48 Hrs.
Character: Reggie Hammond | Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime | Year: 1982 | Director: Walter Hill
48 Hrs. from 1982 makes the debut on the screen and Eddie Murphy was taking the rawness from his stand up shows to the pictures. The dynamic between him and Nick Nolte is marvelous and theirs different personalities in combination with solving a crime has been copied dozens of times since. Eddie Murphy feels very fresh and the episode in the country club is a highpoint of his vital and fun style. The balance of jokes and conflict makes it among the greatest action movies. An inferior sequel to Another 48 Hrs. was released in 1990.
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Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1961. For the masses he first become a familiar face by his regular appearances in the TV-show Saturday Night Live.
Deliver it raw
Eddie Murphy made a name for himself as a stand up comedian, not afriad for deliver some raw jokes from the stage. In the first film his stand up character would shine through wheras his later film would have a somethat sleeker touch.
Trading Places
Character: Billy Ray Valentine | Genre: Comedy | Year: 1983 | Director: John Landis
Trading Places explores the motif of the contrast between the privileged white man and black man as a subject. What lacks some rawness from Eddie Murphy is a child adapted comedy that delivers some silly jokes among the better ones. Never the less does it entertain well and the story about two older wealthy men making a socially experiment based on a question about what are most decisive, genes or environment is enjoyable.
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Murphy as Axel Foley cruising Beverly Hills.
Beverly Hills Cop
Character: Axel Foley | Genre: Crime, Comedy | Year: 1984 | Director: Martin Brest
Beverly Hills Cop became some more glossy than 48 Hrs. and held a classic soundtrack by Harold Faltermayer. Two sequels were made in 1987 and 1994. In all three movies Eddie Murphy plays – probably his most famous character – Axel Foley a Detroit cop that by some reason have to travel to Hollywood chasing criminal gangs.
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Beverly Hills Cop II
Character: Axel Foley | Genre: Crime, Comedy | Year: 1987 | Director: Tony Scott
Eddie Murphy is back as his most character, Axel Foley, and return to the glitter and luxury in Beverly Hills. The motifs are as in all three movies revenge for a murdered friend or police chief. Just as the first movie became the sequal a box office and both deserved the audience for the entertainment delivered. Beverly Hills Cop III on the other hand would be short of the quality that belonged to the previous films.
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Late career
The movies that followed with Eddie Murphy as the main character were also getting bad responses by the critics and his later career hasn’t been all that impressing. One of the movies that get a positive reception was The Nutty Professor (1996). The movie have familiar themes remaning of for example The Mask with Murphy’s character playing some kind of a Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-person – after experiments he finally succeeded in became thin … but only for a sometime. The makeup is marvelous and Murphy’s ability to play a fat professor is also impressing, but the story isn’t quite that impressing and the jokes not seldom cheep.
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has made a name for himself as an action hero without all the muscles and martial art kicks.
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passionate acting in many classic roles have made him an established actor with an somewhat eccentric persona.
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