Grantland so far

Here's the link.

www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7189740/eddie-murphy

Eh.

 

I thought that was a pretty comprehensive piece of work, Az. Reason I pulled my post was I didn't realize it was six months old. I don't even remember seeing it when Simmons first had it up there.

Now, he does come off as a fanboi, sure. But his main premise stands up pretty well -- if you sit back and look at him objectively, Eddie Murphy is an all-time great just by what he did before the age of 25. To put it another way, when you've scaled Everest early in life, there isn't a hell of a lot to do other than fall off the mountaintop once or twice.

 

I agree. Heck, Murphy was so ridiculously successful so early that most people probably don't realize it anymore. I'm in my late 20s, and I sometimes forget that he is the most successful SNL alum by far.

Sidebar: Whoever thought casting Murphy in a movie where he doesn't talk would be a moneymaker is incredibly stupid. Why bother?

 

By far? I would say that Bill Murray, while he probably loses a head to head match-up in terms of success, it's certainly not a big enough gap to be considered "by far." Murray has been great in both comedy (Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Rushmore) and drama (Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, Get Low), and he had an Oscar stolen from him for Lost in Translation.

When you name all Murray's movies, it's way, way closer than people want to believe.

 

And what brings it back to "by far" is that Murphy was a classic stand-up comic. As much as we like to remember the greatness of Pryor and Carlin, "Delirious" is the most-repeated, most-popular stand-up movie of all time.

 

At least according to one site, Murphy's all-time take is at $3.7 billion, behind only Sam Jackson and Tom Hanks, and just slightly ahead of Harrison Ford. Murray is at 87th, with $1.5 billion. Thanks to Shrek (with also has Murphy), I think Mike Myers is the next closest at $2.2 billion, in 31st.

http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/actors.mv?actors+ByTG

 

What are Bill's 10 best comedies, in any order?

Meatballs
Stripes
Caddyshack
Ghostbusters
What About Bob?
Groundhog Day
Kingpin
Rushmore
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Ed Wood

How do Murphy's stack up?

 

Meatballs
Stripes
Caddyshack
Groundhog Day
Kingpin

I just don't like Ghostbusters, but Meatballs, Stripes and Caddyshack are a great top three.

 

To make a baseball analogy, Murphy is Pedro or Sandy Koufax, in that his peak probably isn't matched by any other pitcher. Murray is more like Hank Aaron, just steadily turning out good blockbusters as an ensemble guy (Ghostbusters and other movies in the 80s and 90s) or very good, artsy movies (Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers and everything else he's done in the past 20 years or so) as a solo guy. The two don't have a ton in common, except that they both seem to be ruggedly individual and don't give a shit what others think of them.

 

Belushi is Koufax.

 

Belushi is Mark Prior. 40+ years after, there isn't a ton on the resume after Animal House, Blues Brothers, the non-coked up SNL skits and (charitably) 1941. Everyone who saw him raved about how awesome he was, but Chris Farley has more of a resume than him.

 

Chris Farley doesn't have more of a resume than John Belushi.