Remember when Eddie Murphy was good? If youre quite a young person, you genuinely might not. There was a time, though, when his CV was stuffed with well-received films. Within a two year period (1982-1984) he appeared in 48 Hrs, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, all of which went down will with the critics and made decent money. His directorial career never had a successful phase like this, though. In fact, hes only directed one film 1989 crime comedy Harlem Nights, which he also wrote and starred in, alongside one of his heroes, Richard Pryor. It must have hit Murphy pretty hard, then, when he realised that this hugely personal passion project had resulted in a rubbish film. Harlem Nights which cast Pryor as the owner of an illegal 1930s nightspot and Murphy as his son was trashed by pretty much every critic going, including the mighty Roger Ebert, who described it as an uninspired cross between Cotton Club and the characters of Damon Runyon, told in cliches so broad you keep waiting for it to poke fun at itself, but it never does. Murphy hasnt directed a movie since, and has suffered a downturn in the success of his acting projects too. Nowadays, audiences only seem to like him if hes reprising the role of Donkey from Shrek.
