1. The critical consensus on Eddie Murphy's new movie Dolemite Is My Name is that it's a paint-by-numbers biopic redeemed by a strong performance by Murphy. And that's right. But it's a little bit better than that -- Murphy excellent performance alone makes it worth watching.
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3. What gives Dolemite an extra layer which lifts it above being a competent crowdpleaser is the element of autobiography. The film is really Murphy's Apologia Pro Vita Sua, an account of why he picked the life of profane comedy & big tent movies.
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4. No less than Richard Pryor, Rudy Ray Moore is Murphy's precursor & father figure: a vulgar street comedian who draws his energy from the vibrancy of vernacular insults & confrontations. The film is Murphy's tribute the the tradition that made him.
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Agreed, his performance is better than the surrounding film as a whole, almost as if the producers underestimated his abilities and padded it with cameos and other unserious touches that belong in a film of a lower level of quality
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The dropoff from the best of Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, Trading Place) and everything else is so severe. Like, he has no B+ movies. It's all-time or trash.
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Murphy was a comedy god by the age of 22. (I speak for my generation of teenage boys.) Then this golden child kind of flamed out. ("Golden Child".) By then he was only 26. Now it's decades on and, hell, he's still in his 50's. He could still do something truly great.
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Golden child was a good movie.
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