The Cinecultist's Weekly DVD Pick: Murphy Mania Edition

Trading Places & Coming to America
(directed by John Landis)

Norbit
(directed by Brian Robbins)

After Eddie Murphy's Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Dreamgirls last year, there was a long (and seemingly unauthorized) profile on Murphy's career in Entertainment Weekly. Looking at the whole span from the highs of his days on SNL to his mega-fame from 48 HRS and Beverly Hills Cop to the lows of Vampire in Brooklyn and that ill-conceived pop album was pretty intriguing reading. While he is obviously talented, sometimes it's tough to figure out exactly what Murphy is thinking when he takes on a project. Prime example his follow-up to Dreamgirls the very broad comedy Norbit, which comes out on DVD this week. However, if you're in the mood for a trip down the smoother, better paved portions of Murphy Memory Lane, rent the earlier and lesser known comedies Trading Places and Coming to America, both which get the special edition treatment on new discs this week.

Companion pieces of a kind, with reoccurring appearances by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, they're both solid, entertaining comedies about class and wealth. They each feature a few sweet, slightly sentimental moments in addition to some interesting '80s social commentary. In Trading Places from '83, Murphy's a loud-mouth homeless dude in Philadelphia plucked off the street by two rich jerks, the Duke brothers (Ameche and Bellamy) who install him in their corporation in place of their snooty underling Dan Aykroyd. Then in '88, Murphy played the spoiled African Prince Akeem who moves to Queens incognito with his sidekick Semmi (Arsenio Hall) in search of an American girl to call his Queen. While this is the beginning of Murphy's obsession with playing multiple characters in increasingly more elaborate disguises, it was still sort of charming back then. After rewatching both of these excellent movies, you'll be hoping the best days of Murphy's career aren't already behind him.

Other movies or TV making their way to a home viewing format this week include the horror flick The Messengers, Seinfeld's Season Eight and a special edition disc of Meatballs.