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Did Eddie Murphy really need to make "Beverly Hills Cop III" in 1994? It depends on how you view his 1992 and just how down you think he was before he made his purported comeback that year with "Boomerang." The Reginald Hudlin-directed romantic comedy returned Murphy to critical favor, but, commercially, its $70 million domestic gross was less than the $80 million take of "Another 48 Hrs.," which was the disappointment that hastened the need for Murphy's return-to-form (even though it and "Boomerang" both received A- Cinemascores). Murphy's other 1992 effort, "The Distinguished Gentleman," was a legit misstep dogged by poor reviews and a paltry $47 million domestic gross.

Aside from "The Distinguished Gentleman", Murphy seemed to be in good performance shape coming off "Boomerang" -- he just wasn't the launching pad for $100 million-grossing blockbusters that he'd been in the 1980s. Obviously, Murphy and his then home studio, Paramount, were eager to catch fire again,...

Eddie Murphy's 2002 film The Adventures of Pluto Nash received harsh criticism and a 5% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie's failure was evident in its $7 million worldwide gross and its reputation as one of the biggest box office bombs. Despite having a star-studded cast and a $100 million budget, the film was panned for its corny and misguided storyline.

Eddie Murphy recalls the harshest review he received of his 2002 flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Murphy took a break from family films to team with City Slickers director Ron Underwood for Pluto Nash, a $100 million sci-fi/comedy, co-starring Rosario Dawson, Randy Quaid and John Cleese. Despite the movies heavyweight talent and enormous budget, critics abhorred the effort, as reflected in the films 5% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences stayed away in droves, resulting in a $7 million worldwide gross, and a reputation as one of the biggest-ever box office bombs.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Frank Capra: Mr. America details the life of influential filmmaker Capra, known for award-winning films from the 1930s and 1940s. Capra's works, including the classic It's a Wonderful Life, have made a lasting impact on society and influenced filmmakers like Spielberg and Sandler. Capra's films have been adapted and referenced globally, showcasing his undeniable influence on cinema. Watch Frank Capra: Mr. America now.

Frank Capra: Mr. America is a new documentary detailing the life and achievements of one of the worlds most influential filmmakers. Capra was a director known for an impressive string of award-winning films made in the 1930s and 1940s, and whose work includes comedies, political films, and Christmas classics alike. The documentary was made by Matthew Wells in his feature documentary debut.

Screen Rant is happy to present a clip from Frank Capra: Mr. America. The clip details...

Sheryl Lee Ralph has signed with CAA for representation.

An Emmy, Critics Choice and Independent Spirit Award winner, Ralph is currently seen starring in ABC’s hit comedy series “Abbott Elementary” opposite Quinta Brunson. In 2022, she won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, becoming the first black woman in 35 years to take home the trophy.

In 2023, she was nominated for her second Emmy Award, a Golden Globe and a Film Independent Spirit Award for her portrayal of straight-laced kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, winning the Critics Choice Award for best supporting actor in a comedy series.

Ralph made her feature film debut at 20 years old, opposite Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier in “A Piece of the Action.” She has also appeared in “The Mighty Quinn” opposite Denzel Washington, “Mistress” with Robert De Niro, “The Distinguished Gentleman” with Eddie Murphy, “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” opposite...

I’m not overly fond of politics. Given a choice, I’d rather talk food, or faraway places.

But I do have a weakness for political films — or, more precisely, films about political campaigns.

The best of them have been sharp, often witty, and self-aware to the point of cynicism. Bulworth. The Campaign. Wag the Dog. Primary Colors. Dave.

As a genre, they tend toward satire, if not broad comedy. In one of my favorites, David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis, two inimical American political consultants corrupt Bolivian politics by transplanting our worst habits to foreign shores. It’s painfully funny stuff.

Where serious, the campaign genre tends to be confessional. With The Ides of March, progressive filmmaker George Clooney, adapting a play be Beau Willimon, unmasked Faustian bargains behind the gleaming ideals of a “good” politician in a hard-fought Ohio primary.

Should we show it at the White House,...

As Hollywood neared the midpoint of the 1980s, the industry had abandoned the risk-taking ethos of the 1970s and unabashedly embraced formula filmmaking. Stars still mattered, but the pitch was king. Studio executives keen on becoming their generation's Jack Warner, Daryl Zanuck and Louis B. Mayer were through humoring unpredictable auteurs like Martin Scorsese and Hal Ashby. They wanted can't-miss high-concept projects powered by high-wattage stars that could play for months on end in theaters because, despite the skyrocketing value of home video and pay cable channels, theatrical was still king.

"Beverly Hills Cop" traversed a rocky path from inception to production, but producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer doggedly developed and re-developed the project until they paired a 23-year-old comedy superstar with a once-hot director who'd two years prior gotten himself fired off "WarGames." The particulars of the fish-out-of-water plot shifted many times over the years (it was nearly...

Jonathan Reynolds, a playwright and screenwriter whose string of film credits in the 1980s included the comedies Micki & Maude, Switching Channels, My Stepmother Is an Alien and the notorious flop Leonard Part 6, died Oct. 27 of organ failure at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, N.J. He was 79.

His death was announced by family to The New York Times.

A prolific Off Broadway playwright, Reynolds stage works included the acclaimed 1982 Hollywood satire Geniuses, produced by Playwrights Horizons and based on the journals Reynolds wrote during his three months on location in the Philippines to observe the infamously difficult filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

An intended book about the making of the film never made it to print, but his satirical play was a hit with both audiences and critics. And Reynolds would have an even more lasting connection to Apocalypse Now: He contributed, uncredited, a line of...

The 7th annual Lmgi Awards have named Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and The Last Black Man in San Francisco as its film location winners.

The awards spotlight international features, television, and commercials in which the creative use of filming locations set the tone, enrich the character and enhance the narrative.

The Location Managers Guild International /Lmgi announced the winners in an online event hosted by Isaiah Mustafa, honoring outstanding creative contributions of location professionals in film, television and commercials from around the globe, and recognizing outstanding service by film commissions for their support “above and beyond” during the production process.

Celebrating the theme “2020 Vision: We See It First,” this year’s Lmgi Awards broke with tradition in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ceremony was presented on a digital platform and streamed to a worldwide audience.

“At a time when the industry is shifting under our collective feet,...

Leonard Goldberg, a former president of 20th Century Fox and Emmy-winning film and television producer whose credits include Blue Bloods, T.J. Hooker, Family and Fantasy Island, among others, has died. He was 85. Goldberg died from injuries resulting from a fall December 4, his publicist told Deadline.

Goldberg’s long list of TV credits stretches from numerous 1970s telefilms through crime dramas The Rookies, S.W.A.T. and Starsky and Hutch to Gavilan, Hart to Hart and Paper Dolls. He also was an executiv producer on the 2011 TV version of Charlie’s Angels.

Goldberg produced such films as Charlie’s Angels (2000), Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Double Jeopardy (1999), The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) and SpaceCamp (1986).

Goldberg shared three Outstanding Drama Series Emmy noms for Family, which aired on ABC from 1976-80, and won an Emmy for the drama special Something About Amelia in 1984. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in...

As The Fate of The Furious enters theaters, a ranking of its 1st Assistant Director’s oeuvre.

Friday brings us the release of The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in The Fast & The Furious series. Thus, there could be no better time to look back and rank the previous works of one of the films most notable craftsmen, a man whose name is legendary. I speak of course of First Assistant Director Frank Capra III.

Capra III is the grandson of director Frank Capra, a Hollywood legend whose work includes It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It’s a Wonderful Life. How did that pedigree fare two generations removed? This exhaustive look at Mr. Capra III’s 1st Ad career will tell the tale.

While the film’s director often gets the lion’s share of the credit, the First Ad is one of the most critical positions on set. In...

Once Upon a Time is officially going Greek.

An ABC spokesperson confirms for TVLine that relative newcomer Jonathan Whitesell and Hannibal‘s Kacey Rohl have been cast as Hercules and Meg, to appear in the 13th episode of Season 5, titled “Labor of Love.”

The castings come on the heels of TVLine reporting that Ally McBeal‘s Greg Germann will recur this spring as “The Distinguished Gentleman,” which some have speculated is code for Hades.

RelatedOnce Upon a Time: Greg Germann Cast as Devilish Mystery Man

Additionally, TVLine has learned that Bailee Madison (The Good Witch, Trophy Wife) will reprise her...

ABC’s Once Upon a Time has cast one helluva role for the second half of Season 5.

TV vet Greg Germann (Ally McBeal) has landed the heavily recurring role of what is for now being dubbed “The Distinguished Gentleman,” TVLine has learned exclusively.

RelatedNovember Sweeps: Scoop on Once Upon a Time, Castle and More

ABC would confirm no further details on the character or his storyline, but the casting call described him as “a mysterious figure with god-like powers who is always clad in a perfectly tailored suit,” someone who can “strike fear into people just by being friendly” and...

Believe it or not, there was a time when Eddie Murphy wasn't just funny -- he was groundbreaking.

Yes, before starring in films like "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," "Meet Dave" and "Norbit," Murphy was the king of X-rated humor that focused on taboos like race and sexuality (all pretty normal from a comic nowadays).

So with his lighthearted "A Thousand Words" opening this weekend, let’s look back at his early work that didn't just pave the way for comics like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, but made Eddie Murphy one of the funniest people on the planet.

'48 hrs.' (1982)

After spending four years becoming a huge star on "Saturday Night Live," Murphy moved to feature films, starring opposite Nick Nolte in this gruff comedy that pushed the boundaries of jokes about race. Murphy, playing a wisecracking convict who gets a 48-hour pass back into society to help...

If you grew up watching Eddie Murphy chomping on a cigar as Gumby or getting gunned down in a hail of bullets as Buckwheat on Saturday Night Live, or better yet, dropping F-bombs as the cool-cat star of 48 Hrs., Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop, it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that there’s a whole generation out there that has no clue just how funny and dirty he once was.When they think of Eddie Murphy — if they even think of him at all — it’s as the donkey from the kiddie franchise Shrek, or...

Just Another F-ing Observer - Jafo #12: When Did Eddie Murphy Stop Giving A Sh**? Watching Eddie Murphy in his latest picture Tower Heist I started to wonder just who was I looking at? Don't get me wrong, Murphy provides a great number of laughs in what is basically a poorly conceived comedy. Yet, even he doesn't have his heart in the picture, giving a performance that suggests the mega star is tired and worn out. I didn't go into this film expecting the Eddie Murphy of old; it has afterall been nearly thirty years since he burst onto the silver screen and essentially changed cinema with 48 Hrs. In 1982, Murphy was a young comedian fresh off of TV's Saturday Night Live whose infectious energy stole the thunder in what was intended to be a vehicle for Nick Nolte. Murphy was not only young, but he was hungry, a fresh face...

If you don't count Bowfinger, it's been 19 years since Eddie Murphy made a funny live-action film, and that's only if you count The Distinguished Gentleman and Boomerang (I do). If you don't, add another 4 years to take you back to Coming to America.

That's one long dry streak. Can Brett Ratner interrupt it? In a Ben Stiller movie? It seems doubtful, and the trailer doesn't offer much hope.

Inspired by tonight’s ActNow New Voices In Black Cinema Film Festival closing night throwback screening of Wendell B Harris Jr’s Chameleon Street, I thought about other films that centered around black men (or women) who, using primarily their intellect and wit, con their way into what we could deem white Americana, and do so successfully… mostly anyway; near perfect cons of the white-collar variety.

I couldn’t think of many others. I was almost immediately reminded of Will Smith in 6 Degrees of Separation, based on a play of the same name, about a charismatic, young, gay black man who cons his way into the homes of several of New York’s elite – all of them white – using, much like Douglas street in Chameleon Street, charm, intelligence, with a little luck on his side, as well as the gullibility of his victims.

His con was a different kind of...

MTV Movies' pop culture radar rarely crosses into the realm of American politics. When it comes to the passing of laws, the jostling for influence, the occasional plunge into corruption, our coverage usually stays strictly in matters of fiction: "Frost/Nixon," "W," the vastly underrated but actually enlightening Eddie Murphy vehicle, "The Distinguished Gentleman."

Wednesday, however, brought us the opportunity to dip our digital pen into real-world political ink. Following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address the previous evening — during which he emphasized the importance of "winning the future" — former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took to Fox News with a cutting retort.

"His theme last night was Wtf, winning the future," she said during an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. "I thought, okay, that acronym — spot on. There were a lot of Wtf moments throughout that speech."

Now, when it comes to Wtf moments, MTV...

Another difficult loss for the film-loving community. Noted character actor Kevin McCarthy passed away yesterday in a Cape Cod, Ma hospital at the age of 96. He is maybe best known for his starring role in the 1956 cult sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." McCarthy also picked up a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for his performance as Biff in the 1951 adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman."

I'll be honest though: these aren't the role that I personally think of when McCarthy's name is mentioned. First for me is undoubtedly "Innerspace," the Dennis Quaid/Martin Short-starring sci-fi/comedy in which McCarthy played the devious villain with a golden grin. It was much the same in the "Weird Al" Yankovic comedy "Uhf." McCarthy had a knack for playing the smiling villain; his kindly face belied the evil genius lurking within. Let's also not forget...

His distinctive laughter is the only constant in his career. The contagious guffaw, the low-throated "he he he" of Eddie Murphy has served him well ever since he first came to attention on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. Murphy's laugh will be heard again as the voice of the good-natured sidekick Donkey in Shrek Forever After, which opens in general release on May 21. The Shrek films, unfortunately, reflect the trajectory of Murphy's movie career as a whole: a great start, followed by a gradual decline into repetition, indifference, and a general dulling of a sharp comedic sensibility.

Dreamgirls gave him a shot at shaking off the wreckage of a long, disastrous stretch in which he played down to a juvenile audience. Following up his Academy Award-nominated turn in an dramatic musical with Norbit may have been financially rewarding, but immediately dumped him back into the lowest-common-denominator slop bucket of The Nutty Professor,...

Pharell Williams is 37 years old today. Voted The Best Dressed Man in the World by Esquire in 2005, Williams is one half of The Neptunes, one of the biggest music producing teams working today, working with some of the world’s most popular musicians. His music has appeared on the soundtracks to numerous TV shows and films. He’ll be both co-producing (along with Brian Grazer) and co-starring in a film titled Zoom, currently listed as “In Development.” This would be his feature-film acting debut. In the film, a troubled West Virginia youth attends a music academy and finds his voice and a place in the world.

Former Secretary Of State (under George W. Bush), Colin Powell, is 73 years old today. He was the first African-American to hold that position. The distinguished gentleman has never done any acting, but he’s played himself in various films (documentaries & fiction) and TV shows.

It's the first November of 2009, which means it's time to pull that lever, touch that screen or figure out whatever newfangled contraption your district has provided: today is Election Day, so cast that vote!

I put that exclamation point in there not because I'm excited to vote in New York's mayoral election, but because Election Day gets me thinking about what a rich topic elections have been for cinema. Combining intrigue, corruption, passion and the odd sex scandal, politics in general and elections in particular have made for some big screen gems over the years. Here are my favs.

Thomas Jefferson Johnson (Eddie Murphy) in "The Distinguished Gentleman": This flick is potent satire lurking within broad comedy: Johnson's conman epiphany is to ditch his illegal shenanigans and start sucking the enriching teet of the Washington establishment. He looses his ode-to-a-forefather's moniker, appropriates the name and campaign signage of a recently deceased politician and – bingo!

In our last report we revealed that Rupert Grint's next film Wild Target has officially finished production and landed distribution deals for both the U.S. and the U.K. Well as we get closer to the date we thought we would update you on just a few more tidbits about the movie. First we are happy to announce that Wild Target will also be released in France, but that is a given considering that is based on the 1993 French film Cible émouvante! There is also new information that says the release date for cinemas will be between October/November 2009! Additionally British composer Michael Price best known for his work on films such as (My Cousin Vinny, The Whole Nine Yards, The Distinguished Gentleman) will be composing the musical score for film! For more Wild Target news why not check out our Wild Target myspace here.

British composer Michael Price goes has spent a lot of time in the "wild" lately. Recently, romantic comedy Wild Child, featuring a score by Price, premiered world-wide, and now the busy composer has completed the score for Wild Target, an action thriller directed by Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny, The Whole Nine Yards, The Distinguished Gentleman). The film stars Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint and Rupert Everett and is produced by UK's Magic Light Pictures and Matador Pictures. Michael Price is a versatile composer who has also assisted David Arnold on several of his scores and worked as a music editor on films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Children of Men.