Boomerang (1992)

The Eddie Murphy romantic/sex comedy "Boomerang" is, quite simply, a thorough and total joy. Murphy portrays longtime womanizer Marcus Graham with his usual charm and poise. Halle Berry is absolutely appealing and absolutely warm as the girl who prompts Marcus to clean up his horny act. Martin Lawrence and David Alan Grier provide ingratiating and stylish buddy-support. Lela Rochon and Eartha Kitt are, respectively, magnificently kittenish and magnificently cougar-ish as women with whom Marcus scores. Yet the film's greatest asset, its leading lure is Robin Givens's portrayal of Marcus's boss/female counterpart Jacqueline Broyer. She is by turns sexy and stylish, sultry and commanding, seductive and polished. We immediately see why Marcus falls under her spell and, when she dumps him, not only do we not turn against her, we admire her independent spirit and her no-bullshit attitude. Really and truly, by and of itself "Boomerang" is a sexy, charming, absolutely joyous romantic/sex farce; with Robin Givens on board, however, it achieves genuine cinematic greatness.

Fmovies: Boomerang is the worst. I mean really bad from top to bottom. The jokes don't land and the romantic components are thoroughly boring. So little happens, and you just never really care about the characters. Also the sex scenes are absolutely disgusting (why would Eddie think we want to watch HIS face during or pre- orgasm... not once, but TWICE! Gross).

Such a piece of trash is hard to produce with so many decent actors and comedians (and so much eye candy), but Eddie managed to do it quite handily despite the treasure trove of talent he had at his disposal. Thank goodness he stopped directing and writing. It's a real shame that he stopped doing standup - THAT he was great at (no one ever made me laugh as hard as he did when I saw him live in Oakland during the Raw tour). But he was never cut out to be the creative force behind films.

The only saving grace to this picture is Halle Berry's gorgeous face... and an honorable mention for the chance to watch Robin Givens and Grace Jones strut around looking absolutely stunning. Beyond that, this movie belongs on the garbage heap of other flops Murphy created... it never should have made it off the cutting room floor.

I must admit something before I write this: I did not finish this movie. At most, I saw a half hour of it. I may have only seen a quarter of it but it was enough to know the movie was trashy quality. That's why I did not finish it.

A plot summary seems unnecessary because I could not find a plot within the half hour I watched the movie. IMDB says the plot is this:

"A successful executive and womanizer finds his lifestyle choices have turned back on him when his new female boss turns out to be an even bigger deviant than he is."

It could have been about that, but I didn't see it in a half hour. If it takes that long to find a plot in a movie, I suppose none is really to be found. To quote Roger Ebert: "If nothing has happens in the first reel, nothing is going to happen."

What I did find in Boomerang was many unfunny sexual references. In one scene, Eddie Murphy's character is viewing a commercial for Kissable brand lipstick where cherries and bananas are licked sexually. The reaction part is mildly amusing, and may have been the highlight of the half hour.

Murphy also has sex with 2 different women in the half hour time span, which made me question how many encounters he would have in the latter 85 minutes.

One woman was Eartha Kitt, who played Ymza in The Emperor's New Groove, which made me realize Ymza and Mushu were getting it on...get THAT image out of your head!

After that scene, I took the movie out and watched Mean Girls for the first time instead. I loved that. Give THAT some thought.

Eddie Murphy has made good movies, such as: Shrek, Mulan, Coming To America, The Nutty Professor, and I moderately enjoy Norbit. All have better quality than Boomerang. At least they are all more plot-focused.

I hope by bashing the sex I don't come off as a prude. Sex and film can go hand in hand(movies like American Beauty and Last Tango In Paris come to mind, both of which I gave a 10/10 on here), but movies such as this use it very poorly.

If you want a well-written movie, Boomerang is a movie you don't want to come around to.

Boomerang fmovies. A marketing executive quickly learns that what comes around, goes around when this Don Juan's new boss turns out to be a Don Juan-ita. Eddie Murphy gives the finest performance of his career as Marcus, a player who meets his match with Robin Givens, but finds love in Halle Berry. Murphy barely drops the F-bomb in the film and the character is well developed by Murphy himself, who had a hand in the writing credits for the film. A fun film that features a great supporting cast of David Allen Grier, Martin Lawrence and John Witherspoon.

Marcus is a player who woos and beds women with great ease – but never settles down with any. When a company merger sees him working for the glamorous Jacqueline, he finds himself being played but still falling for her. However a relationship with the more stable Angela beckons if he can change his ways – but will Jackie allow him to leave her?

Part of the Eddie Murphy come back after the years of Harlem Nights, Golden Child, Another 48 hours, BHC 2 and other weak films. This and the Distinguished Gentleman saw him try to come back with a fresh approach. Boomerang is a good film – it uses Murphy's playa persona and turns it on it's head to good effect. True some of it is plain silly and it is quite predictable but it is pretty enjoyable and quite sexy too!

Murphy is good simply because he is the butt of many of the jokes via his playa image – plus it's good to see him be outdone after so many big-headed films. Givens is very good as the man-eating boss but I found Berry to be too sweet to be believed – but though she was the better looking. Lawrence and Rock are well used in small roles but Kitt and Grace are pointless and stupid cameos. Witherspoon is very funny and I personally love to see Lela Rochon in anything (and those aren't her feet).

Overall it may not win any awards or being shockingly innovative but it's fun, sexy and has a good bagfull of laughs in there.

This film may have it's problems, and apparently many people saw them first hand and stayed away from the film. And I have to admit that the first time I saw this film I wasn't too enthused with it. But after I saw it a second time I fell in love with it and I now own it on video and have seen it quite a few more. And the reason is simple.

First of all it is an excellent romance. Eddie really surprised me with his ability to write a story that actually had me touched. He is especially good as a player who gets played but actually falls in love. Murphy has shown a different side to him here and it is also one of his funnier films in quite some time. He is assisted in the comedy department here by two very funny guys, David Allan Grier and Martin Lawrence, the latter stealing every scene he is in.

Martin Lawrence has never been as funny as he was in this film. He was great in Bad Boys, but his supporting turn here as Gerard is a classic. There is a true camaraderie here between the three friends (Murphy, Lawrence and Grier) and their conversation and actions around one another has the easy flow that longtime friends exhibit. They play jokes on each other, they make fun of each other and they are supportive of one another. But Lawrence has all the funny lines. From burning his dinner when his friends come over, to his hilarious observations about racism (the game of pool is racist because the white ball knocks the **** out of all the coloured balls, including the black one) to defending his unfortunate lack of lovemaking in the last few years, his interpretation of Tyler is just perfect.

Boomerang is also blessed with a truly mellifluous soundtrack. With P.M. Dawn and Boyz To Men, among many of the stars, lending tracks to the film, it reminds me of the soundtrack to Last American Virgin in the sense that there are so many of today's superstars of music on the soundtrack. With Babyface producing, this is another winning production from him.

Boomerang solidifies Eddie Murphy's return to the king of comedy. He did rebound nicely after this film and it is good to see him going back to what he knows. A very, very funny film.

9/10