THE GOLDEN CHILD (1986) **1/2 Way back, when Eddie Murphy busted free of the Saturday Night Live corral....because he'd become bigger than SNL, or television, or...hell, damn near bigger than Hollywood itself...I considered this a reasonable opening salvo for what was destined to become one of Hollywood's greatest careers and legacies. The critics typically disagreed, declaring it so bad that they couldn't help but wonder if he wasn't just a bit over-rated. They were wrong about his talent, wrong about the film, but...I didn't expect to be sitting here nearly 30 years later wondering if it isn't the best film of his career (not counting stand up routines). It's cool, he's cool...if he goes out of (any) character from time to time...he's Eddie Murphy , man, his was the right. And then there's Charlotte Lewis, a female lead who has no difficulty holding up her part of the screen, and Victor Wong's funny. And the twin poles of spirituality: Tibet and the Hollywood Hills...maybe the spiritual stuff is a little bit comic book, or lite, but it's all about just illuminating markers anyway, isn't it? I get suspicious when someone knows too much spiritual stuff that they think they can translate in black and white or celluloid. It's a good movie, it's entertaining and it flows...there's darkness and light...but looking back on it there is an unanticipated melancholy born of what should have been.."
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