The Golden Child (1986)

Fresh and Exciting

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I have a lot of love for 80's fantasy/action/comedy classic The Golden Child. The film is pretty unique and the only movie that I have seen that resembles this somewhat is John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China and shares some of the same cast as well(James Hong, Victor Wong,etc). The Golden Child is much more of a comedy and Eddie Murphy is in top form here, in one of his strangest, but funniest movies. He does an awesome job as leading man here and delivers as both man of action and comedic superstar. Eddie gives one of his coolest performances here and delivers hilarious one liners while fighting the forces of evil. The film looks great and moves at a fast pace. The Golden Child is an 80's classic and one of my favorites and is excellent entertainment indeed.

An attractive, strange Asian woman proclaims you're the "chosen one". A little Asian boy astrally projects himself outside your window. A demon disguised as a man burns a mark in your arm with his fingernail... that's strange, but it is Los Angeles. That pretty much was the reaction of Jarell Chandler (Eddie Murphy). I'm not saying that that is the reason I didn't like the movie, but it was a big contributor. I understand that the movie was fantasy, but to Jarell, and the rest of the otherwise normal citizens of L.A., these events were admittedly not normal. So how in the world was his reaction so tame? Jarell Chandler's indifferent response summed up Eddie Murphy's performance. Eddie Murphy wasn't classic Eddie Murphy. He had a few good lines but this was easily one of his worst movies. I never saw Pluto Nash and Norbit was somewhat of a downer but this movie was in his heyday. The movie really depended on Eddie delivering, and I mean REALLY depended on him because the story was weak and the other actors were even weaker than the story. Of course we know that Eddie's career wasn't defined by this movie and thank God for that.

There Was a time when Eddie Murphy was one seriously funny guy, and this film is a good example of that, released in the fall of 1986 THE GOLDEN CHILD was met with mixed to mostly negative reviews (Then again Roger Ebert liked it) I really don't see why people didn't like this film, and to some extent it still to this day is considered a low point in eddies career, for those of you who haven't seen this film before/since i suggest giving it another watch with an open mind knowing that its a fantasy comedy and not your usual Eddie Murphy film (Probably the reason why people just didn't get into it) The Plot concerns Eddie trying to find a kidnapped child who holds magical powers that can bring love and peace in the world or can bring chaos and destroy the world if the child were to be polluted with anything evil, and the people who kidnapped him want to sacrifice the child to gain and use his power for their own evil scheme.PROS: Eddie Murphy is hilarious just playing the average Joe who cannot believe the situation around him, as things get crazier Eddie just gets funnier, Charles Dance as the main Villain does a Decent job at playing a Super Serious villain who seems to constantly keep pronouncing his J's Silent Which leads to a lot amusement when Eddie Murphy shares scenes with him. The Art Directiom is Splendid and the Cinematography is stunning (Especially with the scenes in Tibet) The Musical Score by Michael Colobier is so 80s but infectiously catchy Funk influenced Pop Rock that just makes you feel like a Bad A%$ The Film has a great supporting Cast Half of which appear in another similarly themed movie Called BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA And there's a handful of creative set pieces that really stand out (I.E) The Cave which Eddie must retrieve a dagger and a Hilarious Dream Sequence with Eddie and the villain.CONS: The Final showdown with the Villain feels a little rushed and the Villain's final form isn't all that inspired And the Film's Visual FX don't hold up well in 2 or 3 scenes But aside from that the Film is a lot of Fun, Eddie needs to release a special edition DVD/Blu Ray for this one, but according to some sources he's not too fond of this film (Honestly I don't see why, maybe because it was made at the height of his career and it burned him inside that it didn't do as well as it should have)Overall: 7/10 "Not as good as Coming to America or Beverly Hills cop, but its not far behind and definitely better than anything Eddie made in the 90s onwards.

Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance, Charlotte Lewis and Victor Wong star in this 1986 fantasy-comedy. This begins in Tibet where a magical child (J.L. Reate) gets kidnapped by demonic man, Sardo Numspa (Dance) and his men. Soon, we meet wise-cracking, social worker, Chandler Jarrell (Murphy) who is chosen to rescue the child. Lewis plays Kee Nang, a woman who helps and becomes romantically involved with Chandler and the late, Wong (Big Trouble in Little China) plays her wise-man father. After Kee falls under a spell, Chandler tries to save her by rescuing the child and facing Sardo. Randall "Tex" Cobb (Raising Arizona) and Wong's "Big Trouble in Little China" co-star, James Hong are also featured. I grew up watching this, it's one of my favorites with Murphy that's underrated and Dance is a good villain as usual. I recommend this.