The Murphy Monday Podcast
The Murphy Monday Podcast
The “Boomerang” Episode part 2
Join us on the Murphy Monday podcast as we welcome back Jewel Singletary, who shares her heartfelt journey through motherhood while giving her unique take on Eddie Murphy's latest Beverly Hills Cop installment. We dive into the highs and lows of the film, debating whether it hit the mark or missed the essence of the originals. Jewel's candid insights on the entertainment value and character portrayal offer a fresh perspective, and we even touch on the similarly polarizing Coming to America 2.
From there, our conversation shifts to a deep analysis of "Boomerang" and its progressive approach to gender roles and relationships. We dissect Jacqueline's character as a powerhouse who defies traditional gender norms, and explore the various representations of male characters like Marcus and David Alan Grier. We highlight Chris Rock's comedic role and Eartha Kitt's vibrant portrayal, celebrating the film's nuanced depiction of diverse characters and its relevance to ongoing gender conversations.
Finally, we delve into the interconnected universe of films like "Boomerang" and "House Party." We celebrate Eddie Murphy's groundbreaking work in revolutionizing Black representation in film and his transition from action films to romantic comedies. Our discussion spans from early Black rom-coms to their evolving impact on Hollywood, and I top it all off with my personal top five Eddie Murphy projects. Don't miss this lively discussion on the life and career of Eddie Murphy and the broader landscape of Black cinema.
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Speaker 2:Good morning, my baby. Jesus Christ, jesus Christ. This is becoming very irritating.
Speaker 3:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Murphy Monday podcast, the only podcast that celebrates the life and career of Eddie Murphy. I'm your host, nigel A Fullerton. With me this week I have a person who is not a stranger to this podcast. She has been in the corporate world, she has been a content creator, she is the every woman, the renaissance woman. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause for Jewel Singletary.
Speaker 4:You back like a boomerang.
Speaker 3:How is motherhood so far?
Speaker 4:Man, momming is tough, Toddlers are terrors. Don't do it y'all, unless you really, really really want some kids. Don't Don't do it y'all, unless you really, really really want some kids. Don't Don't do it. They're wild, but you know she's super cute. She's starting to talk.
Speaker 3:She walks now, so I'll keep her. Oh, you know what I meant to ask you. You just saw a bit of Little's Cop Axe left. I did, did, I did. What'd you think is this? Wait, isn't this your first beveled cop movie?
Speaker 4:I don't. I feel like when I was on maternity leave on bed rest I was I watched the first two because wasn't in um, I'm trying to remember and I wanted to go back and see, and one of the first two, weren't they in like some kind of redneck bar and they had to fight their way out of it? That's 48 hours Okay never mind, then I did not see anything with Beverly Hills Cop, I just jumped in with the newest one. Never mind, I knew I should have went back, it's okay.
Speaker 3:You don't have to, it's okay I remember this little girl.
Speaker 4:Like where did she come from? They show pictures of when she was little. I'm like was this in the other? This was in part three that I missed. That's hilarious. It's such a great movie that it stands on its own. You don't have to see the other ones to still enjoy it.
Speaker 3:How did you feel about it? What were your thoughts?
Speaker 4:I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like a buddy cop film to me Not quite a buddy cop film, but I liked the action. I liked the story behind him working with his future son-in-law. I thought it was good and entertaining. To me it felt watching Eddie act in it. It was very much like, oh, he is so comfortable being himself that he is not acting. It's just Eddie Murphy in this movie. But the story was good and the action. I felt like for Netflix. When you first said it was coming out, I'm like, damn, I'm going to have to get to a movie theater. And then, once I Googled it, I'm like oh, shoot it's on Netflix.
Speaker 4:So even for the quality of Netflix, I thought the production was great. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:Aska, did you feel?
Speaker 4:like it was a cash grab. No, how so? I can't see people running to get a Netflix subscription to see that People run into to get a Netflix subscription to see that.
Speaker 3:So the the criticism, and this is this is just from what I saw on the Internet. I don't know these people personally, but the Internet was 50 50 on. It's more like 60 40. I won't say 50 50. It's more 64. It's more favorable than anything. 60-40. I won't say 50-50. It's more 64. It's more favorable than anything. But what they were saying was because you don't have prior knowledge from the other movies, they focused a lot on nostalgia in this one. So a lot of it was the same jacket that he had from Beverly Hills Cop. Same sneakers he had, same car he had. They played all the songs from all the Beverly Hills Cop. Same sneakers he had, same car he had. They played all the songs from all the Beverly Hills Cop movies. You know they felt that number one. They felt that it leaned a little too much on nostalgia. I'll agree with them on that one. But the second thing that I don't agree with them is that they claim it wasn't funny.
Speaker 4:The second thing that I don't agree with them is that they claim it wasn't funny. What are people expecting? Like bust, a gut rolling on the floor laughing funny Like I don't know? The only issue I would say that I had with the movie was having to suspend reality Like I don't know what if it was Sunset Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard, whatever main street in LA, they?
Speaker 4:were driving down in the Jeep when they started shooting at him and told her to duck. I believe that's who was shooting. I'm not sure who was shooting, but Eddie is ducked down in the truck driving backwards down this busy street in LA and now one car hits them for like over a mile until the truck side swipes them and I'm like seriously. So to me it was a lot of moments like that, like okay, you just have to suspend reality to enjoy this movie. But that would have been my only critique, not that I wasn't laughing throughout it, laughing throughout it, I don't know.
Speaker 4:I feel like people are too critical of these remakes. Remakes I don't care for, but I like when they show the characters years later and how they progressed in life and where they're at at that point in their life and the story could pick up In some cases. I think that works really well and I enjoyed this for what it was. Again, I don't have any prior knowledge with the original characters, but I felt like where he was at that time of his life when an adult daughter that he had been estranged from. I thought the story was really good. And the same thing with Coming to America 2. I didn't. I don't know why people were so critical of it. I enjoyed. I enjoyed both movies for what they were. I think you have to take off your nostalgic lens and just appreciate the art for what it is in the present day yeah, that's what I I had.
Speaker 3:I had an argument with somebody on Facebook about it because, um, I him. I said what exactly were you looking for? This movie is from 40 years ago, like literally like it came out in 1984. Oh, wow. So you know, eddie Murphy was 22 years old when the first one came out. So now you're looking at him at 60. He's not going to be the same guy.
Speaker 3:I like the fact that we saw him age. There's certain parts in the movie where he's not as fast-talking as he used to be. Stuff wasn't going his way and his daughter had to bail him out. I like that. I like how everything didn't come easy to him like it did in the first movie, and if he was to do the same stuff from the first movie, I'd have to turn the movie off in like five minutes. But back to Boomerang. As I watch this movie, I sometimes see myself in the movie Never as Marcus Graham, never as Eddie Murphy. More so, there's been times when I've been Martin Lawrence. There's been times that I've been David Alan Gray. Do you see yourself in this movie?
Speaker 4:Oh, you know, I'm always Angela.
Speaker 3:You open up the dictionary and see your face.
Speaker 4:Yep Below art easel what?
Speaker 3:what makes you feel like you're always angela?
Speaker 4:well, hallie berry, was it growing up? So of course I have always idolized her. But then then the, the artistic and the free spirit, how she was able to kill it in the, in the corporate world as well, but still have her artistic passions at the community center and her just bomb ass apartment with art all over the place, literally me and my art all over the place.
Speaker 7:So are you okay?
Speaker 8:Oh yeah, I'm fine. It's just that these sales conventions are really boring. I'm not looking forward to it.
Speaker 7:That can be pretty boring, but we're going to New Orleans. Have you been to New Orleans?
Speaker 8:No, it seems like it's a sexy town.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a real romantic town. It's the kind of place where you just take somebody that you love and just sit back, relax, throw on the jazz and just chill. You know that's something you can do when Jacqueline gets to town, you know.
Speaker 8:Now, where'd that come from?
Speaker 7:I don't know when did that come from?
Speaker 8:don't know where did that come from? Who said that? I think you said it.
Speaker 7:It sounded like it came out of your mouth from nowhere I just, you know, I I think you're cool, I like you and I was just being concerned all up in my business. I wasn't trying to pry. Really do I look like the kind of girl that would be prying?
Speaker 8:Not five minutes ago, but now you look like the one. If you look up pry in a dictionary, it'd be your picture next to it.
Speaker 3:What do you feel about the romantic relationships that happen in this movie? You have Marcus Graham, who played by Eddie Murphy, who is this big time art executive, but he's also a playboy and he's more shallow and superficial when it comes to his dating life and then he runs into this woman who is kind of his equal, his match, and she kind of. Again that proverbial boomerang where it's reversed and now it's hitting him in the head. All the stuff that he's done to women. You know it's happening to him. How do you feel about that concept in that that dynamic?
Speaker 4:I love it and you know what is so current now. But all these sometimes I get into my YouTube rabbit hole and see what all these gender wars are talking about with the 4B movements and the the passport. I don't know anything about that?
Speaker 3:I don't know anything about that. I don't know anything about what's going on, like all that passport. I don't know. I am a married man. I don't know what's going on, popping balloons and stuff, like I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 4:That's literally where we're at now. In the world, though, where you have these women, that are it, and I don't and I won't say it's everyone, but of course the algorithm is going to show you what you click on, and I've just been so fascinated with women who are now saying we don't want to play these games with men. If anything, we want to play their game. We want to have our own sexual power, our careers, our lives. We don't want to have children, we don't want to get married because these dudes are incompetent, they're slowing us down and, if anything, they're dangerous. It's just a whole cluster of gender chaos. But I feel like it's so relevant to boomerang because we see that with um, what is robin gibbons character name? Why am I?
Speaker 4:uh, jacqueline jacqueline, yes, who is this bomb powerful boss chick, who has all of her sexual power in the movie on top of running this company and and literally treating this dude like we typically would have seen him treat her in any other movie or any other stereotype. So I it's I don't want to say empowering, but I just, I just love there are women out there that are like that too, like it was representation. Not every woman is looking for a husband and to to have kids and be the little housewife she wants to run her business and, and you know, have her orgasms too. If I could phrase it any other way, more delicately, I would have, but I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3:I think one of the things I like about um this movie is is from the male perspective. You have three different types of men in the movie and is shown in their actions and how they are. You have this guy who's more of a playboy, but even though he is a playboy he's not as crass as his friend on Martin Lawrence's character. And then you have somebody who's more progressive, like David Alan Greer's character, who was like battling in between them. How did you feel about that depiction of of men in the movie? Um, yeah.
Speaker 4:I feel like, obviously, like it was, um, like a caricature for the movie, like I don't think that there's any one guy that fits into each one of those stereotypes. But that was another reason why I feel like I resonated so much with Angela, because I would have wanted Marcus's type of dude and not David Alan Greer, the sweet guy that was treating me nice like I would have wanted. Yeah, the dude that was slick, talking, that all the ladies wanted.
Speaker 3:He was suave and y'all need some David Alan Greer in your life.
Speaker 4:He was nice now 40, now 40-year-old Jewel. Now maybe I mean I still want a little sprinkle of Marcus in my David Allen Greer. But I see now why Marcus is problematic and unavailable and emotionally immature and all of those words and buzz phrases.
Speaker 3:But yeah, but he wouldn't be breaking anybody's hearts and he wouldn't pop any balloons.
Speaker 4:True, I mean poor guy. He would be what the incels are today, I think I I mean, I don't.
Speaker 3:I mean there are men that are like these three different characters. But what I do like is that it shows the different stages and like, yes, there were characters of men, but it shows different types of men, different types of black men, different things that were happening and they were all professional. But even what's even crazier and I totally forgot about this part you even have Boney T, Chris Rock's character.
Speaker 4:I was just about to say yeah, even Chris Rock's character, who don't know a mailroom guy like that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yo Marcus, yo Marcus, yo Marcus. Congratulations, man, I heard you finally boned her.
Speaker 8:Why didn't you tell me you was about to sex her up? Will you shut up my sex life is none of your business.
Speaker 10:Oh the hell, it ain't, man. I just don't want that office pool man. I thought we were supposed to help each other out. Yo man, how'd you look naked? Come on, you can tell me, I won't tell nobody.
Speaker 3:You even have Eartha Kitt showing you how an older woman could still have fun, could still be desirable and sexy. Even though she's older, that doesn't mean that she's like ancient, that she still wants to be loved.
Speaker 4:Yes, there's so many layers to Eartha Kitt's character too, and also in the sense in the fact that she was still the figurehead of Lady Eloise and they didn't like push her out.
Speaker 4:She still got a salary obviously enough that she could afford that mansion and servants and, yes, of of course, still had her sexual proudness about her, which is like, yeah, people, they old people be fucking too, so we're not gonna act like they're dead. So I love that they still had her a part of the company and didn't like push her out like we see. So, even though they weren't a part of the brand, but we're seeing in present day, like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben and those faces and figureheads that truly never benefited from those companies and even their descendants and generations after that. But what we're seeing with Lady Eloise, that even though she doesn't have any decision-making in the company anymore, she's still around. She's still around, she's still active and present. So, in a sense, like the community is still not the community but the company and the board. They're still taking care of her and making sure that in her elder years she's still comfortable for everything that she's done for the brand.
Speaker 3:And I love the fact that it's an advertisement that isn't. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that isn't Aunt Jemima and Uncle.
Speaker 3:Ben, yeah, Like I love that. I love the fact that there is because, again, we and you've worked in advertising before, so I know you know this there is a space where there aren't a lot of African-Americans making decisions and a lot of advertising. People are tone deaf to when they like try to market to the African-American community and it's alarming, it's crazy, and we need more places like the office that they work in to be able to make these decisions.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely agree. Yeah, I mean well, you know it best. Like, how are these advertising firms?
Speaker 4:Well, I actually work more with sales in the retail and wholesale industry, but in all of that we've had to partner with marketing and advertising departments and promo departments, stuff like that, and I can't think of any one of my coworkers on that side, with the exception at Nike. Nike was pretty good at having diversity all throughout the company, but at any of the other companies I've worked for JCPenney True Religion it wasn't folks that looked like us on the marketing side, and definitely not as you climbed up, higher up in the ranks and the levels on marketing side, um, and even at Nike it was a certain glass ceiling that all of the black execs got to like. When you got to the c-suites you didn't see anybody that looked like us, which, again, I think that's the importance of Lady Eloise's company. You see everybody, from the board the original owner, the figurehead, the board, the C-suite executives, down to the secretaries, the clerks, like literally everybody, because we are capable and able to work in all levels of a company.
Speaker 3:And it's aspirational. It's something think about. The time that you're talking about is in the 2000s, but this is 1992. Right, you know, for this movie to come out and, like you know, it boggles my mind that in that day and age it was, it was foreign to people that there's a, an advertising firm that has all African-Americans selling and they weren't just selling to African-Americans. Like Lady Eloise is like Liz Taylor of of that building.
Speaker 4:That was a national commercial slot that they were working on with her.
Speaker 3:Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss me once, kiss me twice. Ooh yeah, Ooh la la.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's another one in terms of the range of Black men, jeffrey Holder's character and his eccentric.
Speaker 3:And he was allowed to be eccentric and not like a stereotype.
Speaker 4:Yes, everybody was allowed to show up as themselves at work. It was no code switching Right. They were allowed to be who they were at work, which, yeah.
Speaker 3:Even the man that was making the perfume. Oh, marcus, you devil you. Right. You know it was.
Speaker 4:In his lab coat was at Jeffrey Holder when Sean J hung her panties across the boardroom. The fact that they had her as a spokesperson, like in her panties across the boardroom, the fact that they had her as a spokesperson flicking her panties across the boardroom and it wasn't like any other company. Be like nah. Get your black ass out of here.
Speaker 3:That was great. I think it was Jeffrey Holder that was smelling the panties. What was even crazy is both Grace Jones and Eartha Kitt did not want to do the movie at first.
Speaker 4:Are you serious?
Speaker 3:I swear to you.
Speaker 4:And they are two of the highlights of the movie for me.
Speaker 3:What they did not want to do the movie. Mostly because, well, eartha Kitt didn't want to do it because, like we were talking about before, with her being older there was a lot of jokes and gags, that of her taking out her teeth and you know, like a lot of that stuff, and she wasn't really like up for that. She didn't want to do that. That's why she played the character the way she played the character, because she, you know, she didn't want it to be like making fun of older people or older women. She wanted to be more empowering for boomerang.
Speaker 6:Eddie murphy insisted that grace jones and eartha kitt be cast as overage over sex divas. Producers found kit performing a folly show in berlin and jones was cutting an album album in Paris and both initially turned down the film. Cnn's Sherry Sylvester reports on how they came back to Boomerang.
Speaker 10:Eartha Kitt plays the owner of the cosmetics firm that promotes Stranger perfume. Eddie Murphy tries to climb the corporate ladder by bedding her. Kitt turned down the role three times because of a bedroom scene in which she was to remove false teeth, a laugh she felt was offensive.
Speaker 7:It's just because you are 60, some odd years old now does not mean that you have fallen apart. And for other women who have become my age, I also feel that if I had done that, it would be an insult to them as well.
Speaker 10:She reconsidered the role and, although her scenes are too steamy for the MPAA ratings board to release for this story, she hopes she will change the image of the elderly.
Speaker 7:Maybe they will see that even though I'm 60-some odd years old, I don't have thoughts to you.
Speaker 10:Having decided to grin and bear it. Both Grace Jones and Eartha Kitt are glad they came back to Boomerang. Sherri Sylvesternn entertainment news hollywood yeah and vice versa.
Speaker 3:With um, with um, grace jones, she didn't want to be like. She was like no, I don't want to do this. No, no, you know, and it was more of a character of who she is, but she doesn't want to do that, like she wasn't with it. She had to like Eddie Murphy had to convince her and Eddie Murphy had to be like listen. I think Eddie Murphy opened up for her one time and he sang her songs and knew her whole set list and he was able to convince her to do it. But at first she didn't want to do it.
Speaker 4:That is wild, and who else could have played that part other than Grace Jones?
Speaker 3:Nobody could turn down this one Right.
Speaker 4:Wild, wild, look at you. All the boomerang trivia.
Speaker 3:I try. That's why I needed to do this episode, because there's a lot of stuff that I wasn't able to talk about in the other episodes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know what I would love if there was like a study, or even just one person just coming out to say you know what? I saw a boomerang that inspired me to get into marketing and advertising. I think for a lot of people it has, I think I wouldn't be surprised the same way that the world inspired so many people to go to HBCUs and I was just about to say that.
Speaker 4:Maxine Shaw, attorney at law, inspired so many people to be attorneys Like, yeah, I could see the same for Boomerang. I know there's some people with some stories out there.
Speaker 3:I think, I think, um, I think that's true. I think, when it comes to Boomerang, a lot of my male friends and I'll say that for the male friends, and mostly the ones that I talked to on this podcast uh, they more identified with Eddie Murphy being the player instead of getting the whole message. When it comes to they, more so they will, yeah, yeah, cause I have a lot of like. I even have one friend his last name is Graham and he was like, yeah, I don't want to be, I don't want to be like my uncle, marcus, and he was like, yeah, I don't want to be like my Uncle Marcus.
Speaker 5:At one point I felt like that was going to be my life, like I was terrified, terrified. I'm like, oh my God, that's my life. And then his last name is Graham either.
Speaker 3:Yo, oh my God, till this day, I refer to that as my uncle marcus or your uncle right right but yeah, I do believe that this movie sparked a whole bunch of people to be in industry, to be in corporate america. I do, um, you know, and it's a space that is still like at the time it was it wasn't. At the time it they felt like it wasn't needed. But now you see, over the years it is. You see a lot of people doing brand management. You see a lot of people doing community outreach. You see a lot of companies wanting to adopt. It wasn't until the 90s where they figured out oh, black people can actually sell stuff. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:And that's why this movie is so important, besides the fact that John Witherspoon's in it.
Speaker 4:You got to coordinate.
Speaker 8:I'm trying to impress you. You know that. I know Now. Where'd you get the mushroom shirt? I got to know. Well, the secret is.
Speaker 9:You got to coordinate. Most people don't coordinate, so you got to coordinate. That's what you did. Yeah, interesting See, I told you they don't stink when you pull the membrane out.
Speaker 3:Mama, I think when you saw me you saw the mushroom shirt, mushroom shirt, bang, mushroom shirt, mushroom shirt. But see, you can't stop with the mushroom shirt you got to go on.
Speaker 9:I had to stop the shirt. No, you got to keep going. Okay, Now let me show you something.
Speaker 8:Look at, did you know your pops had a mushroom belt on? Yes, but you don't stop there, see, you gotta keep going. You got a mushroom ring. Yes, good idea.
Speaker 9:Look what I got Da, gerard.
Speaker 1:Did you know on the inside was special mushroom?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think and this is probably gonna blow your mind the director of this movie was Reginald Hudlin. He placed a world where House, party and Boomerang are in the same universe. This is why it blows your mind If you look at the scene with John Witherspoon and his wife in House Party.
Speaker 9:it's the same characters in Boomerang you the one making all the noise. I got the wrong number too baby.
Speaker 11:Hold on one second oh, dance now with your big ass. Go on dance 9-1-1?
Speaker 3:I'll hold.
Speaker 9:Look, officer, I spent $15,000 for my house. I don't want to hear no goddamn public enema around here. Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, shut up old man, which means in-house party. Yes, sir, yes sir, which means in house party. Those were david allen grier's parents that said I don't care about a public animal. Wow. And the only reason I say that is because, uh, there's another call back to house party in boomerang. Um, there is. Um, reginald hudlin is actually in the movie with his brother, warrenson hudlin. Uh, they are. If you remember, in house party, they were on the bus. Um, I guess they were being chased by a dog or whatever, and they were on a bus like what you looking at. I don't know if you remember the scene, but right before a kid is actually in the, um, the refrigerator. Kid is actually in the refrigerator, no, okay. So Full Force is chasing kid. And there's these two guys with gold chains and they're wearing suits with hats on. No, it's okay, the same two guys.
Speaker 4:No, I have a part in two, with more of my movie out of the series it's okay.
Speaker 3:It's okay watch it again, because I'm telling you those same two characters are actually in Boomerang if you see the scene where they try to sell Eddie Murphy a watch in Boomerang.
Speaker 4:Yes, I remember them in Boomerang. Yes, they're also in House Party. I love it. Tell Eddie Murphy a watch in Boomerang. Yes, I remember them in Boomerang. Yes.
Speaker 3:They're also in house party.
Speaker 4:I love it. Another one of my favorite. You know what's so dope about this movie too? It's all like the side characters. It's really what makes it like, yes, is the love story with Eddie Murphy, blah, blah, blah, rom-com. But to me, but to me, it's all the extra characters, like Tisha Campbell screaming over the fence. Don't do it, girl, whatever she said with her sign, trying to scare Leela Rashan away.
Speaker 10:Niki Slytherin, son of a bitch.
Speaker 8:You want to keep it down. Get ready to have some company, okay.
Speaker 4:So who's the victim tonight?
Speaker 8:Yvonne, I don't feel like playing with you, okay, stop. Why don't you like playing with you? Okay, stop.
Speaker 10:Why don't you just tell her the truth? Tell her you're gonna use her. Then you're gonna dump her like you did me.
Speaker 8:Excuse me, excuse me. I did not dump you. We went out. It was whack and it was your fault. And I wish, look, why don't you get over and go find another man? Huh, get out of here. I hope you catch a disease and your dick falls off. Oh well, I would expect you to say something crass like that. Don't forget, I have the court order for you to stay. We ain't even supposed to be that close to the gate. We'll call your probation officer.
Speaker 4:It's yeah, it's just an awesome, awesome, awesome cast of characters, aside from Eddie Murphy in his lead role.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. I love TG Campbell in this role. Yeah, I love TG Campbell in this movie. I think she's the funniest she's ever been, besides Marty.
Speaker 4:I think that even when she sees Robin Gibbons' character and she's talking to her over the fence and giving her you got my size, my weightggie style how could you imagine well, hopefully you wouldn't be able to imagine going to a man's house and having his next door neighbor talking about she done, fucked him too, like what, and you still know this side girl but she having coffee with them, like she's.
Speaker 3:And then, and then, like after his heart is broken, she's like, oh, you want to come over for some coffee.
Speaker 10:And he's like not even if jesus was pouring him some motherfuckers are so blind they can't see a good thing when they stand them in the face. Why don't you just lift your black ass off the ledge then fuck you?
Speaker 3:but you know what's even like crazier about this movie and I don't know if you knew this, but uh, eddie murphy and robin gibbons actually dated before this movie.
Speaker 8:Really I did not know that you ever had somebody treat you like robin gibbons treat you in this movie? Yes, robin gibbons did the joke, the joke everybody knows. I used to go with robin, but I, yes, robin Givens did, it's a joke. It's a joke, everybody knows. I used to go out with Robin.
Speaker 3:But I just found an interest in that. You know, oh, they did it too.
Speaker 4:So you're in this movie with your ex and like they had good chemistry, though, so I could see that.
Speaker 3:Did you know that this movie was the first movie that Eddie Murphy was seen as a sex symbol?
Speaker 4:Really.
Speaker 3:Because before this movie Eddie Murphy was doing action films Mostly.
Speaker 4:Don't women, I mean, and I don't know, this is not my thing, but isn't like a thing that women are lustful after action stars? How was he not seen as a sex symbol? And he was in all those action films. I guess he wasn't like shredded up, ripping your shirt off type of action film I don't know.
Speaker 3:I I think that, and a lot of women tell me this, it's not just me saying this a lot of women say that they didn't see eddie murphy as a quote quote, unquote sex symbol until this movie.
Speaker 4:Interesting. I don't know that I've ever seen him as a sex symbol. Not really a sex symbol, but more like, like his character, Right Cause some people the criticism for this movie is that he was just playing himself, which he kind of does in every movie. Jesus, mr Church, might be the only stretch.
Speaker 3:You hate, mr Church.
Speaker 4:I can't believe you made me watch that my mother loves that movie.
Speaker 3:Damn grits. There's secrets in his grits.
Speaker 4:He tried in that one he did, he tried.
Speaker 3:But again, you know, this is the movie that showed off that he can play a quote unquote different character, even though he is quote unquote himself, like you say. Um, he played more of a softer character than what he normally. He wasn't jumping and shooting and, like you know, chasing bad guys as he would in the belleville's cop movies or in the 48 hours or you know whatever other movies that came out.
Speaker 4:What was Distinguished Gentleman about?
Speaker 3:I think you would like Distinguished Gentleman. He plays a con man who gets elected to Congress.
Speaker 4:off of name recognition, he has the same name as someone else that's running for the ballot Right.
Speaker 3:So his name? His name is, uh, thomas jefferson johnson. There is a jeff johnson that dies in the beginning of the movie and he's like nobody really looks at the ballot. They just keep voting for the same person every year, and he hears a story about how people voted for a man into office that had died and and what's funny is, the same thing happened uh in Vegas a couple of years ago, uh, with uh Dennis. I think his name is Dennis Hoff, the owner of the bunny ranch. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he, he was running for, uh, something, some kind of government position in Vegas and actually died before the election and was voted in Like everybody voted for him and they were like no. But that's what, distinguished gentlemen, is about. It's basically about him, you know. You know, shortening his name, making it Jeff Johnson, the name, you know, and nobody ever sees who he is or what. He never does any interviews, he never shows his face. After he gets elected he goes straight to Congress and everybody finds out who he is and why he's there. And I think it was a good movie, especially when it came out. I think I watched it in school also. It showed a lot about government and how the government works. Could have been a better movie, of course, but for the time I think it was really good.
Speaker 12:There's something different about Eddie Murphy these days. It's not that he looks any different, but that undeniable Murphy edge has been smoothed out considerably for his new film Boomerang.
Speaker 1:You know, I wasn't trying to retool my image and it's just that as you get older you change and the image that I have. I don't think I've been what people perceive me as since I was 22. What people perceive me?
Speaker 12:as since I was 22. That image is of the wild-eyed, foul-mouthed party boy, much like his on-screen Beverly Hills cop character, who enjoyed life on the edge. Rumors that Murphy was the epitome of a ladies' man was never too far from the truth. Now Eddie says his wild days are just fun memories memories the comedian uses to create the storyline for his new romantic comedy. It's the story of a womanizing perfume executive, marcus graham, who finally gets his due I think you draw from all your life's experiences.
Speaker 1:When you're writing something, by the time the audience sees it, you're taught, you're showing them experiences that you had 10 years ago.
Speaker 12:You know, that's him, that's not me, that's marcus graham murphy hopes he'll be as popular with his fans with the release of Boomerang. His last couple of films, harlem Nights and Another 48 Hours, were box office flops, so he could use a hit. But if the new movie doesn't make the grade, maybe his upcoming album will. Music has been his pet project for years and now he's ready to give it a serious shot.
Speaker 3:They were saying that Eddie Murphy was in the slump right. So at the time, after coming to America, you have Harlem Nights, you have another 48 hours, distinguished Gentlemen, then you have Boomerang, and what they were saying about or I think, boomerang then Distinguished Gentlemen, but what they were saying about Eddie Murphy was that he was in a slump. Harlem Knights didn't do well in the box office. Yeah, that's what they were saying. Harlem Knights didn't do well in the box office. Another 48 hours didn't do well. Boomerang didn't do well. Distinguished Gentleman was okay. Then you have Beverly Hills, cop 3, which didn't do well. Distinguished gentleman was okay. Um, then you have bevel hills, cop three, which didn't do well. Vampire in brooklyn, and then he didn't redeem himself until nutty professor that's wow.
Speaker 4:And to me the majority of those are cult classics.
Speaker 3:So now, but back then they weren't. People didn't see it that way.
Speaker 4:I don't know. I also feel like it depends on like, who are these critics? Because, again, I'm not going by the critics.
Speaker 3:I'm talking about the box office for these movies. Actually, let me, let me rephrase that, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that because the box office was favorable for these movies. Because, again me, let me rephrase that, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that because the box office was favorable for these movies. Because, again, it's still Eddie Murphy, they're still showing up for Eddie Murphy and his films, the, the, the, the critics and the audience score from a lot of these things weren't received that well. Um, and some of the more, the big critics like um, siskel and Ebert.
Speaker 13:This is a kinder gentler, eddie Murphy, than we've seen in the movies before, and I like him in this film.
Speaker 11:Well, I liked one thing that he did in the picture. I mean, everyone knows there's so much publicity about this picture that Eddie Murphy's you know sort of been shocked by the criticism that he's too macho in his Playboy interview and on the screen with Harlem Nights and that he's not black enough, that he's not black enough, that it is a higher of blacks. When I out this pictures like an apology of me, a couple, for my all my sins, but I think what has happened is they have put enough laughs in it and the dangerous kind of money, eddie murphy, is what I was missing in this picture, because this is eddie murphy.
Speaker 13:Suddenly you've got the sociological criticism. Is he black it up? Does he have enough?
Speaker 11:enough black people. No, no, no, I don't have it. I don't have it. His colleagues have it.
Speaker 13:You've quoted it from other places.
Speaker 11:Exactly right.
Speaker 13:The fact is, I think you have to just look at this as a movie. You wouldn't put some other actor up to that kind of standard?
Speaker 11:I don't believe, absolutely. I would put any other actor up to it. In fact, it's in the agenda. And let me ask you something else Do you think, think any of these ideas that I've just said are in his mind?
Speaker 13:do? I think they're in his mind. I'm sure they are, I'm sure they I'm I'm sure that he wants to show a different side of himself as well as a lot of my wrong to bring it up well, because you're doing it in a different way. It's hard to explain, but I know what I'm talking about you know, roger, on that basis you could do the show by yourself. Here's the problem. I have a very, very good point I'm trying to make and I can't make it in 30 seconds.
Speaker 11:Maybe we'll do a show on it okay, the new show called Ebert, who they got feisty they did, but Dean Siskel was full of shit like who?
Speaker 4:first of all, I don't want to hear Siskel and Ebert discussing. Is Eddie Murphy black enough, like y'all are not part of this conversation, but that was.
Speaker 3:That's what. That's what Spike Lee was saying well, we know Spike's issue.
Speaker 4:I was watching a device and this is a little bit off topic but kind of not really the vice uh about the the um, the dark side of the 90s with the Arsenio Hall show and Spike Spike Lee was hating on Arsenio Hall too and it's like damn, you was just beefing with everybody at Eddie's camp, like why was you so tight and coming out of nowhere saying all this. I mean I understand why I got to Spike. I adore Spike Lee, he's my favorite. But looking at all this in retrospect, like sir who asked you, but at the time Eddie Murphy's the biggest box office star.
Speaker 3:That's African-American, he's the biggest one and he exceeds. He exceeds just the black quote-unquote black market, you know what I mean. So like he's doing things higher than what Spike is doing at the time and Spike is is saying his criticism was you know, he's not black enough, he's not hiring enough black people. He has all this power and position. He's not doing that. And then it bleeds into media like Gene Siskel and Ebert, like the clip I don't know if you remember the clip that I gave you before with Jay Leno and Eddie Murphy and Jay Leno going back and forth about it.
Speaker 2:Like I'm reading this thing, I'm reading this through from. This is on the LA Times, this review. It says it says the most intriguing aspect of Boomerang turns out not its story but its racial composition. It says this takes pains to create a reverse world from which white people are invisible.
Speaker 8:Now, oh yeah, this cat and the LA Times is tripping because there was, there were no. Well, there are white people in the movie but there were no, like you know, like white leads in it and you take a picture like Boys in the Hood. No one tripped about that because it was, you know, a movie that dealt with like a violent thing but regular thing and it was business. Where are the white people? Who's running that office? You know, that kind of I mean. So when you, when you get that type of criticism, you can't really trip on it. If someone's reviewing a movie and they're tripping on me, you know, personally I don't, I don't even. Well, it's a cultural bias.
Speaker 2:It's the type of thing where people say they're not. They're not used to seeing black artists in these roles. So it it seems onto me. But you know, I would say, well, you better get used to it, because I ain't going no place.
Speaker 4:I ain't going no place so it's kind of weird looking at these clips in 2024, though, and and going back like why was it so revolutionary to have an all black cast and people working as advertising executives and bell clerks and living in nice neighborhoods and working at community centers and being artists and graphic designers like that? Why do we act like black people have never done these things?
Speaker 3:Well, at the time it it wasn't happening in on TV. Like it wasn't wasn't happening on TV, Like it wasn't happening on TV, it wasn't happening in the movies. Understand that, and I say this all the time. In the 70s you have a boom of Black movies. That happened and most of it was like you know, a lot of like I'm going to get you suck a job, turkey type action. And then they started giving you more stuff like cornbread, Earl and me. But then it stopped and they said that black people can't sell tickets and that was the issue in the. In the eighties there were about, let's say, five or six predominantly African-American movies Like you can. You can count them on your hands. How many black movies were in the 80s? And then you come into the 90s where there's a boom of these gang, gang member boys in the hood, uh, minister, society type movies that white people see a movie with black people in the office. They're like what is this? They're wearing suits and ties. They're wearing suits and ties.
Speaker 3:Wild. I mean it's wild, it's crazy to think.
Speaker 4:But this is what we had. True in the sense that we also weren't even predominantly featured in advertisements in what the 70s maybe the 70s was like the start, when advertisers were like oh, black people have money too, let's start featuring them. So perhaps we were not in boardrooms and in those rooms making decisions until the 80s and 90s and that was, at least at that level, a new career opportunity. But I also think that in terms of mainstream media's examination of the movie, like I think Ebert was going in the right direction. Like yo, why would? You wouldn't look at any other actor and call out their race in this type of movie. So why are you doing that to Eddie Murphy? Like, again, you just need to view this from a lens of it's a movie. It's a movie and with them saying like I don't know, I think it maybe was cisco, that's saying there wasn't enough laughs in it. To me, the laughs were so cultural and specific to us that perhaps for a mainstream white audience they just didn't get the jokes simply delicious.
Speaker 9:Marcus, I keep telling yvonne she should take some cooking lessons from you. All she do is cook pork. I bet we've eaten everything on the pig, from the rooter to the tooter, the whole pig. Huh, you didn't marry me for my cooking you got that right baby.
Speaker 8:That's why we got little Junior over there Bang bang, bang, bang, bang bang bang.
Speaker 3:It's what Reginald Hudlin did was well. Um, what Reginald Hudlin did was well. Eddie Murphy picked Reginald Hudlin because he loved House Party and he loved. He loved what he did with House Party, he said. He said he even saw the short film. So what he did was have most of the people from House Party were in Boomerang. You have your Martin. Lawrence you have your teacher Campbell, john Witherspoon, uh, bb Massey, um, who else, like you, just didn't have full force and kid in black.
Speaker 4:That's dope. I did not know that Um Eddie Murphy was such a huge fan of house party and that's why he wanted.
Speaker 3:That's what he wanted. So, contrast to what Gene Siskel is talking about Eddie Murphy not being black enough and you know, trying to, you know have that trope against him and saying his contemporaries are saying that is bullshit. Because you have a movie like Coming to America which, granted, it was directed by white people, but it is a predominantly African American cast. You have Harlem Nights, which is mostly African-American. Um, I don't know what else you can do to be more blacker.
Speaker 4:So again, who are these critics Like? They have absolutely zero credibility.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I'm just telling you what I'm, what I'm hearing from the time. That's all I have as a as a capsule. I don't know, I don't know, I'm just telling you what I'm hearing from the time. That's all I have as a capsule. I don't know who these critics are. I don't know, but I love the fact that I love this movie so much and there's new things that I find out every time I watch it, time I watch it. I also love the I guess, the relationship tropes that happen in this movie. I feel like and I don't know if we talked about this before, but I feel like this is the first African American romantic comedy.
Speaker 4:I don't know, is it?
Speaker 3:I don't know, I don't, I don't know anything that predates it, to say, like you know, are you going to say strictly businesses? I don't know. They came out around the same time, but this is the first time that you have a a predominantly black cast that's giving you a romantic comedy. It's like opening the doors for for the other ones that came back, came through, that we love so much. Afterwards.
Speaker 4:What year did Mo Money come out?
Speaker 3:Like a year before.
Speaker 4:That doesn't count.
Speaker 3:Is it? I mean Mo Money also has the. I won't say that it's relationship based right, because Mo Money it does have a love story in it, but it's more about this guy that's like down on his luck and like his way into credit card dealing and it's kind of borderlines. An action film.
Speaker 4:It does, yeah, but the scam at the end. Sorry for spoiling it. People that have not seen it 30 years later.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't know anything else that predates it. The first black rom-com.
Speaker 4:but yeah, I I don't know anything else, the first black rom-com, I think. So Check yourself on that one. That's a good question.
Speaker 3:I think so. I I've tried to. I mean, like I said, when it comes to our movies, um like you have a huge list to scroll through.
Speaker 3:I don't have a list to scroll through, but I do know that. I do know what was popular or what I remember in my mind. Now there could have been something beforehand, but I don't know. Like I just told you about the 80s, there wasn't that many predominantly black African-American movies that that we had. We didn't have that many if it wasn't spike doing his movies toward the end of the 80s. You also have your. I'm gonna get you sucker color. That many. Action Jackson crush groove.
Speaker 4:There aren't any, I don't. Yeah, it might be neck and neck with strictly business. You really got me Googling this now. I'm like wait, it's strictly business Definitely counts.
Speaker 3:Right Cause strictly business was an actual movie where, uh, he was like it was a love, like he was trying to find love. Same thing with boomerang, like he he's trying. You know it is like you know, quote unquote, a love story that deals with relationships. But there's no other movie, the african-american cast that predates it.
Speaker 4:Right Wow.
Speaker 3:And that's only because they thought that these movies weren't. They weren't Hollywood, like it wasn't Hollywood material, it wasn't box office.
Speaker 4:Why did they put house party on this list? I don't think that counts as a rom-com.
Speaker 3:It doesn't?
Speaker 4:It's Buzzfeed list is questionable.
Speaker 3:It's one of my favorite movies, though, so that's why I know it so well.
Speaker 4:Right with the poster and the business was 91. So that that would be the blueprint.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's only like a year. You know what I mean. Like I could tell you what other movies that were like out around the time as strictly business, I mean there was what they weren't. They didn't deal like a a romantic. It wasn't. A romantic comedy had nothing that was solidifying that. First it was always something else that dealt with it and then you sandwiched in something else after. So it wasn't like and even if you really want to predate something coming to America could have been a rom-com also.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But the fact that he's coming from Africa to America is the thing that kind of is first. You see that first, more than you see anything else. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:But he's coming from Africa to America for the sole purpose to get away. That's a rom-com.
Speaker 3:Okay, Then again Eddie Murphy started at two.
Speaker 4:Was that 89? What year did he come into America?
Speaker 7:88.
Speaker 4:Oh, so then yeah, he started it.
Speaker 3:That's all I could like, because again, um, and I say I'll say it again, hollywood only wanted a certain, certain type of movie from African Americans at the time, you know, and like I said, in the seventies it was more so the bang bang, shoot them up. You know, I'm going to get you suckers shaft type situation that they were trying to do in the 80s. They didn't know, they didn't think that African-Americans were bankable stars. That's why there was such a push for people saying, hey, go see black movies, because they weren't making any. And then here's another one, your good friend Spike Lee. She's got to have it. It's technically a rom-com, it's not funny.
Speaker 3:It was built. It was advertised as a comedy. It's not a comedy, but it was advertised as a comedy at the time, Hi.
Speaker 9:I'm Spike Lee. I'm not directing. I do this. It pays the rent, puts food on the table, butter on my whole wheat bread. Anyway, I had this new comedy coming out. It's a very funny film. She's got to have it. Check this out.
Speaker 4:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But no, I wouldn't classify that and you know also. No, we quickly say that. Oh yeah, eddie murphy started it, because we're on the pod, but there might have been some other 70s or 80s rom-coms like what claudine? I that wasn't a comedy, though was it, it wasn't. There were other movies like there's this.
Speaker 4:It wasn't blockbuster, obviously decades ago and there was um this dvd that I got it's called five on the black hand side I remember five on the black hand side yeah, I'm like, yo, this is a really dope movie from the 70s and it's not like it's just a story about a Black family with teenagers coming of age in the 70s and it wasn't like Blaxploitation or anything like that. I'm like, oh, this is dope. I didn't know there were other types of movies in this black movies in the 70s that weren't blaxploitation there were.
Speaker 3:There was, uh, like I said, cornbread earl and me, uh, cooley high um, but that happened toward the end of the 70s right sparkle in the 70s too sparkle was in the 70s as well, the whiz. So they were making movies that weren't blaxploitation. It's just that hollywood thought that blaxploitation was, was um, marketable until it wasn't, you know, and that's, and I think they, I think they. They make reference to that in the dolomite movie.
Speaker 9:I don't know if you remember that part either I don't know how much longer we can do these pictures. You see that part either college. Don't that make you feel good on the inside, Rudy?
Speaker 1:Brother, don't, nobody want to see, no shit like that.
Speaker 3:Before I let you go. I know it's been a minute since you've been on here and I have to do this because you know I have to remind people what are your top five Eddie Murphy movies.
Speaker 4:Top five, top five. Well, I know I went on script last time and listed the PJs. It's not a movie, but it's still one of my top five.
Speaker 4:Eddie Murphy projects and absolutely Boomerang is on the list. Oh, now I kind of Vampire in Brooklyn. This might be completely different than last time. So we got the PJs Boomerang Vampire in Brooklyn. This might be completely different than last time. So we got the PJs boomerang vampire in Brooklyn. What would be my last two? Oh, harlem nights Definitely still a fave, and life. That might have been my original five. Yeah, definitely not in that order. The order kind of switches up and changes, but All right.
Speaker 3:Do you have anything that you're working on lately?
Speaker 4:Yes and no. I'm not sure that I could share publicly, okay, but always, always cranking out some projects, so stay tuned Go to my website gratitudegrielcom. Join my newsletter, that I never send out newsletters, so I won't spam you. One of these days I'm gonna get back, uh, to my digital life and my content creation when I'm balanced with motherhood and that's good, all right.
Speaker 3:Ladies and gentlemen, jewel, singletary, everybody, if you haven't already, please like, share and subscribe to the podcast and, as always, let's have an open mind, clear heart and let's end this show. Heart, and let's end this show. Had a job bum on him, yeah.