Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Robert Townsend

Writers:

Eddie Murphy (stand-up material)
Eddie Murphy (opening sketch) ...

Release Date:

18 December 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

WARNING! You may be offended if you're black, white, male, female, rich or poor, Bill Cosby, Mr. T or Richard Pryor.

Plot:

Eddie Murphy in a stand-up performance recorded live. For an hour and a half he talks about his favourite subjects: sex and women.

Plot Keywords:

Janet Jackson | Bill Cosby | Madonna | Richard Pryor | Stand Up Comedy

Cast

Eddie Murphy	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tatyana Ali	...	Eddie's sister (sketch)
Billie Allen	...	Eddie's aunt (sketch)
James Brown III	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Eyde Byrde	...	Mrs. Butts (sketch) (as Edye Byrde)
Michelle Davison	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Clebert Ford	...	Uncle Lester (sketch)
Geri Gibson	...	Card Player #2 (sketch)
Birdie M. Hale	...	Aunt Rose (sketch)
J.D. Hall	...	Party Guest (sketch)
Tiger Haynes	...	Card Player #3 (sketch)
Barbara Iley	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Leonard Jackson	...	Uncle Gus (sketch)
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Eddie's uncle (sketch)
Jody Jones	...	Eddie's Cousin (sketch)
John Lafayette	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Davenia McFadden	...	Eddie's Aunt (sketch)
Gwen McGee	...	Eddie's mother (sketch)
Lex Monson	...	Card Player #4 (sketch)
Warren Morris	...	Poetry Reader (sketch)
Deon Richmond	...	Little Eddie (sketch)
Basil Wallace	...	Eddie's Father (sketch)
Damien Dante Wayans	...	Child Running in the house (sketch) (as Damien Wayans)
Ellis Williams	...	Eddie's uncle (sketch)
Carol Woods	...	Eddie's Aunt (sketch)

Also Known As:

Raw (USA) (short title)
Raw: The Concert Movie (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | UK:15 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden - 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Eddie Murphy Productions

Trivia:

The first (and possibly only) movie to get a PG 14 kind of rating in Iceland based only on use of language.

Quotes:

Eddie Murphy: She whined, "What have you done for me *lately*, Eddie?" I was like...”*Bitch*! You was butt-naked on a zebra last month!"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Office: Take Your Daughter to Work Day (#2.18)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

I Shot The Sheriff

Good, but nowhere near Delirious.

Eddie Murphy raw is good. Some might even say that it is very good. Unfortunately, the bar was set so unbelievably high with his previous offering (Eddie Murphy Delirous) that it only comes off as mildly dissapointing. If you haven't seen either, you should consider watching Raw first, even though it was chronolgically second in the series. Raw is funny at times, but the pacing was off. Eddie seems tired in his delivery, and the camera work was a bit shoddy. The camera is zoomed in too far for most of the show and plays catch-up with Eddie for the duration of the set. Part of Eddie's genius is how he uses his whole body to convey his comedy, and the camera robs us of this performance by only showing him from his chest and up.

You can also tell that Eddie has grown up a bit from watching this. He is talking more about relationships and life instead of reliving memories from his childhood (which was the really, really funny stuff from Delirious).

I don't want to discourage anyone from watching this, as it is still one of the best stand up routines of all time. I would put it at number 7 or 8 of all time, but only because Delirious takes up the top 6 spots (yes, it is that funny).