Displaying items by tag: Being Eddie movie

BEING EDDIE

US, 2025, 103 minutes, Colour.

Eddie Murphy.

Directed by Angus Wall.

Life and career of Eddie Murphy. The framework for this film is a contioused interview with Eddie Murphy himself at the age of 64, looking back at his family, the relationship with his father, his father leaving home but his media background, his relationship with his mother, her second marriage and his stepfather, a true father figure. And a great attachment to his older brother, Charlie, who is interviewed during the film paying tribute to his brother, acting as security guard in later years.

In the later part of the film there is a focus on movie with his 10 children.

Despite his talent being “out there”, it emerges that Eddie Murphy is rather introverted, stepping back in real life, not smoking or drinking, with a basic religious and spiritual sense, confident in himself, realising he has a wide talent for impersonations, stand-up comedy, film comedy, film drama and has fulfilled all those ambitions.

Certainly one of the most attractive features of this documentary is the huge list of actors and comedians, directors, who offer their observations and comments, affirmations of Eddie Murphy. They include: Dave Chappelle, Arsenio Hall, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, John Landis.

The film also traces the line of Murphy’s appearances, ambitions as a teenager, huge admiration for Richard Pryor, breaking through on Saturday Night Live before he was 20, his film appearances, especially 48 hours, the fact that an African-American could be a partner to a white star, then Trading Places and references to his films during the 1980s including Coming to America, and his directing Harlem Nights.

There are various collages of his impersonations, especially the Jewish man, and the wide variety of the family in The Nutty Professor.

The film also traces some ups and downs, his Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls and his comments about not winning, his speech at the Oscars in 1989 making an award and its not being reported in the media, the number of comedies in the 2000s not quite successful.

Then there was his return to Saturday Night Live, the gathering of the stars, the footage from the preparation for the segments, the interactions with the personnel, and then the performance and the response.

Eddie Murphy has continued to entertain, also recorded songs, a number of films for cinemas and television, even up to the time of filming this documentary, 2025.

During the film there is mention that in the 1980s, Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston and Eddie Murphy emerged changing the perception of African-Americans in media, not just music, but in personalities, performances, stand-up comedy, films. They broke through any barriers for those who follow them.