Mille mots

Eddie has been involved in a lot of crap since the release of "Raw". It's almost as if he felt a debt to society and his family to start making cheesy, family films. The results have been under-whelming to say the least.

This is Eddie's best film in many years. The plot is ridiculous as with much of what he's been associated with of late, but Eddie is on top of his game here. This film is right up there with Eddie's best over the last 2 decades WHICH ISN'T saying much, but it does make it worth the price of admission at the very least. That's to say it's nearly as good as "The Nutty Professor" or "Boomerang", but a clear notch above films like "Bowfinger" and "Norbit".

He's genuinely funny here, but the script isn't all that funny overall. He carries much of the weight with his expressions and physical comedy.

The other saving grace is the heart of the film. The film does carry nice message, and tugs the heartstrings for those who make the time investment on this one.

I was surprised, but that might have had as much to do with my expectations as it did anything else.

I can marginally recommend this for those who like a light-hearted comedy.

Eddie still has it! He does! You get glimpses of it here. All us ole-timers are still waiting for him to tackle a great project with an "R" rating, but this film is far better than it's score here or anywhere else.

Not that I blame the audience - but it seems as if the reputation of Eddie making bad films has put a seriously negative spin on what is actually a decent little film here. Let's not trample on the guy.

My biggest gripe was with one particular scene where the CGI is over-blown and unnecessary but other than that, this film wasn't bad at all.

Scoring it exactly the same as another rental from yesterday, "Thin Ice", 65/100, and rounding it to 7. I don't feel bad about it either.

Not nearly as bad as I had anticipated.

You might like this if you liked: Yes Man(slightly better or even), The Nutty Professor(slightly better or even), and Bruce Almighty(slightly better).

I have to assume that the people who rated this one below a 5 were expecting the standard slapstick fare. This isn't going to go down as a classic film, but it kind of picks up from "Holy Man" from 1998 in that the movie is about an unexpected encounter causing someone to re- evaluate and embrace their life.

Murphy does a pretty good job straddling comedic and dramatic acting. It's more like one or the other rather than both in the same scene, but it's not bad. The supporting cast is pretty good as well. The writing is decent enough.

What made me give this a 7 instead of a 6 is the ending. You pretty much know what's coming - that Murphy's character will resolve the issues which keep him from being happy. But the last 8 minutes or so are just really well done. Murphy's warmth really shines and you can't help but smile. And for that ending, I gave it an extra star.

Put this in the "feel-good comedy" category.

I cannot understand why someone would rate this so poorly and call it "an abomination" of a film. These people must like to watch depressing or utter brain dead movies, over heart warming, feel good movies.

Granted this film is not perfect, there are definitely some unnecessary and quite stupid scenes, but this does not detract from the overall moral of the story which makes a powerful philosophical point - a point we must all contemplate.

Eddie Murphy is his funny usual self and the rest of the cast do a great job. Also the cinematography is excellent with some remarkable scenes.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone looking for a meaningful movie. A must watch for all who are positive.

Peace.

This movie could have been a winner – much like The Golden Child – for Eddy Murphy. The premise for this film could have gone there – mystical, imaginative...the plot line lent itself to such success. However, rather than using Murphy's awesome comedic talent, the makers of this picture resorted to reducing him to grimaces, hideous facial contortions – none of which were amusing at all. Granted there was a reason in the movie for Murphy's character not to be able to talk for awhile, but he could easily have performed versions of charades, used eye rolls and raised eyebrows and brought the house down. However, that didn't happen. It was all over the top and not funny at all. The only character in this picture to do justice to his part was Clark Duke playing Murphy's assistant. This wasn't enough to make the film a success. Such a waste and frankly, I'm rather tired of being disappointed when I go to the movies. Especially to an Eddy Murphy film. I expect more.

You will find reviews here using thousands of words in order to flame this movie, clearly they didn't understand it. You will know why after seeing it.

People are disappointed because they wanted to see an Eddy Murphy style comedy, the problem is this ain't a comedy it is a drama with a very good message. I loved Eddy Murphy in his first movies, he was a fast talking joke machine, he still is but the jokes are the same and comedy has moved on. For that matter I didn't like the comedy portion of this movie too much but I was deeply touched by the drama version. The solution to his problem is right in front of him and anyone who is willing to give this movie a fair chance will see it too and exactly this is what made the movie so strong because he is doing it all wrong and you want to scream at the screen and tell him what to do and how to do it.

In my opinion Eddy Murphy gave a partially brilliant performance. As I said I didn't enjoy the comedy too much, it was some sort of best of Eddy Murphy but when you are willing to accept that this is actually a drama and understand the comedy part as the metaphor that it is you will love this movie and maybe pull something valuable out of the message. For the concept of the message Eddy Murphy was the best possible actor for this role.