The world of cinema might have some good news to celebrate today: Eddie Murphy might just be leaving family films behind him...
One of the most disheartening sights in modern day movies has been watching a genuine comedy genius, Mr Eddie Murphy, hawking his way around a collection of increasingly piss-poor family movies. It started in earnest when Dr Dolittle hit big, off the back of his then career-reviving hit, The Nutty Professor. And since then, if there’s a crap family movie script doing the rounds in Hollywood, there’s a fair chance it hit Eddie Murphy’s desk first.
The past decade has not been good to him. Meet Dave. Imagine That (which actually wasn’t too bad, but still utterly bombed). The Haunted Mansion. Daddy bloody Day Care. The Adventures Of Pluto Nash. Bluntly, there’s a generation of moviegoers who don’t actually appreciate that Murphy was once of the funniest men on the planet.
Granted, he’s lent his voice talents to Donkey in Shrek, but even that character paled as the franchise machine continued to churn out regular sequel after regular sequel.
But could the succession of recent flops that Murphy has suffered got the message across to him? Chatting to Rolling Stone, ahead of the release of his new film, Tower Heist, Murphy has given the broadest hint to date that his family movie days are behind him.
"I don't have any interest in that right now. There's really no blueprint, but I'm trying to do some edgy stuff”, he said, to the relief of lots of human beings. “And I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I'm content to sit here and play my guitar all day. I always tell people now that I'm a semi-retired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I'll go do some work to break the boredom up."
As long as it’s not Daddy Day Care 3, Meet Dave Again, or Imagine More Of That, then that sounds like a far better plan.
Rolling Stone
Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.