Essential Eddie Murphy

3 months ago 12th Aug 10:32

Eddie Murphy is one of comedy cinema's most famous faces and he returns to the big screen this week with Imagine That.

Murphy plays Evan a financial executive who can't stop his career downspiral. But he is invited into his daughter's imaginary world, where solutions to his problems await.

To celebrate the release of Imagine That we take a look back over Murphy's career to uncover which of his comedy movies should be in your collection.

Bowfinger

This lightweight Hollywood satire was one of Eddie Murphy's few '90s films that worked. Frank Oz paired him alongside Steve Martin after Keanu Reeves was unable to play the sidekick role.

In cinemas Bowfinger was steamrolled by Austin Powers 2 and Big Daddy but it bears up to repeat viewings and has become something of a cult film. It actually gets funnier as it goes along which is rare in comedy.

Nutty Professor

This low-brow but very entertaining re-make was a big success and led to series of 'fat-suit' movies. Impressively Murphy plays almost every main character in the film. However, it's his overlooked likeability and soft touch that makes the Professor character (and the film itself) such a watchable comedy.

Eddie Murphy: Raw

Eddie Murphy's amazing stand-up shows (like 83's 'Delirious') took him to Saturday Night Live and the huge success of Beverly Hills Cop.

After this he decided to release one of his 1987 shows as a hilarious feature length film. The result is a fantastic mix of impressions and rants about fame, relationships, white guys dancing and much more. It's all comedy gold and a powerful reminder of why he is the star he is.

Shrek 2

The sequel to Dreamworks animated hit was an even bigger smash hit than the first movie. It’s a quality film with plenty more great material from Eddie Murphy’s dim but funny Donkey. Murphy said himself that "Donkey is a really positive character. He's always looking at the bright side of everything, trying to work it out. A happy-go-lucky donkey."

Coming to America

Trading Places director John Landis crafted one of Murphy’s most successful movies in 1988. The classic fish-out-of-water tale of an African Prince in New York was tailor made for Murphy’s likeable sparky wit. This commercial success was a career peak he would struggle to match for a number of years. It was also the first of many films where he plays multiple roles.

Shrek

Shrek was a behemoth of a movie for many reasons but a lot of the early support for the film can come from Eddie Murphy's likeable and very funny side-kick character Donkey. This first film in the series took four and a half years to make and weirdly the main actors never met each other during filming.