DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1998) *1/2 My problem isn't that he went from Eddie Murphy Raw to this. Eddie was always a multi-faceted talent. Happy as a dog in the sunshine, supremely confident, as naturally charismatic as any actor I can think of...Eddie Murphy was probably the most gifted actor to ever come out of the Saturday Night Live stable, and I haven't forgotten about John Belushi. So he should be perfectly cast as a Black Doctor Dolittle in a pro-individualism, anti-corporate morality play. Should have been a masterpiece. But Eddie's not so confident any more, and he's clearly not as happy. He's unable to kick it into that overdrive that used to come on every time he smiled. He's not terrible-he's a good actor-but that's so much less than we still have every right to expect. Instead of carrying an excellent cast (Ossie Davis, Raven, Kristen Wilson) with him into aesthetic hyperspace they mainly just have to stand around smiling. Eddie Murphy was never about making people smile, man, he was about making people spit up their popcorn and fall out of their seats and piss in their fucking pants because they were laughing so hard. Smiling's cool, but it's got nuthin' on that. The funniest parts of the film are the more enthusiastic vocal offerings of Chris Rock on behalf of the guinea pig.
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