Will we ever get the old Eddie Murphy back? For that matter, when exactly did we lose him? It feels like it’s been so long since we’ve seen Murphy be the singular comedy genius that he is, and it doesn’t help that he most recently was seen getting his time wasted on projects like You People and Coming 2 America.
The fact that Coming 2 America was such a shallow dud is especially depressing, considering that the original Coming to America is not only one of his greatest artistic triumphs, and a touchstone for African American culture, but is also the birth of one of Murphy’s longstanding trademarks: playing multiple characters using prosthetics and makeup.
One could argue that this is actually where his career starts to decline, as he became increasingly addicted to and reliant on this practice in order to cover up for how lacking the material of his subsequent films was.
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