Is the funny Eddie Murphy back?

It's hard to watch Murphy's new film, 'Tower Heist,' and not be reminded of the Eddie Murphy of old...

Nov 2, 2011

By Mike Ryan
From Moviefone

Remember the scene in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ when Axel Foley cons his way into a hotel room by pretending he’s a reporter for Rolling Stone? He fools the desk clerk into giving him a room by stating that he was going to write an article called “Michael Jackson Sits on Top of the World.”

Remember when Eddie Murphy was sitting on top of the world? It’s fitting that Murphy’s comeback interview, of sorts, appeared in that same publication. Sadly, the full interview isn’t online, but it’s a quite fascinating read and comes highly recommended (that is, if you still remember how and where to purchase print publications). I mean, any time Murphy discusses ‘SNL’ — a topic he loves to avoid — you’ve got yourself a special interview. But there was one tidbit that really caught my attention.

It’s hard to watch Murphy’s new film, ‘Tower Heist,’ and not be reminded of the Eddie Murphy of old. You know, the one before all of the family films. Before box-office bombs like ‘The Adventures of Pluto Nash’ and ‘Meet Dave.’ What happened to the Eddie Murphy of old? In the Rolling Stone interview, Murphy admits he never does his trademark laugh any more because, “it started out as a real laugh … then there were a couple of times where I laughed because I knew it would make people laugh.” I can’t help but wonder, Is that when it all changed? When Murphy transformed from a guy who is funny to a guy who did things because others would think it was funny?

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