into a run-of-the-mill role, director Walter Hill played to his strengths, allowing the comedian to inject some much-needed humor into a dark thriller that’s as enjoyable now as it was groundbreaking over 40 years ago.

48 HOURS, from left: Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, 1982

2. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Consider the number of iconic characters portrayed by Murphy over the years — ones that are unwavering pillars of the pop culture landscape — Axel Foley is up there as one of his most memorable of all time. The Detroit Lions jacket. The unmistakable heh-heh-heh laugh. The colorful insouciance. And to think, the producers wanted Sylvester Stallone for the part! It’s hard to imagine anyone but Murphy as Axel Foley, he just does it that well.

To say this fish-out-of-water action film was a blockbuster is an understatement. For nearly 20 years, it was the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made. Murphy’s star power is at full wattage here, making even the simplest scenes crackle with pure energy. And while there were diminishing returns with the sequels, there’s no doubt this was one of the most important films released in the 1980s (and we’ll hold our breath for the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop 4).

Beverly Hills Cop

1. Coming to America (1988)

By this point in his career, Murphy was printing money for the studios, so it’s not that much of a surprise that Paramount gave him nearly $40 million to make a movie about an African prince finding love in New York City, something that would have been unheard of five years prior. Here, Murphy delivers his best film, one that mixes heart, humor, and a parade of memorable characters.

Murphy shines as Prince Akeem (as well as a cavalcade of other hilarious characters he plays), and he gets a great assist from Arsenio Hall as his loyal sidekick Semmi (and several other characters as well), but it’s the world-building that really lifts the film over the top. More than 30 years later, people are still referencing McDowell’s, Soul Glo, Sexual Chocolate, and King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones)  — all of which are a remarkable testament to the film’s impact. It’s Murphy’s crowning character achievement, and one that still earns major laughs to this day.

COMING TO AMERICA, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, 1988

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