Eddie Murphy

Recently, the criminal action against Bill Cosby reached a verdict:  guilty of sexual assault.  And this is apparently not the first or only victim.  As yet he has not been sentenced, but that hearing will be coming up soon enough.   So we’ve moved beyond mere allegations to an actual conviction by a Pennsylvania jury. 

This reminded me of Eddie Murphy’s earlier comedy routine in which he made fun of Cosby chastising him for using foul language in his comedy act (Raw, 1987).   This is the one which starts with Murphy (as Cosby) declaring that, "I would like to talk to YOUUU [dramatic pause] about the things that you say [another dramatic pause] in your show."  To date, Murphy’s only crime has been an accusation, which fell short of a criminal act, much less a conviction, of picking up a transvestite, Shalimar Seluli, in 1997.  Murphy’s story is that he was only giving the person a ride.  Given his history of heterosexual relationships and no other accusations of similar behavior, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. Think of him as an unsuccessful Uber pioneer.

According to deposition transcripts of civil actions against Cosby for similar behavior, this pattern of behavior goes back to the 1970s.  So it was going on when Cosby criticized Murphy.  SMH.

Anyhow.  I still consider myself a big fan of Eddie Murphy even though his more recent track record of performances has been less than it was back in the 80s, when he was at his peak. 

Basics.  Born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island.  Consider him a New Yorker.  Amen.

Saturday Night Live.  He was on the show from 1980 to 1984 and among its best stars at the time.  His major characters were Buckwheat (“O-tay!”), Gumby, and Velvet Jones.   I’m ambivalent about SNL.  I’d say the quality of the actors generally exceeds the quality of the writing, and Eddie Murphy is no exception.

48 Hours.  His first major role, while he was still on SNL.  He and Nick Nolte try to track down a criminal (James Remar).  Entertaining and worth watching. 

Beverly Hills Cop.  Now there are three, with a fourth due out.  His character is from Detroit but goes to L.A. to solve crimes, assisted by the uptight locals, Judge Reinhold being the more amusing of the two.  Serge was also funny.  I’m not as much a fan of the films as others might be, but I still like them.

Trading Places & Coming to America.  These are my two favorites.  In “Trading Places” he teams up with SNL comrade Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis to take down the Duke Brothers.  In “Coming to America” he teams up with Arsenio Hall to find a suitable bride to be his queen.  Where?  In Queens, of course. 

Stand-up.  I never had the pleasure of attending his shows and being stunned speechless by his bad language, but two of them made it to high quality performances caught on VHS/DVD:  Raw (1987) and Delirious (1983). 

Shrek.   Although his more recent films have been poorly received – though I haven’t seen the “Dr Doolittle” ones – he’s been stellar as Donkey in the “Shrek” films.  Hell, l like Donkey far more than Shrek (who, let's face it, is essentially just a big green asshole), and I’m sure many others feel the same way.

Dreamgirls.  I saw this once and forgot about it.  He actually has a dramatic role he does extremely well, similar to Adam Sandler’s performance in “Spanglish”.   Worth checking out for him alone, though his character is second tier in terms of importance.

Vs. Richard Pryor.   Murphy cites Pryor as a major influence.  For that matter, he also cites Cosby.  As for Pryor, I’ve never been a fan of his and don’t really care for any of his comedy or movies.  He seemed more mean spirited than funny.  I will make one exception and strong recommendation, though:  check out “California Suite” (1978), which has him teamed up against Bill Cosby.  While there are plenty of other stellar teamups in this film, e.g. Maggie Smith (Professor McGonegall from “Harry Potter”) & Michael Caine, Jane Fonda & Alan Alda,  Walter Matthau & Denise Galik, I thought the Cosby vs. Pryor matchup was the funniest.   

Wayne's World

Recently I revisited the pair of movies by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, based on their Saturday Night Live sketches.  I recall we really enjoyed the first one when it came out, and were “eh, not so much” impressed by the second one.  After some time, and spate of similar films by Myers over the years, I decided to reanalyze them.

 First off, I did like the original SNL sketches, which established the characters, their catch phrases: 1) negating a sentence by simply adding “NOT” at the end, after a dramatic pause; 2) contradicting a “no way” with a “way”; 3) indicating immediate and embarrassing arousal to a female by “scwhing”; 4) humiliating less cool guests (usually older adults, teachers, etc.) by asking them “a [unpleasant word] says what?”; and 5) indicating an improbable outcome is as likely as “monkeys might fly out of my butt.”  I also liked the cameos, like Aerosmith.  Wayne: “No way!” Joe Perry: “Way!”  Or their “top 10 reasons” they were bummed about the fall of communism, which included “Katarina Witt no longer ‘forbidden fruit’”.  Overall, fairly consistent quality, but to translate an SNL sketch to a full movie was not an obvious idea.  

 But they pulled it off.

 Wayne’s World (1992).  Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) lives in Aurora, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago – he lives with his parents.  His best friend is Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), a shy, nerdy guy who is basically Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson.  His show comes to the attention of Benjamin (Rob Lowe) who angles to take it over, in cahoots with a sponsor, Noah (Brian Doyle Murray, Bill Murray’s brother).  Myers also befriends Cassandra (Tia Carrere), a babacious bassist with local band Crucial Taunt. 

            Eventually Myers chafes at the requirements of honoring sponsor commitments (similar to Burt Reynolds’ bristling at fast food promotion in “Stroker Ace”) and is even more disturbed by Benjamin’s obvious designs on Cassandra, under the auspices of assisting her musical career.  Along the way Wayne and Garth meet Alice Cooper backstage at a concert in Milwaukee (thank you for the history lesson, Alice). 

            The movie is wrapped up whimsically and arbitrarily (but not completely implausibly) to the heroes’ benefit.  And there was much rejoicing.

            High points?

            A.         “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Garth’s Pacer.

            B.         Ed O’Neill as the grumpy Stan Mikita chef.

            C.         “Stairway” & other guitar in-jokes.

            D.         Alice Cooper cameo

            E.         “Laverne & Shirley” montage in Milwaukee

As I said, now having seen “Love Guru” and three “Austin Powers” films, Myers’ “aren’t I funny?” style has long worn thin.  Here’s it’s certainly in abundance, but back then we hadn’t yet maxxed out on it.  Bottom line: the charm has worn off, but it’s still a classic.

Wayne’s World 2 (1993).  Wayne now has his own place (some sort of loft in a building).  Garth pursues a new “mystery woman” (Kim Basinger).  In a very hokily conjured plot, Wayne has mystic dreams of Jim Morrison telling him to stage a music festival, “Waynestock”, including Aerosmith and many others.  Needless to say, even with the help of a Tommy Chong-like English roadie, Del, this whole project is far beyond Wayne’s non-existent skills as a promoter.  To make matters worse, he has a new competitor for Cassandra’s affections: Bobby (Christopher Walken), a slick record mogul who is wise to Wayne’s petty “a sphincter says what?” jokes. 

Yet again, however, the day is saved by mere plot contrivance (“you didn’t think we’d end the movie like that, did you?”) but here the outcome is far more implausible than the first movie’s.  Is it as good as the first one?  Not a chance.  Does it blow chunks?  Not really.  Worth watching if you have any positive inclination towards the first one.

SCTV

“…Thursday at 9!”

 I suppose this entry could be called “Canadian TV”, although it only concerns one particular variety thereof.  I mentioned earlier that American TV and movies are the only ones in the world with any reasonable expectation of being exported to foreign markets.  The TV industries of most other countries, even England and its BBC, are primary inwardly-oriented with little pretense of appealing to foreigners as a broad category (leaving aside foreigners with some particular preference, e.g. married to a Brazilian so you watch TV Globo novellas). 

 I’ll also leave aside Canadian TV actors: Michael J. Fox and William Shatner being the big two.

 So SCTV is arguably Canada’s most important TV export.  It ran from 1976 to 1984, for six seasons, and was eventually picked up by NBC.  It pretended to be an independent network.  Some of the “sketches” (which I found the weakest) were intra-studio politics between Johnny LaRue (Candy), Guy Cabellero (Flaherty) and others.  If you watch closely, you’ll notice that practically every preview for a show promises the show’s airtime to be… Thursday at 9 p.m.

 Cast: John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Tony Rosato, Robin Duke, Harold Ramis, and Martin Short.  These names probably sound familiar!

 I liked Mel’s Rock Pile, featuring Levy as a hilariously unhip music show host (similar to his dad role in the “American Pie” films) – and the Russian TV spoof.
 Another survivor: Martin Short’s Ed Grimley character made the transition to Saturday Night Live.  Tony Rosato and Robin Duke also went on to SNL. 

 They sometimes parodied Hollywood types, with O’Hara as Lola Heatherton, Flaherty as Sammy Maudlin, and Levy as Bobby Bittman.  I thought these were just as weak as the intra-network dramas.  The impressions were the best: Dave Thomas as Lee Iacocca and Bob Hope, Andrea Martin as Barbra Streisand, Rick Moranis as Dave Cavett, Merv Griffin, or Woody Allen (surely his talents were wasted in the “Honey I Shrunk…” movies), Joe Flaherty as Gregory Peck (in “Taxi Driver”: Are you talking to me?).   Despite the low-budget look – which was all part of the charm and fun – the cast was incredibly talented and the writing was quality, in fact competitive with SNL.

 By far the most famous “skits” which survived were the Bob & Doug McKenzie “Great White North” segments, which even resulted in a full movie, “Strange Brew”.  Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) sat on a couch drinking Molson and generally acting stupid.  They had their own Canadian equivalent of Valley Girl slang, mainly to end sentences with “eh”, greet each other with “Good day”, and accuse each other being “hosers”.   The funny thing about this was that at the time (early 80s) we were going to high school in Paris, and several of our best friends were Canadian (all from Ottawa).   They did not talk like this, but they did find B&DM to be amusing anyway…so long as we didn’t let on that we thought these were typical Canadians (…eh).  Geddy Lee ended up helping them do “Take Off”. These skits were due to Canadian TV regs requiring “Canadian” programming.  Aside from Mounties and lumberjacks, what more could they do?  Well, they also parodied Canadian TV with such items as Monday Night Curling and Magnum P.E.I. (Prince Edward Island).