Eddie Murphy: Raw

Imagine: You produce the taping of the show for, let's be generous, for about 1 Million US$. We're talking six to eight cameras. Then you take the show to the theaters and gross a cool 50.000.000 ! This can only work, when you tape Eddie Murphy on stage in on of the best comedy shows ever! Saw it live in L.A. What a great timing the guy has. Get a chance and see the VHS (where is the DVD?) and you'll have the best of times, while you're at it, grab a "momma burger" and a beer.

I have grown up to know Eddie Murphy as the funny guy who plays multiple people in one movie, but I also knew that some time ago he was a comedian to which no ground was sacred and who wore some crazy outfits. Luckily I was able to watch one of his classic comedy routines recently, Raw.

The greatest part of Eddie's routine was his impersonations. The voice, mannerisms and stuff the people speak about are all done perfectly. Another great thing is that he tells the humorous truth about things like relationships and how people act and think.

This movie/performance proves that Eddie Murphy is one of the greatest comedians out there. It is definitely one, for all those mature enough, to see. I will be looking out for more old Eddie Murphy stand up DVDs and I hope he goes back to his old ways.

I'm not kidding, my stomach is sore from all the laughing. After a brief sketch that serves as a lead-in and to some extent, a setup, this is 77 minutes of pure and gradually increasing hilarity(and there is actually insight to a ton of what he says). This and Hot Fuzz(which had the greater effect on me, but you really can't compare these) are the only two things where I've ever felt like I might croak, that my (23-year old and trim as of writing this, mind you) body might be overwhelmed from my enjoying the crap out of what I was seeing and hearing. I love Murphy when he is allowed to do what he does best, and not asked to do it in an irritating manner. The man has a machine-gun for a mouth(in the sense that it can fire off absolutely lethal verbal projectiles at such a speed that counting them soon becomes an exercise in pointless behaviour) and he can behave arrogantly as well as self-deprecating(if the scales aren't necessarily equal). His impersonations are excellent, and Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor(R.I.P.), Michael Jackson(R.I.P.), Africans, Jamaicans, Italians, etc. must have been embarrassed, if they don't have(or had in those 2 cases) a sense of humor about themselves. This is a performance by Eddie, and like other stand-uppers, he ties it together and repeats certain punchlines. The whole thing keeps to an astounding pace(with very few exceptions), and flies by. This is filmed and edited with skill, evident especially in the fact that you don't notice it; it doesn't draw attention to itself, and off the man. There are stereotypes in this, and it is in general quite controversial. The main focus is on relationships, women and sex, though he does talk about gay people, us whites and our inability to dance, and there is a brief bit of bodily function jokes. There is a constant stream of strong language in this. I recommend this to any fan of the comic the way I would a hot meal to someone hungry. 8/10

Live in New York, Eddie Murphy may well look quite ridiculous in his purple jumpsuit but he holds the stage really well in this large arena. It goes without saying that his material is relentlessly foulmouthed and occasionally offensive but it rarely bothered me because he does manage to be consistently funny throughout the show. His topics are mostly in the realm of relationships in regards sex and women generally. This worried me a little bit because these topics hardly offered much in the way of originality but actually he did really well with it.

It wasn't that he avoided clichés (because he doesn't) but more that he manages to inject energy into his whole show. At times his material is very strong but even when he is being obvious and crude, his energy lifts it, engages the audience and makes it feel better than it is. I wasn't rolling with laughter all the time but I did really enjoy the show so, even when I didn't laugh at some bits, it wasn't really a problem but he was generally still amusing. Director Townsend doesn't really help him by having the camera tight on him so much either; Murphy's energy is in his whole body so the close shots reduce this somewhat – plus the whole setup makes it hard to appreciate the audience being in the room.

Overall though a funny and energetic show from Murphy. It isn't a classic by any means and his material is hardly original but he has stage presence and energy and that helps a lot. Maybe too crude and foulmouthed to be to everyone's tastes but if it is your thing then it is worth a look.

Offensive, crude, infantile, empty. Sure, 'Raw' is all these things. It's also laugh-out- loud funny. This is Eddie Murphy at his best, when he still knew how to make people laugh. He takes the stage and commands for the duration of the film. He's so in control and confident it's amazing. I saw it again recently. It aged well.