Eddie Murphy Is Just Fucking With Us Now

March 26th, 2008
Remember when Eddie Murphy was nominated for an Oscar a while ago and he lost to Alan Arkin? No? Well Eddie Murphy does. In fact, judging by his latest multi-Eddie-Murphyed film Meet Dave, it's obvious he's still angry about it and is exacting a terrible revenge on moviegoers (complete with Saturday Night Fever jokes). I imagine that Murphy saw his Oscar nomination as one last lunge toward legitimacy, toward a career that didn't involve fat suit after sweaty fat suit, or haunted mansions, or broods of unruly children. But when, at the last minute, the golden prize was yanked just out of his grasp, Murphy resolved to run full force in the other direction. "They want lowest common denominator Eddie Murphy?" he must have thought, lungs burning to reach the absolute end of comedy, where Meet Dave resides, "I'll give them lowest common denominator Eddie Murphy." And give it to us he did. Twice (at least) in the same movie.

I was disappointed to find out that there are other actors in Meet Dave. This movie is a huge missed opportunity for Eddie Murphy, because in a way it could have been his ultimate show of defiance: Dave could be Eddie Murphy, with a tiny Eddie Murphy inside his brain, who only encounters other people played by Eddie Murphy, and falls in love with a woman played by Eddie Murphy, and drives a car played by Eddie Murphy, and works in a building that is Eddie Murphy, and nothing much happens except for a string of Eddie Murphys. Then, at the end, all the Eddie Murphys gather outside the Eddie Murphy building, under the warm rays from an Eddie Murphy sun, and Dave (the original Eddie Murphy) turns to the camera, holds up an angry fist, smiles brightly and raises his middle finger (played, of course, by Eddie Murphy).