10 Actors Who Just Aren't Trying Hard Enough

5. Eddie Murphy

Career High: Dream Girls Career Low: Meet Dave Some crueller commenters than myself might suggest that Murphy has never been a particularly good acting talent, and that his various commercial successes have been more to do with the appeal of his established persona (in the early days), and a perverse attraction to seeing how bad his films can possibly be (in more recent years). But in Dream Girls Murphy showed that he has ability as a dramatic actor who doesn't have to rely on mugging or over-acting to make an impact. Unfortunately, Murphy seems to have learned too much from the success of his role as Donkey in the Shrek franchise, carrying the over-exuberance that is a necessary part of voice over work back into live action. It also doesn't help that the majority of his chosen roles are in terrible projects that any actor would have to work miracles to make a success of - things like Norbit, Meet Dave, A Thousand Words and the slightly less terrible Tower Heist. But you have to wonder why he's accepting those roles... Either his sense of humour is broken or he feels he needs the work. It can't genuinely be attraction to the roles.
 
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