Every Eddie Murphy Movie, Ranked

Murphy's career nadir came in this 2002 sci-fi comedy—one of three (!) lousy Murphy movies released that year—that saw Murphy playing two roles: one as a smuggler turned nightclub owner on the moon, and the other as (spoiler alert) his clone. It's not only the worst-reviewed movie of Murphy's career but also one of the biggest box office flops in history: Pluto Nash grossed just $7 million worldwide against a budget north of $100 million.

"So unremittingly awful that labeling it a dog probably constitutes cruelty to canines." —Lou Lumenick, New York Post

The first and last film directed by Murphy, this 1989 feature (for which Murphy is also the sole screenwriter, also a first) finds him teaming with fellow comedy legend Richard Pryor for a story about mobsters in 1930s Harlem. But the result was a critical and commercial failure.

"Eddie Murphy's directorial work is amateurish at best. And as a performer he looks as if he is in agony, as if his mother made him stand in front of the camera for punishment." —Hal Hinson, The Washington Post

Murphy reunited once again with his Trading Places/Coming to America director John Landis (but for the first time in the Beverly Hills Cop series) for this 1994 sequel to Beverly Hills Cop II. The latter movie was mediocre at best, but installment three was an outright dud. The film featured a generic Die Hard-in-a-theme-park storyline (penned by actual Die Hard screenwriter Steven E. de Souza) and contained little of the charm found in the original film.

At various points (including as recently as 2019), there were tentative plans to film a fourth installment in the series, but that project now appears to be either on hold or DOA.

"Beverly Hills Cop III is just going through the motions, without comic conviction, surprises or suspense." —Richard Schickel, Time

Following eight years after the highly successful original, this 48 Hrs. sequel (again directed by Walter Hill) failed to recapture the magic of its genre-defining predecessor, though it was hampered by studio meddling that saw nearly 50 minutes excised from the original director's cut prior to the film's release. Despite the negative reviews, Another 48 Hrs. actually grossed almost twice as much as the first film—though a much higher budget (including a big payday for Murphy) meant that profits were minimal and no further sequels were ordered.

"This is a generic action picture. What also is missing are scenes in which Nolte and Murphy could relate to each other quietly and with some wit." —Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

Some of the words used by critics to describe this 2012 comedy that found Murphy playing a literary agent who discovers that every word he speaks brings him closer to death: "soggy," "disingenuous," "predictable," "joyless," and "strenuously unfunny."

Murphy would go on a self-imposed, multi-year hiatus after the release of this movie, the result, as he recently told Marc Maron, of tiring of making "shitty movies" and receiving Razzie nominations (including an award for being the worst actor of the decade).

"Alas, even Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum." —Justin Chang, Variety

After breaking up a string of mediocrity with a pair of commercial and critical hits (Shrek 2, Dreamgirls), Murphy returned to the realm of the Razzies with this 2007 rom-com that yet again sees the star playing multiple characters—including one that requires him to don a fat suit for the umpteenth time (as in his Nutty Professor films) and another that finds him playing a Chinese-American man, Mr. Wong, which some critics equated to Mickey Rooney's infamous performance in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Oh, and did we mention that the fat-suit character is the wife of the titular Norbit, also played by Murphy? And that Murphy co-wrote the film?

Norbit marked the final collaboration between Murphy and makeup effects legend Rick Baker, who first worked with the actor on 1988's Coming to America and collected four Oscar nominations along the way, including one for this film.

"Stereotype-based comedy from Eddie Murphy in a variety of fat suits is just not enough to make a decent film." —Tony Horkins, Empire

Though it has a small following as a cult classic (or is that an occult classic?), this Wes Craven-directed 1995 horror-comedy is not only one of Murphy's lowest-scoring films, it's also one of his biggest box office flops, grossing under $20 million. Vampire is the second film in which Murphy plays multiple characters (following Coming to America)—here, he portrays an Italian gangster and a preacher in addition to his main role as the vampire Maximillian opposite Angela Bassett's half-vampire cop—and that would turn into a trend for the actor over the following decade.

"Neither all that scary nor all that hilarious, Vampire in Brooklyn falls directly between the two, into the valley of mediocrity." —Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle

This 1984 union of comedy stars Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy proved to be far less than the sum of its parts, especially because its parts were never actually unified. Directed by Willard Huyck (who would follow this film with another notorious flop, Howard the Duck), Defense was originally a Moore vehicle that found him playing a military engineer. Only after a series of disastrous test screenings was a new, completely disconnected storyline involving Murphy (as a tank commander two years later) inserted into the film; Murphy and Moore never share any screen time.

"It really isn't easy to make a movie as mind-bendingly bad as Best Defense. It takes hard work, a very great deal of money and people so talented that it matters when they fail with such utter lack of distinction." —Vincent Canby, The New York Times

After making films for slightly younger audiences like Dr. Dolittle and Shrek, Murphy returned to his action-comedy roots in 2002, even teaming with fellow film legend Robert De Niro for the first time. (And, also, William Shatner.) But the result, a buddy-cop movie spoof from Shanghai Noon director Tom Dey, was a critical misfire and a box office dud, kicking off a particularly unfruitful decade for Murphy that would consist of a lot of both (with a few notable exceptions).

"De Niro and Murphy are visibly uncomfortable with each other. Their improvisation seems chaotic and mismanaged, and the movie follows in kind." —Scott Tobias, A.V. Club

One of the least impressive entries in Disney's never-ending quest to turn every one of its theme park attractions into a film franchise, this 2003 family-friendly horror comedy from Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) features a lot of special effects and not all that much Murphy, who stars as the head of a family that spends a night in a haunted mansion. Despite the lackluster results, Disney hasn't given up on a Haunted Mansion film franchise, and two different remakes have been in various stages of pre-production over the past decade.

"Lifeless, unimaginative and almost determinedly uninspired, it's paint-by-numbers filmmaking at its dreariest." —Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun

Murphy's third and final dud of 2002 is a big-screen action-comedy adaptation of the 1960s TV series with Murphy and Owen Wilson taking over the roles of an undercover boxer and his government agent handler originally played by Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, respectively. While remakes aren't generally supposed to be original, the execution here was particularly "dumbed-down" and "by-the-numbers," according to reviewers.

"Though ample time is spent mingling Murphy's jabberjaw locutions and Wilson's curveball spaciness, the film leaves only the bitter reek of a botched chemistry experiment." —Ed Park, The Village Voice

Directed by Michael Ritchie (Fletch), this 1986 film was a departure for Murphy. For one thing, it wasn't rated R (like each of his previous four films). It's also a special effects-laden fantasy thriller that was only belatedly (and partially) turned into a comedy once Murphy was added to the project. He plays a private investigator charged with rescuing a mystical Tibetan child from a villain played by Charles Dance. Critics were confused by an awkward film that played at times like a movie for kids and at others like a mediocre Murphy vehicle, though it performed well at the box office.

"It's not awful; it isn't dull. But The Golden Child is a kids' film, and there are times when Murphy himself seems uncomfortable, as if he knows he's making a movie he wouldn't pay to see." —Bill Cosford, The Miami Herald

Appearing in the middle of an otherwise uncharacteristically quiet six-year span that saw no other Eddie Murphy movies released, this 2016 trifle from director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) is a rarity in the Murphy canon: It's a purely dramatic role in which the star plays the titular character, who serves as cook and caretaker to three generations of women. It was a money-loser despite its small budget, grossing under $700,000 in theaters.

"Murphy is fine as the title character, although his performance consists mostly of suppressing all of his usual shtick. He certainly doesn't endow Mr. Church with any unexpected depths. But then neither does the script." —Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post

While critics gave Murphy's original Nutty Professor remake decent marks, this Peter Segal-directed 2000 sequel leans more heavily into the extended family of Murphy's Professor Sherman Klump character, to lesser results. The change in focus doesn't equal less Murphy, however; he again plays seven different roles, including all of the members of the Klump family, which means that many scenes find Murphy playing against himself. (He does have a love interest as well, played by pop star Janet Jackson in her first film role since 1993's Poetic Justice.)

"The star's over-the-top energy isn't enough to make this hopelessly vulgar, numbingly repetitious farce worth watching." —David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor

After three straight commercial duds, Murphy at least found another moneymaker in the form of this PG-rated 2003 comedy about a pair of fathers (including Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin) who start a daycare out of their home after losing their corporate jobs. Directed (like Murphy's Dr. Dolittle 2) by Steve Carr (and like the latter, a modest hit), the film was followed by a pair of Murphy-less sequels. But Day Care didn't end the star's streak of poorly reviewed films.

"You know something is wrong when a preschooler's unwitting ad-libs are funnier than anything seasoned comedy writers can come up with. Kids say the darnedest things. Too bad the grown-ups don't." —Claudia Puig, USA Today

Perhaps Murphy's least memorable film, this 1997 money-loser found the star back in 48 Hrs./Beverly Hills Cop action-comedy mode, though this time he's a hostage negotiator for the San Francisco Police Department. Critics felt that Thomas Carter's formulaic film added nothing new to the genre.

"This is not a dreadful movie. Murphy fans may even find some comfort in watching their slim, witty, hot-headed hero safely returned to his familiar movie trappings. But anyone seeking a fresh characterization or clever plot twist ought not to buy a ride on this Murphy vehicle. With Metro, he's going nowhere fast." —Kevin McManus, The Washington Post

In this 1998 flop from Bill & Ted director Stephen Herek, Murphy stars opposite Jeff Goldblum and Kelly Preston as a self-help guru named G who gets a gig on a home shopping network. Budgeted at a reported $60 million, Holy Man only managed to gross $12 million, making it one of the actor's biggest box office failures to date—though a few more would follow not long thereafter.

"It's ... troublesome that Murphy, a generally charismatic actor, is downright dull here. He and Goldblum are curiously flat in their line readings; they don't seem convinced by the story they're asked to act out, and with good reason." —G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Examiner

The second (and least terrible) of the three films the star made with director Brian Robbins, 2008's PG-rated Meet Dave finds Murphy playing an alien spaceship—yes, spaceship—that lands on Earth as well as that ship's captain, one of 100 tiny beings inside the interstellar vehicle (which has the appearance and size of a normal Eddie Murphy-shaped human but doesn't quite know how to "act" like a normal human). If that sounds like a movie you might see on Mystery Science Theater 3000, it may be because one of the screenwriters, Bill Corbett, played Crow T. Robot on that show.

"Though mildly amusing, Murphy's two characters in Meet Dave -- a wee captain and a humanoid spaceship -- neither tax nor stretch him." —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Murphy's first movie for Disney (technically, Hollywood Pictures) after previously working for Paramount exclusively, this fairly forgettable 1992 political comedy finds Murphy playing a Florida con man named Thomas Jefferson Johnson who manages to get himself elected to Congress by impersonating the district's current (and now deceased) officeholder with a similar name.

"The film is content to remain at the level of the mildly entertaining, with no real surprises and not much sass." —Jay Carr, The Boston Globe

Directed by Reginald Hudlin (coming off his debut film, House Party), this wildly underrated 1992 rom-com finds Murphy's womanizing advertising executive meeting his match in the form of his new boss, played by Robin Givens. David Alan Grier, Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock also appear in the film, which was a modest box office hit.

"This is cornily predictable stuff, but it raises itself on a number of counts, with Murphy's transformation from a self-assured cocksman to bewildered, lovesick drip being approached with greater gusto than might be expected." —Lloyd Bradley, Empire

The first sequel to Murphy's 1984 hit Beverly Hills Cop was another box office success, grossing $300 million worldwide. But it was far from another critical success. Though he gets the action part of the action-comedy formula down, director Tony Scott (fresh off of Top Gun) didn't generally work in comedy, and BHC2 doesn't really work as a comedy; critics found it lacking in laughs while also trying a bit too hard to ape the first film's formula.

"Beverly Hills Cop II is practically a carbon copy of the original movie, which, at the very least, exhibited a glimmer of invention. The sequel is superior only in terms of technique. It looks slicker and sounds better; more like a music video. Its tone is fractionally more reserved. And there isn't the unsettling clash between humor and violence." —Hal Lipper, Tampa Bay Times

Murphy's family-friendly(-ish) 1998 comedy is inspired by (but not a direct adaptation of) Hugh Lofting's novels about a man who can speak to animals. (Well, you can too, but in the case of the film the animals speak back.) Like a 1967 film adaptation (a musical), the Murphy version did not go over well with critics, but it certainly connected with audiences, grossing nearly $300 million and spawning a sequel three years later.

"Slim on story and rife with scatological jokes, the film may strike a chord with pre-teens but misses for an older crowd despite some nifty effects and broad humor." —Leonard Klady, Variety

Released straight to Prime Video in 2023, Murphy's first holiday film is directed by Reginald Hudlin and also stars Jillian Bell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Nick Offerman, Ken Marino, and Robin Thede. Murphy plays Chris, who teams with a magical elf in an attempt to win his neighborhood's best-decorated-home holiday contest, but the spell winds up wreaking havoc instead. Critics were not enchanted.

"The bizarro plot might help Candy Cane Lane stand out from the bland, busy crowd of new seasonal movies but it's just as limp and lacking in spirit as the rest of them. Murphy and Ross deserve better, and so do we, and so does Christmas." –Benjamine Lee, The Guardian

Murphy re-teamed (somewhat acrimoniously) with his Trading Places director, John Landis, for this warm-hearted, fairy tale-esque rom-com that stars Murphy as (among other characters) the prince of a fictional African nation (Zamunda) who heads to New York to search for a bride—a journey that includes taking a low-level job at McDowell's, a fast-food restaurant that definitely isn't McDonald's. Arsenio Hall (also playing multiple characters), James Earl Jones, John Amos, Eriq La Salle, and Shari Hadley also star. Critics didn't love it upon its 1988 release, but audiences certainly did. And though a planned TV spinoff didn't come to fruition, a sequel did get made—a mere 33 years later. A generation of law students (and fans of creative Hollywood accounting) also became familiar with Coming to America after a dispute over the film's writing credits led to a landmark decision in entertainment law, Buchwald v. Paramount.

"Coming to America is the filmic equivalent of using a Maserati to go to the corner grocery store — Murphy's colossal comic gifts and Landis' countercultural sensibilities are largely wasted, never pushed to the floor in this idling, curbed comedy." —Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter

Directed by future Paul Blart helmer Steve Carr, this 2001 sequel to Murphy's 1998 talking-animals hit was far less successful at the box office, though it somehow scored a few points higher with critics than the original. The film marked the end of Murphy's involvement in the Dolittle series, though the franchise continued with several additional straight-to-video movies revolving around the daughter of Murphy's character, played (in all films) by Kyla Pratt.

"There's barely a scene in this movie that taps his (Murphy) special brilliance." —Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

The feature film directorial debut for black-ish creator Kenya Barris (from a script that he co-wrote with star Jonah Hill), this 2023 Netflix culture-clash rom-com finds Hill and Lauren London as a new couple who must navigate their tricky family relationships. Julia Louis Dreyfus and David Duchovny play his parents, while Eddie Murphy and Nia Long are hers. Murphy is one of the film's clear highlights for critics, but they also feel that he and the other talented actors are let down by a mediocre script. (And we aren't just paraphrasing; that word "mediocre" is used in quite a few of the reviews.)

"Murphy and Hill do lift the film often, the former being wryly sarcastic and meanspirited but cool, the latter finding much comedy in being overly vulnerable, earnest, and painfully sincere. But otherwise, this comedy has no safe spaces for anything resembling authentic human behavior, the kind that anchors comedy to feature truths that make laughs all the more lacerating." —Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

Arriving 33 years after Coming to America, one of Murphy's most-loved films, this 2021 sequel reunites the star with Arsenio Hall, John Amos, Shari Headley, and James Earl Jones and adds Jermaine Fowler, Wesley Snipes, and Leslie Jones in key roles. It's by no means a great film, but the Amazon exclusive may have had the most-streamed opening weekend of any movie in the pandemic era, if early reports are confirmed.

"This feels less like a movie and more like one of those reunion specials where the cast of a beloved old TV show returns to play their characters again, recreating their pratfalls and repeating their catchphrases." —Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

The fourth Beverly Hills Cop film—and first in 30 years—bypassed theaters in lieu of a Netflix debut in 2024. The feature debut for Australian commercial director Mark Molloy not only returns Murphy as one of his most famous characters, the Detroit cop Axel Foley, but also brings back many of the stars of the now-40-year-old original film, including Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Resier, and Bronson Pinchot. Newcomers include Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige; the former is a Beverly Hills detective who serves as Foley's new partner, while the latter plays Foley's estranged daughter who works as a defense attorney in Beverly HIlls but whose life is now in danger. Is it great? Far from it. But many critics think that it boasts enough charm to remain an enjoyable enough watch at home.

"It's a film of familiar pleasures, but like Harold Faltermeyer's still infectiously enjoyable synth-pop theme, they do remain highly pleasurable." —Ross McIndoe, Slant

Eddie Murphy's previous (and equally profane) stand-up special, Delirious, was recorded for HBO, where it aired in 1983 to strong reviews. He followed that with Raw, his first (and only) comedy special for the big screen. The 1987 release was filmed at Madison Square Garden by director Robert Townsend, and while critics had a mixed impression, Raw became the highest-grossing concert film of all time upon its release.

"Most of the jokes in Eddie Murphy Raw are the kind you regale buddies with to show off. Anyone as good as Eddie Murphy should have outgrown that years ago." —Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

Released in 2009 in the middle of a string of mediocre, kid-friendly comedies, Imagine That stars Murphy as a financial advisor who learns that his young daughter's imagination holds the key to predicting the financial future. The only live-action film directed by Karey Kirkpatrick (Over the Hedge) failed to gain any traction at the box office, grossing a meagre $23 million, though both Murphy and his young co-star (future black-ish star Yara Shahidi) received some positive reviews for their performances.

"For the first time since 'The Nutty Professor,' Eddie Murphy successfully mixes his adult and kid-film personas -- imagine that." —Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

The Shrek series stopped collecting critical acclaim after the second film, but the sequels continued to perform well at the box office, including over $800 million alone for this third chapter, released in 2007. Murphy once again plays Donkey, who aids Shrek in his attempt to get his young cousin-in-law Artie (series newcomer Justin Timberlake) installed on the throne. Critics saw a franchise that was running out of steam.

"There's no disguising the fact that Shrek the Third has come down with a bad case of sequelitis. You know the symptoms: Lots of razzle-dazzle to distract from the hole at the center of the story. You know, the place where fresh ideas should be." —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

The fourth and final Shrek film, this 2010 release was yet another moneymaker even as the franchise was well past the point of becoming formulaic. Murphy has yet to reprise his role as Donkey, but don't rule out a fifth installment of Shrek, which has been in and out of development over the last decade.

"There's nothing much wrong with the film's pacing or characterizations. We've just seen it all in fresher and funnier forms, from Donkey's sassy backtalk to Puss in Boots' eye-widening charm." —Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer

Released in 2011, this Brett Ratner-directed caper was Murphy's first adult-targeted film in four years. Heist follows a plot by a group of employees of a luxury Manhattan apartment tower to rob one of its residents—a Wall Street titan who is there under house arrest after defrauding his clients. Despite a strong cast that also includes Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, and Téa Leoni, critics were only mildly amused, and Heist is perhaps memorable only for triggering a revolt by theater operators who were upset at Universal's original plan to release the film on VOD a mere three weeks after opening day.

"The best thing about this mildly diverting but instantly forgettable comedy is that it seems to have awakened something in Murphy that had laid dormant for much of the past two decades." —Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald

Murphy reunited with fellow comedian (and Boomerang co-star) Martin Lawrence for this 1999 buddy comedy from director Ted Demme. The film finds the stars playing two men who are given life sentences after being wrongfully convicted for murder in the 1930s, and follows their life in prison over the ensuing decades. Reviews were fairly decent, though the film was a minor money-loser.

"Lawrence and Murphy make an entertaining team. And they are surrounded by a supporting cast that makes the prison setting more pleasant than it has any right to be." —Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

Freed from his longtime Paramount contract, Murphy moved to Universal for this 1996 remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy about a scientist who develops an experimental serum to alter his appearance to make him more attractive to the opposite sex. While Lewis's character was a buck-toothed, nerdy weakling, the Murphy remake (directed by Ace Ventura's Tom Shadyac) finds the titular professor—now named Sherman Klump—beginning the film as an obese man (thanks to some Oscar-winning makeup), who then sheds his excess weight to woo Jada Pinkett's Carla Purty. Murphy plays a total of seven characters, including multiple members of the Klump family, who would also feature in the 2000 sequel.

"Not that The Nutty Professor should ever be confused with a good movie, but it is a perfect vehicle for the redisplay of Murphy's neglected talents, steering him away from the smug persona of his recent disasters and whisking him back to the cozy locale of his Saturday Night Live roots." —Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail

Murphy's biggest box office hit (outside of the animated Shrek series) was this Martin Brest-directed action-comedy classic that saw Murphy's Detroit detective Axel Foley (cue Harold Faltermeyer score) heading out to Beverly Hills as part of an unsanctioned investigation. There, he teams with local cops played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton (and also encounters characters played by future TV staples Paul Reiser, Jonathan Banks, and Bronson Pinchot). The film outgrossed all other 1984 releases despite its R rating, and also spawned one hell of a soundtrack album (sadly, largely absent from Spotify).

"Beverly Hills Cop is no masterpiece, but it uses Murphy to maximum effect. At its best, the movie is exactly as brazen, charming and mercurial as Murphy himself, which is to say it is unimaginable without him." —David Ansen, Newsweek

Murphy's second film is considered a comedy classic, even if some of its elements haven't aged well. (Yes, there's blackface.) Released in 1983, the John Landis-directed Trading Places finds two commodities traders (played by screen legends Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, who briefly return as the same characters in Coming to America) making a wager that involves swapping the lives of a poor street hustler (Murphy) and a wealthy man at their firm (fellow SNL vet Dan Aykroyd). A box office hit, the film helped launched Murphy to stardom and also gave a boost to the career of Jamie Lee Curtis, who was previously cast only in horror films.

"[Murphy] makes Trading Places something more than a good-hearted comedy. He turns it into an event." —Richard Schickel, Time

Eddie Murphy's first big-screen opportunity came as one of the leads in Walter Hill's 1982 film—one of cinema's first buddy-cop movies—where he starred as a convict opposite Nick Nolte's police inspector in a role originally envisioned for Richard Pryor. The well-reviewed film earned Murphy a Golden Globe nomination and was followed by a lesser sequel eight years later.

"A quick and clever thriller as nasty as a piece of shrapnel snapping the sound barrier, 48 Hrs. is as violent as it is funny. It is very funny." —Jay Scott, The Globe and Mail

Murphy's first animation voiceover gig came as the voice of Mushu the dragon in Disney's 1998 version of Mulan. The character was not incorporated into the recent live-action remake, though Mushu did feature in a straight-to-video sequel in which an Eddie Murphy impersonator took over the role. Murphy, of course, would return to animation the following decade as part of the Shrek series.

"Murphy, working in the tradition of Robin Williams' genie in 'Aladdin,' is quick, glib and funny." —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

In 1999, Murphy teamed with Steve Martin for a pretty great Hollywood satire (written by Martin and directed by Frank Oz) about a failing movie producer who attempts to trick major action-movie star Kit Ramsey (Murphy) into toplining his next movie—for which he has a budget of just over $2,000—without Ramsey being aware that he is being filmed. Amusingly, Murphy plays not just Ramsey—a devotee of MindHead, a stand-in for Scientology—but also a Ramsey lookalike who is drafted into the production.

Trivia you definitely don't need to know: When we began work on Metacritic in 1999, Bowfinger was the first movie for which we compiled reviews.

"Priceless enough to flush 'Metro,' 'Dr. Dolittle' and 'Holy Man' from memory." —Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner

Murphy's highest-grossing film to date is this 2004 sequel to the 2001 animated hit Shrek. (In fact, Murphy's four highest-grossing films are all in the Shrek series.) Reviews weren't quite as stellar as they were for the first film, but critics still found plenty to like in the sequel, which finds a new character (Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas) joining up with Mike Myers' Shrek and Murphy's Donkey.

"The real humor comes, once again from Murphy, whose Donkey is so genuinely funny and clever that he very nearly steals the film. Except that it's stolen by Banderas as a rogue Puss In Boots." —Paula Nechak, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Murphy collected his first (and, to date, only) Oscar nomination for his supporting performance as R&B singer Jimmy "Thunder" Early in Bill Condon's 2006 film adaptation of the 1981 Broadway musical centering on a Supremes-like girl group called The Dreams (whose members include Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé). The well-reviewed film received six Academy Award nominations in total and won the Golden Globe for best picture (musical or comedy). Yes, Murphy did all his own singing in the film—much like he did on a string of pop albums in the 1980s (which generated one minor hit, 1985's Rick James-produced "Party All the Time.")

"Murphy is a revelation." —Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide

The best-reviewed live-action film featuring Murphy in a lead role, 2019's Dolemite was a comeback for the star, ending a seven-year period with no major releases (and a 13-year drought since his last well-reviewed film). The Netflix original film is a comedic biopic that stars Murphy as 1970w comedian and blaxploitation filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore, and the colorful role suited the actor, earning Murphy his first Golden Globe nomination since Dreamgirls.

"In playing a man who was so clearly among his comic ancestors and influences, we see, for the first time in a long time, Murphy's sheer joy of performance, the thing that made his early work in films like '48 HRS.' and 'Beverly Hills Cop' so electrifying." —Jason Bailey, The Playlist

Eddie Murphy's second voiceover role in an animated feature found him playing the character of Donkey, best friend to Mike Myers' ogre Shrek, in DreamWorks Animation's comedic CGI adaptation of William Steig's children's book. The result was a massive hit, kicking off an ongoing multimedia franchise and winning the very first Academy Award for best animated feature. Murphy was singled out for his performance, becoming the first actor ever nominated for a BAFTA (the UK's equivalent of the Oscars) for a voiceover role.

"Murphy ... provides some of the movie's best laughs." —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times