August 4, 2024 • 60 mins
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
We've been waiting for a long time.
Yes, we've been waiting for along, long time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, my baby .
Jesus Christ, jesus Christ.
This is becoming veryirritating.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Murphy Monday podcast, theonly podcast that celebrates the
life and career of Eddie Murphy.
I'm your host, nigel AFullerton.
With me this week I have aperson who is not a stranger to
this podcast.
She has been in the corporateworld, she has been a content
creator, she is the every woman,the renaissance woman.
(00:55):
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasegive a round of applause for
Jewel Singletary.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You back like a boomerang.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
How is motherhood so far?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Man, momming is tough , Toddlers are terrors.
Don't do it y'all, unless youreally, really really want some
kids.
Don't Don't do it y'all, unlessyou really, really really want
some kids.
Don't Don't do it.
They're wild, but you knowshe's super cute.
She's starting to talk.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
She walks now, so I'll keep her.
Oh, you know what I meant toask you.
You just saw a bit of Little'sCop Axe left.
I did, did, I did.
What'd you think is this?
Wait, isn't this your firstbeveled cop movie?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I don't.
I feel like when I was onmaternity leave on bed rest I
was I watched the first twobecause wasn't in um, I'm trying
to remember and I wanted to goback and see, and one of the
first two, weren't they in likesome kind of redneck bar and
they had to fight their way outof it?
That's 48 hours Okay never mind, then I did not see anything
(02:18):
with Beverly Hills Cop, I justjumped in with the newest one.
Never mind, I knew I shouldhave went back, it's okay.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You don't have to, it's okay I remember this little
girl.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Like where did she come from?
They show pictures of when shewas little.
I'm like was this in the other?
This was in part three that Imissed.
That's hilarious.
It's such a great movie that itstands on its own.
You don't have to see the otherones to still enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
How did you feel about it?
What were your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was like a buddy cop film tome Not quite a buddy cop film,
but I liked the action.
I liked the story behind himworking with his future
son-in-law.
I thought it was good andentertaining.
(03:23):
To me it felt watching Eddieact in it.
It was very much like, oh, heis so comfortable being himself
that he is not acting.
It's just Eddie Murphy in thismovie.
But the story was good and theaction.
I felt like for Netflix.
When you first said it wascoming out, I'm like, damn, I'm
going to have to get to a movietheater.
(03:44):
And then, once I Googled it,I'm like oh, shoot it's on
Netflix.
So even for the quality ofNetflix, I thought the
production was great.
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Aska, did you feel?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
like it was a cash grab.
No, how so?
I can't see people running toget a Netflix subscription to
see that People run into to geta Netflix subscription to see
that.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So the the criticism, and this is this is just from
what I saw on the Internet.
I don't know these peoplepersonally, 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 thananything.
60-40.
I won't say 50-50.
It's more 64.
It's more favorable thananything.
But what they were saying wasbecause you don't have prior
knowledge from the other movies,they focused a lot on nostalgia
(04:35):
in this one.
So a lot of it was the samejacket that he had from Beverly
Hills Cop.
Same sneakers he had, same carhe had.
They played all the songs fromall the Beverly Hills Cop.
Same sneakers he had, same carhe had.
They played all the songs fromall the Beverly Hills Cop movies
.
You know they felt that numberone.
They felt that it leaned alittle too much on nostalgia.
(04:57):
I'll agree with them on thatone.
But the second thing that Idon't agree with them is that
they claim it wasn't funny.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
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 thefloor laughing funny Like I
don't know?
The only issue I would say thatI had with the movie was having
to suspend reality Like I don'tknow what if it was Sunset
(05:29):
Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard, whatever main street in LA,
they?
were driving down in the Jeepwhen they started shooting at
him and told her to duck.
I believe that's who wasshooting.
I'm not sure who was shooting,but Eddie is ducked down in the
truck driving backwards downthis busy street in LA and now
one car hits them for like overa mile until the truck side
swipes them and I'm likeseriously.
(05:50):
So to me it was a lot ofmoments like that, like okay,
you just have to suspend realityto enjoy this movie.
But that would have been myonly critique, not that I wasn't
laughing throughout it,laughing throughout it, I don't
know.
I feel like people are toocritical of these remakes.
(06:12):
Remakes I don't care for, but Ilike when they show the
characters years later and howthey progressed in life and
where they're at at that pointin their life and the story
could pick up In some cases.
I think that works really welland I enjoyed this for what it
was.
Again, I don't have any priorknowledge with the original
(06:32):
characters, but I felt likewhere he was at that time of his
life when an adult daughterthat he had been estranged from.
I thought the story was reallygood.
And the same thing with Comingto America 2.
I didn't.
I don't know why people were socritical of it.
I enjoyed.
I enjoyed both movies for whatthey were.
I think you have to take offyour nostalgic lens and just
(06:54):
appreciate the art for what itis in the present day yeah,
that's what I I had.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I had an argument with somebody on Facebook about
it because, um, I him.
I said what exactly were youlooking for?
This movie is from 40 years ago, like literally like it came
out in 1984.
Oh, wow.
So you know, eddie Murphy was22 years old when the first one
came out.
So now you're looking at him at60.
(07:22):
He's not going to be the sameguy.
I like the fact that we saw himage.
There's certain parts in themovie where he's not as
fast-talking as he used to be.
Stuff wasn't going his way andhis daughter had to bail him out
.
I like that.
I like how everything didn'tcome easy to him like it did in
(07:45):
the first movie, and if he wasto do the same stuff from the
first movie, I'd have to turnthe movie off in like five
minutes.
But back to Boomerang.
As I watch this movie, Isometimes see myself in the
movie Never as Marcus Graham,never as Eddie Murphy.
(08:07):
More so, there's been timeswhen I've been Martin Lawrence.
There's been times that I'vebeen David Alan Gray.
Do you see yourself in thismovie?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Oh, you know, I'm always Angela.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You open up the dictionary and see your face.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yep Below art easel what?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
what makes you feel like you're always angela?
Speaker 4 (08:35):
well, hallie berry, was it growing up?
So of course I have alwaysidolized her.
But then then the, the artisticand the free spirit, how she
was able to kill it in the, inthe corporate world as well, but
still have her artisticpassions at the community center
and her just bomb ass apartmentwith art all over the place,
(08:58):
literally me and my art all overthe place.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
So are you okay?
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Oh yeah, I'm fine.
It's just that these salesconventions are really boring.
I'm not looking forward to it.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
That can be pretty boring, but we're going to New
Orleans.
Have you been to New Orleans?
Speaker 8 (09:14):
No, it seems like it's a sexy town.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
Yeah, it's a real romantic town.
It's the kind of place whereyou just take somebody that you
love and just sit back, relax,throw on the jazz and just chill
.
You know that's something youcan do when Jacqueline gets to
(09:39):
town, you know.
Speaker 8 (09:42):
Now, where'd that come from?
Speaker 7 (09:44):
I don't know when did that come from?
Speaker 8 (09:46):
don't know where did that come from?
Who said that?
I think you said it.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
It sounded like it came out of your mouth from
nowhere I just, you know, I Ithink you're cool, I like you
and I was just being concernedall up in my business.
I wasn't trying to pry.
Really do I look like the kindof girl that would be prying?
Speaker 8 (10:04):
Not five minutes ago, but now you look like the one.
If you look up pry in adictionary, it'd be your picture
next to it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
What do you feel about the romantic relationships
that happen in this movie?
You have Marcus Graham, whoplayed by Eddie Murphy, who is
this big time art executive, buthe's also a playboy and he's
more shallow and superficialwhen it comes to his dating life
and then he runs into thiswoman who is kind of his equal,
(10:34):
his match, and she kind of.
Again that proverbial boomerangwhere it's reversed and now
it's hitting him in the head.
All the stuff that he's done towomen.
You know it's happening to him.
How do you feel about thatconcept in that that dynamic?
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I love it and you know what is so current now.
But all these sometimes I getinto my YouTube rabbit hole and
see what all these gender warsare talking about with the 4B
movements and the the passport.
I don't know anything aboutthat?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I don't know anything about that.
I don't know anything aboutwhat'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 (11:21):
That's literally where we're at now.
In the world, though, where youhave these women, that are it,
and I don't and I won't say it'severyone, but of course the
algorithm is going to show youwhat you click on, and I've just
been so fascinated with womenwho are now saying we don't want
to play these games with men.
If anything, we want to playtheir game.
(11:44):
We want to have our own sexualpower, our careers, our lives.
We don't want to have children,we don't want to get married
because these dudes areincompetent, they're slowing us
down and, if anything, they'redangerous.
It's just a whole cluster ofgender chaos.
(12:05):
But I feel like it's sorelevant to boomerang because we
see that with um, what is robingibbons character name?
Why am I?
uh, jacqueline jacqueline, yes,who is this bomb powerful boss
chick, who has all of her sexualpower in the movie on top of
(12:29):
running this company and andliterally treating this dude
like we typically would haveseen him treat her in any other
movie or any other stereotype.
So I it's I don't want to sayempowering, but I just, I just
love there are women out therethat are like that too, like it
(12:50):
was representation.
Not every woman is looking fora husband and to to have kids
and be the little housewife shewants to run her business and,
and you know, have her orgasmstoo.
If I could phrase it any otherway, more delicately, I would
(13:11):
have, but I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I think one of the things I like about um this
movie is is from the maleperspective.
You have three different typesof men in the movie and is shown
in their actions and how theyare.
You have this guy who's more ofa playboy, but even though he
is a playboy he's not as crassas his friend on Martin
(13:37):
Lawrence's character.
And then you have somebodywho's more progressive, like
David Alan Greer's character,who was like battling in between
them.
How did you feel about thatdepiction of of men in the movie
?
Um, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
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 eachone of those stereotypes.
But that was another reason whyI feel like I resonated so much
(14:19):
with Angela, because I wouldhave 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 (14:33):
He was suave and y'all need some David Alan Greer
in your life.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
He was nice now 40, now 40-year-old Jewel.
Now maybe I mean I still want alittle sprinkle of Marcus in my
David Allen Greer.
But I see now why Marcus isproblematic and unavailable and
emotionally immature and all ofthose words and buzz phrases.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
But yeah, but he wouldn't be breaking anybody's
hearts and he wouldn't pop anyballoons.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
True, I mean poor guy .
He would be what the incels aretoday, I think I I mean, I
don't.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I mean there are men that are like these three
different characters.
But what I do like is that itshows the different stages and
like, yes, there were charactersof men, but it shows different
types of men, different types ofblack men, different things
that were happening and theywere all professional.
(15:38):
But even what's even crazierand I totally forgot about this
part you even have Boney T,Chris Rock's character.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I was just about to say yeah, even Chris Rock's
character, who don't know amailroom guy like that, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yo Marcus, yo Marcus, yo Marcus.
Congratulations, man, I heardyou finally boned her.
Speaker 8 (16:02):
Why didn't you tell me you was about to sex her up?
Will you shut up my sex life isnone of your business.
Speaker 10 (16:09):
Oh the hell, it ain't, man.
I just don't want that officepool man.
I thought we were supposed tohelp each other out.
Yo man, how'd you look naked?
Come on, you can tell me, Iwon't tell nobody.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
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, thatdoesn't mean that she's like
ancient, that she still wants tobe loved.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yes, there's so many layers to Eartha Kitt's
character too, and also in thesense in the fact that she was
still the figurehead of LadyEloise and they didn't like push
her out.
She still got a salary obviouslyenough 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,
(17:05):
they old people be fucking too,so we're not gonna act like
they're dead.
So I love that they still hadher a part of the company and
didn't like push her out like wesee.
So, even though they weren't apart of the brand, but we're
seeing in present day, like AuntJemima and Uncle Ben and those
(17:26):
faces and figureheads that trulynever benefited from those
companies and even theirdescendants and generations
after that.
But what we're seeing with LadyEloise, that even though she
doesn't have any decision-makingin the company anymore, she's
still around.
She's still around, she's stillactive and present.
So, in a sense, like thecommunity is still not the
community but the company andthe board.
(17:47):
They're still taking care ofher and making sure that in her
elder years she's stillcomfortable for everything that
she's done for the brand.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And I love the fact that it's an advertisement that
isn't.
Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, that isn't Aunt Jemima and Uncle.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Ben, yeah, Like I love that.
I love the fact that there isbecause, again, we and you've
worked in advertising before, soI know you know this there is a
space where there aren't a lotof African-Americans making
decisions and a lot ofadvertising.
People are tone deaf to whenthey like try to market to the
(18:22):
African-American community andit's alarming, it's crazy, and
we need more places like theoffice that they work in to be
able to make these decisions.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Absolutely agree.
Yeah, I mean well, you know itbest.
Like, how are these advertisingfirms?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Well, I actually work more with sales in the retail
and wholesale industry, but inall of that we've had to partner
with marketing and advertisingdepartments and promo
departments, stuff like that,and I can't think of any one of
my coworkers on that side, withthe exception at Nike.
Nike was pretty good at havingdiversity all throughout the
(19:10):
company, but at any of the othercompanies I've worked for
JCPenney True Religion it wasn'tfolks that looked like us on
the marketing side, anddefinitely not as you climbed up
, higher up in the ranks and thelevels on marketing side, um,
and even at Nike it was acertain glass ceiling that all
(19:30):
of the black execs got to like.
When you got to the c-suitesyou didn't see anybody that
looked like us, which, again, Ithink that's the importance of
Lady Eloise's company.
You see everybody, from theboard the original owner, the
figurehead, the board, theC-suite executives, down to the
(19:52):
secretaries, the clerks, likeliterally everybody, because we
are capable and able to work inall levels of a company.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And it's aspirational .
It's something think about.
The time that you're talkingabout is in the 2000s, but this
is 1992.
Right, you know, for this movieto come out and, like you know,
it boggles my mind that in thatday and age it was, it was
foreign to people that there's a, an advertising firm that has
(20:26):
all African-Americans sellingand they weren't just selling to
African-Americans.
Like Lady Eloise is like LizTaylor of of that building.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
That was a national commercial slot that they were
working on with her.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss me once, kiss me twice.
Ooh yeah, Ooh la la.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, that's another one in terms of the range of
Black men, jeffrey Holder'scharacter and his eccentric.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And he was allowed to be eccentric and not like a
stereotype.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yes, everybody was allowed to show up as themselves
at work.
It was no code switching Right.
They were allowed to be whothey were at work, which, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Even the man that was making the perfume.
Oh, marcus, you devil you.
Right.
You know it was.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
In his lab coat was at Jeffrey Holder when Sean J
hung her panties across theboardroom.
The fact that they had her as aspokesperson, like in her
panties across the boardroom,the fact that they had her as a
spokesperson flicking herpanties across the boardroom and
it wasn't like any othercompany.
Be like nah.
Get your black ass out of here.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
That was great.
I think it was Jeffrey Holderthat was smelling the panties.
What was even crazy is bothGrace Jones and Eartha Kitt did
not want to do the movie atfirst.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I swear to you.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
And they are two of the highlights of the movie for
me.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
What they did not want to do the movie.
Mostly because, well, earthaKitt didn't want to do it
because, like we were talkingabout before, with her being
older there was a lot of jokesand gags, that of her taking out
her teeth and you know, like alot of that stuff, and she
(22:31):
wasn't really like up for that.
She didn't want to do that.
That's why she played thecharacter the way she played the
character, because she, youknow, she didn't want it to be
like making fun of older peopleor older women.
She wanted to be moreempowering for boomerang.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Eddie murphy insisted that grace jones and eartha
kitt be cast as overage over sexdivas.
Producers found kit performinga folly show in berlin and jones
was cutting an album album inParis and both initially turned
down the film.
Cnn's Sherry Sylvester reportson how they came back to
Boomerang.
Speaker 10 (23:07):
Eartha Kitt plays the owner of the cosmetics firm
that promotes Stranger perfume.
Eddie Murphy tries to climb thecorporate ladder by bedding her
.
Kitt turned down the role threetimes because of a bedroom
scene in which she was to removefalse teeth, a laugh she felt
was offensive.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
It's just because you are 60, some odd years old now
does not mean that you havefallen apart.
And for other women who havebecome my age, I also feel that
if I had done that, it would bean insult to them as well.
Speaker 10 (23:35):
She reconsidered the role and, although her scenes
are too steamy for the MPAAratings board to release for
this story, she hopes she willchange the image of the elderly.
Speaker 7 (23:44):
Maybe they will see that even though I'm 60-some odd
years old, I don't havethoughts to you.
Speaker 10 (23:53):
Having decided to grin and bear it.
Both Grace Jones and EarthaKitt are glad they came back to
Boomerang.
Sherri Sylvesternnentertainment news hollywood
yeah and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
With um, with um, grace jones, she didn't want to
be like.
She was like no, I don't wantto do this.
No, no, you know, and it wasmore of a character of who she
is, but she doesn't want to dothat, like she wasn't with it.
She had to like Eddie Murphyhad to convince her and Eddie
(24:25):
Murphy had to be like listen.
I think Eddie Murphy opened upfor her one time and he sang her
songs and knew her whole setlist and he was able to convince
her to do it.
But at first she didn't want todo it.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
That is wild, and who else could have played that
part other than Grace Jones?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Nobody could turn down this one Right.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Wild, wild, look at you.
All the boomerang trivia.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I try.
That's why I needed to do thisepisode, because there's a lot
of stuff that I wasn't able totalk about in the other episodes
.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Yeah, you know what I would love if there was like a
study, or even just one personjust coming out to say you know
what?
I saw a boomerang that inspiredme to get into marketing and
advertising.
I think for a lot of people ithas, I think I wouldn't be
surprised the same way that theworld inspired so many people to
(25:29):
go to HBCUs and I was justabout to say that.
Maxine Shaw, attorney at law,inspired so many people to be
attorneys Like, yeah, I couldsee the same for Boomerang.
I know there's some people withsome stories out there.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think, I think, um, I think that's true.
I think, when it comes toBoomerang, a lot of my male
friends and I'll say that forthe male friends, and mostly the
ones that I talked to on thispodcast uh, they more identified
with Eddie Murphy being theplayer instead of getting the
whole message.
When it comes to they, more sothey will, yeah, yeah, cause I
(26:11):
have a lot of like.
I even have one friend his lastname is Graham and he was like,
yeah, I don't want to be, Idon't want to be like my uncle,
marcus, and he was like, yeah, Idon't want to be like my Uncle
Marcus.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
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 mylife.
And then his last name isGraham either.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yo, oh my God, till this day, I refer to that as my
uncle marcus or your uncle rightright but yeah, I do believe
that this movie sparked a wholebunch of people to be in
industry, to be in corporateamerica.
I do, um, you know, and it's aspace that is still like at the
(27:03):
time it was it wasn't.
At the time it they felt likeit wasn't needed.
But now you see, over the yearsit is.
You see a lot of people doingbrand management.
You see a lot of people doingcommunity outreach.
You see a lot of companieswanting to adopt.
It wasn't until the 90s wherethey figured out oh, black
(27:25):
people can actually sell stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And that's why this movie is so important, besides
the fact that John Witherspoon'sin it.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You got to coordinate .
Speaker 8 (27:40):
I'm trying to impress you.
You know that.
I know Now.
Where'd you get the mushroomshirt?
I got to know.
Well, the secret is.
Speaker 9 (27:45):
You got to coordinate .
Most people don't coordinate,so you got to coordinate.
That's what you did.
Yeah, interesting See, I toldyou they don't stink when you
pull the membrane out.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
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 withthe mushroom shirt you got to go
on.
Speaker 9 (28:02):
I had to stop the shirt.
No, you got to keep going.
Okay, Now let me show yousomething.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
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 (28:20):
Look what I got Da, gerard.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Did you know on the inside was special mushroom?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, I think and this is probably gonna blow your
mind the director of this moviewas Reginald Hudlin.
He placed a world where House,party and Boomerang are in the
same universe.
This is why it blows your mindIf you look at the scene with
(28:51):
John Witherspoon and his wife inHouse Party.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
it's the same characters in Boomerang you the
one making all the noise.
I got the wrong number too baby.
Speaker 11 (29:14):
Hold on one second oh, dance now with your big ass.
Go on dance 9-1-1?
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I'll hold.
Speaker 9 (29:25):
Look, officer, I spent $15,000 for my house.
I don't want to hear no goddamnpublic enema around here.
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yes, sir, shut up old man, which means in-house party
.
Yes, sir, yes sir, which meansin house party.
Those were david allen grier'sparents that said I don't care
about a public animal.
Wow.
And the only reason I say thatis because, uh, there's another
call back to house party inboomerang.
Um, there is.
(29:52):
Um, reginald hudlin is actuallyin 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 beingchased by a dog or whatever, and
they were on a bus like whatyou looking at.
I don't know if you rememberthe scene, but right before a
kid is actually in the, um, therefrigerator.
Kid is actually in therefrigerator, no, okay.
(30:17):
So Full Force is chasing kid.
And there's these two guys withgold chains and they're wearing
suits with hats on.
No, it's okay, the same twoguys.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
No, I have a part in two, with more of my movie out
of the series it's okay.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's okay watch it again, because I'm telling you
those same two characters areactually in Boomerang if you see
the scene where they try tosell Eddie Murphy a watch in
Boomerang.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yes, I remember them in Boomerang.
Yes, they're also in HouseParty.
I love it.
Tell Eddie Murphy a watch inBoomerang.
Yes, I remember them inBoomerang.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
They're also in house party.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I love it.
Another one of my favorite.
You know what's so dope aboutthis movie too?
It's all like the sidecharacters.
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 allthe extra characters, like Tisha
Campbell screaming over thefence.
Don't do it, girl, whatever shesaid with her sign, trying to
(31:21):
scare Leela Rashan away.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
Niki Slytherin, son of a bitch.
Speaker 8 (31:27):
You want to keep it down.
Get ready to have some company,okay.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
So who's the victim tonight?
Speaker 8 (31:32):
Yvonne, I don't feel like playing with you, okay,
stop.
Why don't you like playing withyou?
Okay, stop.
Speaker 10 (31:35):
Why don't you just tell her the truth?
Tell her you're gonna use her.
Then you're gonna dump her likeyou did me.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Excuse me, excuse me.
I did not dump you.
We went out.
It was whack and it was yourfault.
And I wish, look, why don't youget over and go find another
man?
Huh, get out of here.
I hope you catch a disease andyour dick falls off.
Oh well, I would expect you tosay something crass like that.
Don't forget, I have the courtorder for you to stay.
(32:00):
We ain't even supposed to bethat close to the gate.
We'll call your probationofficer.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
It's yeah, it's just an awesome, awesome, awesome
cast of characters, aside fromEddie Murphy in his lead role.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Yeah, it's.
I love TG Campbell in this role.
Yeah, I love TG Campbell inthis movie.
I think she's the funniestshe's ever been, besides Marty.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
I think that even when she sees Robin Gibbons'
character and she's talking toher over the fence and giving
her you got my size, myweightggie style how could you
imagine well, hopefully youwouldn't be able to imagine
going to a man's house andhaving his next door neighbor
(32:44):
talking about she done, fuckedhim too, like what, and you
still know this side girl butshe having coffee with them,
like she's.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And then, and then, like after his heart is broken,
she's like, oh, you want to comeover for some coffee.
Speaker 10 (32:59):
And he's like not even if jesus was pouring him
some motherfuckers are so blindthey can't see a good thing when
they stand them in the face.
Why don't you just lift yourblack ass off the ledge then
fuck you?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
but you know what's even like crazier about this
movie and I don't know if youknew this, but uh, eddie murphy
and robin gibbons actually datedbefore this movie.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
Really I did not know that you ever had somebody
treat you like robin gibbonstreat 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 (33:37):
But I just found an interest in that.
You know, oh, they did it too.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
So you're in this movie with your ex and like they
had good chemistry, though, soI could see that.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Did you know that this movie was the first movie
that Eddie Murphy was seen as asex symbol?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Really.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Because before this movie Eddie Murphy was doing
action films Mostly.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Don't women, I mean, and I don't know, this is not my
thing, but isn't like a thingthat women are lustful after
action stars?
How was he not seen as a sexsymbol?
And he was in all those actionfilms.
I guess he wasn't like shreddedup, ripping your shirt off type
of action film I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I I think that, and a lot of women tell me this, it's
not just me saying this a lotof women say that they didn't
see eddie murphy as a quotequote, unquote sex symbol until
this movie.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Interesting.
I don't know that I've everseen him as a sex symbol.
Not really a sex symbol, butmore like, like his character,
Right Cause some people thecriticism for this movie is that
he was just playing himself,which he kind of does in every
(34:56):
movie.
Jesus, mr Church, might be theonly stretch.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
You hate, mr Church.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
I can't believe you made me watch that my mother
loves that movie.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Damn grits.
There's secrets in his grits.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
He tried in that one he did, he tried.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
But again, you know, this is the movie that showed
off that he can play a quoteunquote different character,
even though he is quote unquotehimself, like you say.
Um, he played more of a softercharacter than what he normally.
He wasn't jumping and shootingand, like you know, chasing bad
guys as he would in thebelleville's cop movies or in
the 48 hours or you knowwhatever other movies that came
out.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
What was Distinguished Gentleman about?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think you would like Distinguished Gentleman.
He plays a con man who getselected to Congress.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
off of name recognition, he has the same
name as someone else that'srunning for the ballot Right.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
So his name?
His name is, uh, thomasjefferson johnson.
There is a jeff johnson thatdies in the beginning of the
movie and he's like nobodyreally looks at the ballot.
They just keep voting for thesame person every year, and he
hears a story about how peoplevoted for a man into office that
had died and and what's funnyis, the same thing happened uh
(36:37):
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.
Yeah, he, he was running for, uh, something, some kind of
government position in Vegas andactually died before the
election and was voted in Likeeverybody voted for him and they
(37:01):
were like no.
But that's what, distinguishedgentlemen, is about.
It's basically about him, youknow.
You know, shortening his name,making it Jeff Johnson, the name
, you know, and nobody ever seeswho he is or what.
He never does any interviews,he never shows his face.
After he gets elected he goesstraight to Congress and
(37:26):
everybody finds out who he isand why he's there.
And I think it was a good movie, especially when it came out.
I think I watched it in schoolalso.
It showed a lot aboutgovernment 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 (37:46):
There's something different about Eddie Murphy
these days.
It's not that he looks anydifferent, but that undeniable
Murphy edge has been smoothedout considerably for his new
film Boomerang.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You know, I wasn't trying to retool my image and
it's just that as you get olderyou change and the image that I
have.
I don't think I've been whatpeople perceive me as since I
was 22.
What people perceive me?
Speaker 12 (38:14):
as since I was 22.
That image is of the wild-eyed,foul-mouthed party boy, much
like his on-screen Beverly Hillscop character, who enjoyed life
on the edge.
Rumors that Murphy was theepitome of a ladies' man was
never too far from the truth.
Now Eddie says his wild daysare just fun memories memories
the comedian uses to create thestoryline for his new romantic
comedy.
It's the story of a womanizingperfume executive, marcus graham
(38:37):
, who finally gets his due Ithink you draw from all your
life's experiences.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
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 (38:48):
You know, that's him , that's not me, that's marcus
graham murphy hopes he'll be aspopular with his fans with the
release of Boomerang.
His last couple of films,harlem Nights and Another 48
Hours, were box office flops, sohe could use a hit.
But if the new movie doesn'tmake the grade, maybe his
upcoming album will.
Music has been his pet projectfor years and now he's ready to
(39:11):
give it a serious shot.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
They were saying that Eddie Murphy was in the slump
right.
So at the time, after coming toAmerica, you have Harlem Nights
, you have another 48 hours,distinguished Gentlemen, then
you have Boomerang, and whatthey were saying about or I
think, boomerang thenDistinguished Gentlemen, but
(39:34):
what they were saying aboutEddie Murphy was that he was in
a slump.
Harlem Knights didn't do wellin the box office.
Yeah, that's what they weresaying.
Harlem Knights didn't do wellin the box office.
Another 48 hours didn't do well.
Boomerang didn't do well.
Distinguished Gentleman wasokay.
Then you have Beverly Hills,cop 3, which didn't do well.
(39:59):
Distinguished gentleman wasokay.
Um, then you have bevel hills,cop three, which didn't do well.
Vampire in brooklyn, and thenhe didn't redeem himself until
nutty professor that's wow.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
And to me the majority of those are cult
classics.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
So now, but back then they weren't.
People didn't see it that way.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I don't know.
I also feel like it depends onlike, who are these critics?
Because, again, I'm not goingby the critics.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
I'm talking about the box office for these movies.
Actually, let me, let merephrase that, I'm sorry, let me
rephrase that because the boxoffice was favorable for these
movies.
Because, again me, let merephrase that, I'm sorry, let me
rephrase that because the boxoffice was favorable for these
movies.
Because, again, it's stillEddie Murphy, they're still
showing up for Eddie Murphy andhis films, the, the, the, the
critics and the audience scorefrom a lot of these things
weren't received that well.
Um, and some of the more, thebig critics like um, siskel and
(40:52):
Ebert.
Speaker 13 (40:53):
This is a kinder gentler, eddie Murphy, than
we've seen in the movies before,and I like him in this film.
Speaker 11 (40:58):
Well, I liked one thing that he did in the picture
.
I mean, everyone knows there'sso much publicity about this
picture that Eddie Murphy's youknow sort of been shocked by the
criticism that he's too machoin his Playboy interview and on
the screen with Harlem Nightsand that he's not black enough,
that he's not black enough, thatit is a higher of blacks.
When I out this pictures likean apology of me, a couple, for
my all my sins, but I think whathas happened is they have put
(41:22):
enough laughs in it and thedangerous kind of money, eddie
murphy, is what I was missing inthis picture, because this is
eddie murphy.
Speaker 13 (41:28):
Suddenly you've got the sociological criticism.
Is he black it up?
Does he have enough?
Speaker 11 (41:32):
enough black people.
No, no, no, I don't have it.
I don't have it.
His colleagues have it.
Speaker 13 (41:36):
You've quoted it from other places.
Speaker 11 (41:37):
Exactly right.
Speaker 13 (41:38):
The fact is, I think you have to just look at this
as a movie.
You wouldn't put some otheractor up to that kind of
standard?
Speaker 11 (41:43):
I don't believe, absolutely.
I would put any other actor upto it.
In fact, it's in the agenda.
And let me ask you somethingelse Do you think, think any of
these ideas that I've just saidare in his mind?
Speaker 13 (41:53):
do?
I think they're in his mind.
I'm sure they are, I'm surethey I'm I'm sure that he wants
to show a different side ofhimself 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 Iknow what I'm talking about you
know, roger, on that basis youcould do the show by yourself.
Here's the problem.
I have a very, very good pointI'm trying to make and I can't
make it in 30 seconds.
Speaker 11 (42:14):
Maybe we'll do a show on it okay, the new show
called Ebert, who they gotfeisty they did, but Dean Siskel
was full of shit like who?
Speaker 4 (42:26):
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 (42:36):
That's what.
That's what Spike Lee wassaying well, we know Spike's
issue.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I was watching a device and this is a little bit
off topic but kind of not reallythe vice uh about the the um,
the dark side of the 90s withthe Arsenio Hall show and Spike
Spike Lee was hating on ArsenioHall too and it's like damn, you
was just beefing with everybodyat Eddie's camp, like why was
you so tight and coming out ofnowhere saying all this.
(43:04):
I mean I understand why I gotto Spike.
I adore Spike Lee, he's myfavorite.
But looking at all this inretrospect, like sir who asked
you, but at the time EddieMurphy's the biggest box office
star.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
That's African-American, he's the
biggest one and he exceeds.
He exceeds just the blackquote-unquote black market, you
know what I mean.
So like he's doing thingshigher than what Spike is doing
at the time and Spike is issaying his criticism was you
know, he's not black enough,he's not hiring enough black
people.
He has all this power andposition.
He's not doing that.
(43:40):
And then it bleeds into medialike Gene Siskel and Ebert, like
the clip I don't know if youremember the clip that I gave
you before with Jay Leno andEddie Murphy and Jay Leno going
back and forth about it.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Like I'm reading this thing, I'm reading this through
from.
This is on the LA Times, thisreview.
It says it says the mostintriguing aspect of Boomerang
turns out not its story but itsracial composition.
It says this takes pains tocreate a reverse world from
which white people are invisible.
Speaker 8 (44:08):
Now, oh yeah, this cat and the LA Times is tripping
because there was, there wereno.
Well, there are white people inthe movie but there were no,
like you know, like white leadsin it and you take a picture
like Boys in the Hood.
No one tripped about thatbecause it was, you know, a
movie that dealt with like aviolent thing but regular thing
and it was business.
Where are the white people?
Who's running that office?
(44:29):
You know, that kind of I mean.
So when you, when you get thattype of criticism, you can't
really trip on it.
If someone's reviewing a movieand they're tripping on me, you
know, personally I don't, Idon't even.
Well, it's a cultural bias.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It's the type of thing where people say they're
not.
They're not used to seeingblack 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 (44:57):
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 tohave an all black cast and
people working as advertisingexecutives and bell clerks and
(45:19):
living in nice neighborhoods andworking at community centers
and being artists and graphicdesigners like that?
Why do we act like black peoplehave never done these things?
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Well, at the time it it wasn't happening in on TV.
Like it wasn't wasn't happeningon TV, Like it wasn't happening
on TV, it wasn't happening inthe movies.
Understand that, and I say thisall the time.
In the 70s you have a boom ofBlack movies.
That happened and most of itwas like you know, a lot of like
I'm going to get you suck a job, turkey type action.
(45:50):
And then they started givingyou more stuff like cornbread,
Earl and me.
But then it stopped and theysaid that black people can't
sell tickets and that was theissue in the.
In the eighties there wereabout, let's say, five or six
predominantly African-Americanmovies Like you can.
(46:10):
You can count them on yourhands.
How many black movies were inthe 80s?
And then you come into the 90swhere there's a boom of these
gang, gang member boys in thehood, uh, minister, society type
movies that white people see amovie with black people in the
office.
They're like what is this?
They're wearing suits and ties.
(46:31):
They're wearing suits and ties.
Wild.
I mean it's wild, it's crazy tothink.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
But this is what we had.
True in the sense that we alsoweren't even predominantly
featured in advertisements inwhat the 70s maybe the 70s was
like the start, when advertiserswere like oh, black people have
money too, let's startfeaturing them.
So perhaps we were not inboardrooms and in those rooms
(47:18):
making decisions until the 80sand 90s and that was, at least
at that level, a new careeropportunity.
But I also think that in termsof mainstream media's
examination of the movie, like Ithink Ebert was going in the
right direction.
Like yo, why would?
You wouldn't look at any otheractor and call out their race in
(47:42):
this type of movie.
So why are you doing that toEddie Murphy?
Like, again, you just need toview this from a lens of it's a
movie.
It's a movie and with themsaying like I don't know, I
think it maybe was cisco, that'ssaying there wasn't enough
laughs in it.
To me, the laughs were socultural and specific to us that
perhaps for a mainstream whiteaudience they just didn't get
(48:04):
the jokes simply delicious.
Speaker 9 (48:09):
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 onthe pig, from the rooter to the
tooter, the whole pig.
Huh, you didn't marry me for mycooking you got that right baby
.
Speaker 8 (48:27):
That's why we got little Junior over there Bang
bang, bang, bang, bang bang bang.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
It's what Reginald Hudlin did was well.
Um, what Reginald Hudlin didwas well.
Eddie Murphy picked ReginaldHudlin because he loved House
Party and he loved.
He loved what he did with HouseParty, he said.
He said he even saw the shortfilm.
So what he did was have most ofthe people from House Party
were in Boomerang.
You have your Martin.
Lawrence you have your teacherCampbell, john Witherspoon, uh,
(48:56):
bb Massey, um, who else, likeyou, just didn't have full force
and kid in black.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
That's dope.
I did not know that Um EddieMurphy was such a huge fan of
house party and that's why hewanted.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
That's what he wanted .
So, contrast to what GeneSiskel is talking about Eddie
Murphy not being black enoughand you know, trying to, you
know have that trope against himand saying his contemporaries
are saying that is bullshit.
Because you have a movie likeComing to America which, granted
, it was directed by whitepeople, but it is a
(49:30):
predominantly African Americancast.
You have Harlem Nights, whichis mostly African-American.
Um, I don't know what else youcan do to be more blacker.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
So again, who are these critics Like?
They have absolutely zerocredibility.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
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 acapsule.
I don't know, I don't know, I'mjust telling you what I'm
hearing from the time.
That's all I have as a capsule.
I don't know who these criticsare.
I don't know, but I love thefact that I love this movie so
much and there's new things thatI find out every time I watch
it, time I watch it.
(50:13):
I also love the I guess, therelationship tropes that happen
in this movie.
I feel like and I don't know ifwe talked about this before,
but I feel like this is thefirst African American romantic
comedy.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
I don't know, is it?
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I don't know, I don't , I don't know anything that
predates it, to say, like youknow, are you going to say
strictly businesses?
I don't know.
They came out around the sametime, but this is the first time
that you have a a predominantlyblack cast that's giving you a
(50:57):
romantic comedy.
It's like opening the doors forfor the other ones that came
back, came through, that we loveso much.
Afterwards.
Speaker 4 (51:05):
What year did Mo Money come out?
Speaker 3 (51:08):
Like a year before.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
That doesn't count.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Is it?
I mean Mo Money also has the.
I won't say that it'srelationship based right,
because Mo Money it does have alove story in it, but it's more
about this guy that's like downon his luck and like his way
(51:35):
into credit card dealing andit's kind of borderlines.
An action film.
Speaker 4 (51:43):
It does, yeah, but the scam at the end.
Sorry for spoiling it.
People that have not seen it 30years later.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
But yeah, I don't know anything else that predates
it.
The first black rom-com.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
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 (52:07):
I think so.
I I've tried to.
I mean, like I said, when itcomes to our movies, um like you
have a huge list to scrollthrough.
I don't have a list to scrollthrough, but I do know that.
I do know what was popular orwhat I remember in my mind.
Now there could have beensomething beforehand, but I
(52:29):
don't know.
Like I just told you about the80s, there wasn't that many
predominantly blackAfrican-American movies that
that we had.
We didn't have that many if itwasn't spike doing his movies
toward the end of the 80s.
You also have your.
I'm gonna get you sucker color.
(52:52):
That many.
Action Jackson crush groove.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
There aren't any, I don't.
Yeah, it might be neck and neckwith strictly business.
You really got me Googling thisnow.
I'm like wait, it's strictlybusiness Definitely counts.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Right Cause strictly business was an actual movie
where, uh, he was like it was alove, like he was trying to find
love.
Same thing with boomerang, likehe 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, theafrican-american cast that
predates it.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Right Wow.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
And that's only because they thought that these
movies weren't.
They weren't Hollywood, like itwasn't Hollywood material, it
wasn't box office.
Speaker 4 (53:49):
Why did they put house party on this list?
I don't think that counts as arom-com.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
It doesn't?
Speaker 4 (53:54):
It's Buzzfeed list is questionable.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
It's one of my favorite movies, though, so
that's why I know it so well.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
Right with the poster and the business was 91.
So that that would be theblueprint.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Yeah, but it's only like a year.
You know what I mean.
Like I could tell you whatother movies that were like out
around the time as strictlybusiness, I mean there was what
they weren't.
They didn't deal like a aromantic.
It wasn't.
A romantic comedy had nothingthat was solidifying that.
First it was always somethingelse that dealt with it and then
(54:34):
you sandwiched in somethingelse after.
So it wasn't like and even ifyou really want to predate
something coming to Americacould have been a rom-com also.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
But the fact that he's coming from Africa to
America is the thing that kindof is first.
You see that first, more thanyou see anything else.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (54:58):
But he's coming from Africa to America for the sole
purpose to get away.
That's a rom-com.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Okay, Then again Eddie Murphy started at two.
Speaker 4 (55:10):
Was that 89?
What year did he come intoAmerica?
Speaker 7 (55:12):
88.
Speaker 4 (55:14):
Oh, so then yeah, he started it.
Speaker 3 (55:19):
That's all I could like, because again, um, and I
say I'll say it again, hollywoodonly wanted a certain, certain
type of movie from AfricanAmericans at the time, you know,
and like I said, in theseventies it was more so the
bang bang, shoot them up.
You know, I'm going to get yousuckers shaft type situation
(55:42):
that they were trying to do inthe 80s.
They didn't know, they didn'tthink that African-Americans
were bankable stars.
That's why there was such apush for people saying, hey, go
see black movies, because theyweren't making any.
And then here's another one,your good friend Spike Lee.
She's got to have it.
(56:03):
It's technically a rom-com,it's not funny.
It was built.
It was advertised as a comedy.
It's not a comedy, but it wasadvertised as a comedy at the
time, Hi.
Speaker 9 (56:21):
I'm Spike Lee.
I'm not directing.
I do this.
It pays the rent, puts food onthe table, butter on my whole
wheat bread.
Anyway, I had this new comedycoming out.
It's a very funny film.
She's got to have it.
Check this out.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
But no, I wouldn't classify that and you know also.
No, we quickly say that.
Oh yeah, eddie murphy startedit, because we're on the pod,
but there might have been someother 70s or 80s rom-coms like
what claudine?
I that wasn't a comedy, thoughwas it, it wasn't.
There were other movies likethere's this.
(57:04):
It wasn't blockbuster, obviouslydecades ago and there was um
this dvd that I got it's calledfive on the black hand side I
remember five on the black handside yeah, I'm like, yo, this is
a really dope movie from the70s and it's not like it's just
a story about a Black familywith teenagers coming of age in
(57:28):
the 70s and it wasn't likeBlaxploitation or anything like
that.
I'm like, oh, this is dope.
I didn't know there were othertypes of movies in this black
movies in the 70s that weren'tblaxploitation there were.
Speaker 3 (57:39):
There was, uh, like I said, cornbread earl and me, uh
, cooley high um, but thathappened toward the end of the
70s right sparkle in the 70s toosparkle was in the 70s as well,
the whiz.
So they were making movies thatweren't blaxploitation.
It's just that hollywoodthought that blaxploitation was,
(58:01):
was um, marketable until itwasn't, you know, and that's,
and I think they, I think they.
They make reference to that inthe dolomite movie.
Speaker 9 (58:13):
I don't know if you remember that part either I
don't know how much longer wecan do these pictures.
You see that part eithercollege.
Don't that make you feel goodon the inside, Rudy?
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Brother, don't, nobody want to see, no shit like
that.
Speaker 3 (58:44):
Before I let you go.
I know it's been a minute sinceyou've been on here and I have
to do this because you know Ihave to remind people what are
your top five Eddie Murphymovies.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
Top five, top five.
Well, I know I went on scriptlast time and listed the PJs.
It's not a movie, but it'sstill one of my top five.
Eddie Murphy projects andabsolutely Boomerang is on the
list.
Oh, now I kind of Vampire inBrooklyn.
(59:15):
This might be completelydifferent than last time.
So we got the PJs BoomerangVampire in Brooklyn.
This might be completelydifferent than last time.
So we got the PJs boomerangvampire in Brooklyn.
What would be my last two?
Oh, harlem nights Definitelystill a fave, and life.
That might have been myoriginal five.
Yeah, definitely not in thatorder.
The order kind of switches upand changes, but All right.
Speaker 3 (59:37):
Do you have anything that you're working on lately?
Speaker 4 (59:42):
Yes and no.
I'm not sure that I could sharepublicly, okay, but always,
always cranking out someprojects, so stay tuned Go to my
website gratitudegrielcom.
Join my newsletter, that Inever send out newsletters, so I
won't spam you.
One of these days I'm gonna getback, uh, to my digital life
(01:00:07):
and my content creation when I'mbalanced with motherhood and
that's good, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, jewel, singletary, everybody,
if you haven't already, pleaselike, share and subscribe to the
podcast and, as always, let'shave an open mind, clear heart
and let's end this show.
Heart, and let's end this show.
(01:00:43):
Had a job bum on him, yeah.
We've been waiting for a long time.
Yes, we've been waiting for along, long time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, my baby .
Jesus Christ, jesus Christ.
This is becoming veryirritating.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Murphy Monday podcast, theonly podcast that celebrates the
life and career of Eddie Murphy.
I'm your host, nigel AFullerton.
With me this week I have aperson who is not a stranger to
this podcast.
She has been in the corporateworld, she has been a content
creator, she is the every woman,the renaissance woman.
(00:55):
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasegive a round of applause for
Jewel Singletary.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You back like a boomerang.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
How is motherhood so far?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Man, momming is tough , Toddlers are terrors.
Don't do it y'all, unless youreally, really really want some
kids.
Don't Don't do it y'all, unlessyou really, really really want
some kids.
Don't Don't do it.
They're wild, but you knowshe's super cute.
She's starting to talk.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
She walks now, so I'll keep her.
Oh, you know what I meant toask you.
You just saw a bit of Little'sCop Axe left.
I did, did, I did.
What'd you think is this?
Wait, isn't this your firstbeveled cop movie?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I don't.
I feel like when I was onmaternity leave on bed rest I
was I watched the first twobecause wasn't in um, I'm trying
to remember and I wanted to goback and see, and one of the
first two, weren't they in likesome kind of redneck bar and
they had to fight their way outof it?
That's 48 hours Okay never mind, then I did not see anything
(02:18):
with Beverly Hills Cop, I justjumped in with the newest one.
Never mind, I knew I shouldhave went back, it's okay.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You don't have to, it's okay I remember this little
girl.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Like where did she come from?
They show pictures of when shewas little.
I'm like was this in the other?
This was in part three that Imissed.
That's hilarious.
It's such a great movie that itstands on its own.
You don't have to see the otherones to still enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
How did you feel about it?
What were your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was like a buddy cop film tome Not quite a buddy cop film,
but I liked the action.
I liked the story behind himworking with his future
son-in-law.
I thought it was good andentertaining.
(03:23):
To me it felt watching Eddieact in it.
It was very much like, oh, heis so comfortable being himself
that he is not acting.
It's just Eddie Murphy in thismovie.
But the story was good and theaction.
I felt like for Netflix.
When you first said it wascoming out, I'm like, damn, I'm
going to have to get to a movietheater.
(03:44):
And then, once I Googled it,I'm like oh, shoot it's on
Netflix.
So even for the quality ofNetflix, I thought the
production was great.
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Aska, did you feel?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
like it was a cash grab.
No, how so?
I can't see people running toget a Netflix subscription to
see that People run into to geta Netflix subscription to see
that.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So the the criticism, and this is this is just from
what I saw on the Internet.
I don't know these peoplepersonally, 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 thananything.
60-40.
I won't say 50-50.
It's more 64.
It's more favorable thananything.
But what they were saying wasbecause you don't have prior
knowledge from the other movies,they focused a lot on nostalgia
(04:35):
in this one.
So a lot of it was the samejacket that he had from Beverly
Hills Cop.
Same sneakers he had, same carhe had.
They played all the songs fromall the Beverly Hills Cop.
Same sneakers he had, same carhe had.
They played all the songs fromall the Beverly Hills Cop movies
.
You know they felt that numberone.
They felt that it leaned alittle too much on nostalgia.
(04:57):
I'll agree with them on thatone.
But the second thing that Idon't agree with them is that
they claim it wasn't funny.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
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 thefloor laughing funny Like I
don't know?
The only issue I would say thatI had with the movie was having
to suspend reality Like I don'tknow what if it was Sunset
(05:29):
Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard, whatever main street in LA,
they?
were driving down in the Jeepwhen they started shooting at
him and told her to duck.
I believe that's who wasshooting.
I'm not sure who was shooting,but Eddie is ducked down in the
truck driving backwards downthis busy street in LA and now
one car hits them for like overa mile until the truck side
swipes them and I'm likeseriously.
(05:50):
So to me it was a lot ofmoments like that, like okay,
you just have to suspend realityto enjoy this movie.
But that would have been myonly critique, not that I wasn't
laughing throughout it,laughing throughout it, I don't
know.
I feel like people are toocritical of these remakes.
(06:12):
Remakes I don't care for, but Ilike when they show the
characters years later and howthey progressed in life and
where they're at at that pointin their life and the story
could pick up In some cases.
I think that works really welland I enjoyed this for what it
was.
Again, I don't have any priorknowledge with the original
(06:32):
characters, but I felt likewhere he was at that time of his
life when an adult daughterthat he had been estranged from.
I thought the story was reallygood.
And the same thing with Comingto America 2.
I didn't.
I don't know why people were socritical of it.
I enjoyed.
I enjoyed both movies for whatthey were.
I think you have to take offyour nostalgic lens and just
(06:54):
appreciate the art for what itis in the present day yeah,
that's what I I had.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I had an argument with somebody on Facebook about
it because, um, I him.
I said what exactly were youlooking for?
This movie is from 40 years ago, like literally like it came
out in 1984.
Oh, wow.
So you know, eddie Murphy was22 years old when the first one
came out.
So now you're looking at him at60.
(07:22):
He's not going to be the sameguy.
I like the fact that we saw himage.
There's certain parts in themovie where he's not as
fast-talking as he used to be.
Stuff wasn't going his way andhis daughter had to bail him out
.
I like that.
I like how everything didn'tcome easy to him like it did in
(07:45):
the first movie, and if he wasto do the same stuff from the
first movie, I'd have to turnthe movie off in like five
minutes.
But back to Boomerang.
As I watch this movie, Isometimes see myself in the
movie Never as Marcus Graham,never as Eddie Murphy.
(08:07):
More so, there's been timeswhen I've been Martin Lawrence.
There's been times that I'vebeen David Alan Gray.
Do you see yourself in thismovie?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Oh, you know, I'm always Angela.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You open up the dictionary and see your face.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yep Below art easel what?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
what makes you feel like you're always angela?
Speaker 4 (08:35):
well, hallie berry, was it growing up?
So of course I have alwaysidolized her.
But then then the, the artisticand the free spirit, how she
was able to kill it in the, inthe corporate world as well, but
still have her artisticpassions at the community center
and her just bomb ass apartmentwith art all over the place,
(08:58):
literally me and my art all overthe place.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
So are you okay?
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Oh yeah, I'm fine.
It's just that these salesconventions are really boring.
I'm not looking forward to it.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
That can be pretty boring, but we're going to New
Orleans.
Have you been to New Orleans?
Speaker 8 (09:14):
No, it seems like it's a sexy town.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
Yeah, it's a real romantic town.
It's the kind of place whereyou just take somebody that you
love and just sit back, relax,throw on the jazz and just chill
.
You know that's something youcan do when Jacqueline gets to
(09:39):
town, you know.
Speaker 8 (09:42):
Now, where'd that come from?
Speaker 7 (09:44):
I don't know when did that come from?
Speaker 8 (09:46):
don't know where did that come from?
Who said that?
I think you said it.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
It sounded like it came out of your mouth from
nowhere I just, you know, I Ithink you're cool, I like you
and I was just being concernedall up in my business.
I wasn't trying to pry.
Really do I look like the kindof girl that would be prying?
Speaker 8 (10:04):
Not five minutes ago, but now you look like the one.
If you look up pry in adictionary, it'd be your picture
next to it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
What do you feel about the romantic relationships
that happen in this movie?
You have Marcus Graham, whoplayed by Eddie Murphy, who is
this big time art executive, buthe's also a playboy and he's
more shallow and superficialwhen it comes to his dating life
and then he runs into thiswoman who is kind of his equal,
(10:34):
his match, and she kind of.
Again that proverbial boomerangwhere it's reversed and now
it's hitting him in the head.
All the stuff that he's done towomen.
You know it's happening to him.
How do you feel about thatconcept in that that dynamic?
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I love it and you know what is so current now.
But all these sometimes I getinto my YouTube rabbit hole and
see what all these gender warsare talking about with the 4B
movements and the the passport.
I don't know anything aboutthat?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I don't know anything about that.
I don't know anything aboutwhat'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 (11:21):
That's literally where we're at now.
In the world, though, where youhave these women, that are it,
and I don't and I won't say it'severyone, but of course the
algorithm is going to show youwhat you click on, and I've just
been so fascinated with womenwho are now saying we don't want
to play these games with men.
If anything, we want to playtheir game.
(11:44):
We want to have our own sexualpower, our careers, our lives.
We don't want to have children,we don't want to get married
because these dudes areincompetent, they're slowing us
down and, if anything, they'redangerous.
It's just a whole cluster ofgender chaos.
(12:05):
But I feel like it's sorelevant to boomerang because we
see that with um, what is robingibbons character name?
Why am I?
uh, jacqueline jacqueline, yes,who is this bomb powerful boss
chick, who has all of her sexualpower in the movie on top of
(12:29):
running this company and andliterally treating this dude
like we typically would haveseen him treat her in any other
movie or any other stereotype.
So I it's I don't want to sayempowering, but I just, I just
love there are women out therethat are like that too, like it
(12:50):
was representation.
Not every woman is looking fora husband and to to have kids
and be the little housewife shewants to run her business and,
and you know, have her orgasmstoo.
If I could phrase it any otherway, more delicately, I would
(13:11):
have, but I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I think one of the things I like about um this
movie is is from the maleperspective.
You have three different typesof men in the movie and is shown
in their actions and how theyare.
You have this guy who's more ofa playboy, but even though he
is a playboy he's not as crassas his friend on Martin
(13:37):
Lawrence's character.
And then you have somebodywho's more progressive, like
David Alan Greer's character,who was like battling in between
them.
How did you feel about thatdepiction of of men in the movie
?
Um, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
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 eachone of those stereotypes.
But that was another reason whyI feel like I resonated so much
(14:19):
with Angela, because I wouldhave 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 (14:33):
He was suave and y'all need some David Alan Greer
in your life.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
He was nice now 40, now 40-year-old Jewel.
Now maybe I mean I still want alittle sprinkle of Marcus in my
David Allen Greer.
But I see now why Marcus isproblematic and unavailable and
emotionally immature and all ofthose words and buzz phrases.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
But yeah, but he wouldn't be breaking anybody's
hearts and he wouldn't pop anyballoons.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
True, I mean poor guy .
He would be what the incels aretoday, I think I I mean, I
don't.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I mean there are men that are like these three
different characters.
But what I do like is that itshows the different stages and
like, yes, there were charactersof men, but it shows different
types of men, different types ofblack men, different things
that were happening and theywere all professional.
(15:38):
But even what's even crazierand I totally forgot about this
part you even have Boney T,Chris Rock's character.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I was just about to say yeah, even Chris Rock's
character, who don't know amailroom guy like that, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yo Marcus, yo Marcus, yo Marcus.
Congratulations, man, I heardyou finally boned her.
Speaker 8 (16:02):
Why didn't you tell me you was about to sex her up?
Will you shut up my sex life isnone of your business.
Speaker 10 (16:09):
Oh the hell, it ain't, man.
I just don't want that officepool man.
I thought we were supposed tohelp each other out.
Yo man, how'd you look naked?
Come on, you can tell me, Iwon't tell nobody.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
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, thatdoesn't mean that she's like
ancient, that she still wants tobe loved.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yes, there's so many layers to Eartha Kitt's
character too, and also in thesense in the fact that she was
still the figurehead of LadyEloise and they didn't like push
her out.
She still got a salary obviouslyenough 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,
(17:05):
they old people be fucking too,so we're not gonna act like
they're dead.
So I love that they still hadher a part of the company and
didn't like push her out like wesee.
So, even though they weren't apart of the brand, but we're
seeing in present day, like AuntJemima and Uncle Ben and those
(17:26):
faces and figureheads that trulynever benefited from those
companies and even theirdescendants and generations
after that.
But what we're seeing with LadyEloise, that even though she
doesn't have any decision-makingin the company anymore, she's
still around.
She's still around, she's stillactive and present.
So, in a sense, like thecommunity is still not the
community but the company andthe board.
(17:47):
They're still taking care ofher and making sure that in her
elder years she's stillcomfortable for everything that
she's done for the brand.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And I love the fact that it's an advertisement that
isn't.
Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, that isn't Aunt Jemima and Uncle.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Ben, yeah, Like I love that.
I love the fact that there isbecause, again, we and you've
worked in advertising before, soI know you know this there is a
space where there aren't a lotof African-Americans making
decisions and a lot ofadvertising.
People are tone deaf to whenthey like try to market to the
(18:22):
African-American community andit's alarming, it's crazy, and
we need more places like theoffice that they work in to be
able to make these decisions.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Absolutely agree.
Yeah, I mean well, you know itbest.
Like, how are these advertisingfirms?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Well, I actually work more with sales in the retail
and wholesale industry, but inall of that we've had to partner
with marketing and advertisingdepartments and promo
departments, stuff like that,and I can't think of any one of
my coworkers on that side, withthe exception at Nike.
Nike was pretty good at havingdiversity all throughout the
(19:10):
company, but at any of the othercompanies I've worked for
JCPenney True Religion it wasn'tfolks that looked like us on
the marketing side, anddefinitely not as you climbed up
, higher up in the ranks and thelevels on marketing side, um,
and even at Nike it was acertain glass ceiling that all
(19:30):
of the black execs got to like.
When you got to the c-suitesyou didn't see anybody that
looked like us, which, again, Ithink that's the importance of
Lady Eloise's company.
You see everybody, from theboard the original owner, the
figurehead, the board, theC-suite executives, down to the
(19:52):
secretaries, the clerks, likeliterally everybody, because we
are capable and able to work inall levels of a company.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And it's aspirational .
It's something think about.
The time that you're talkingabout is in the 2000s, but this
is 1992.
Right, you know, for this movieto come out and, like you know,
it boggles my mind that in thatday and age it was, it was
foreign to people that there's a, an advertising firm that has
(20:26):
all African-Americans sellingand they weren't just selling to
African-Americans.
Like Lady Eloise is like LizTaylor of of that building.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
That was a national commercial slot that they were
working on with her.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss me once, kiss me twice.
Ooh yeah, Ooh la la.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, that's another one in terms of the range of
Black men, jeffrey Holder'scharacter and his eccentric.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And he was allowed to be eccentric and not like a
stereotype.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yes, everybody was allowed to show up as themselves
at work.
It was no code switching Right.
They were allowed to be whothey were at work, which, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Even the man that was making the perfume.
Oh, marcus, you devil you.
Right.
You know it was.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
In his lab coat was at Jeffrey Holder when Sean J
hung her panties across theboardroom.
The fact that they had her as aspokesperson, like in her
panties across the boardroom,the fact that they had her as a
spokesperson flicking herpanties across the boardroom and
it wasn't like any othercompany.
Be like nah.
Get your black ass out of here.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
That was great.
I think it was Jeffrey Holderthat was smelling the panties.
What was even crazy is bothGrace Jones and Eartha Kitt did
not want to do the movie atfirst.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I swear to you.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
And they are two of the highlights of the movie for
me.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
What they did not want to do the movie.
Mostly because, well, earthaKitt didn't want to do it
because, like we were talkingabout before, with her being
older there was a lot of jokesand gags, that of her taking out
her teeth and you know, like alot of that stuff, and she
(22:31):
wasn't really like up for that.
She didn't want to do that.
That's why she played thecharacter the way she played the
character, because she, youknow, she didn't want it to be
like making fun of older peopleor older women.
She wanted to be moreempowering for boomerang.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Eddie murphy insisted that grace jones and eartha
kitt be cast as overage over sexdivas.
Producers found kit performinga folly show in berlin and jones
was cutting an album album inParis and both initially turned
down the film.
Cnn's Sherry Sylvester reportson how they came back to
Boomerang.
Speaker 10 (23:07):
Eartha Kitt plays the owner of the cosmetics firm
that promotes Stranger perfume.
Eddie Murphy tries to climb thecorporate ladder by bedding her
.
Kitt turned down the role threetimes because of a bedroom
scene in which she was to removefalse teeth, a laugh she felt
was offensive.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
It's just because you are 60, some odd years old now
does not mean that you havefallen apart.
And for other women who havebecome my age, I also feel that
if I had done that, it would bean insult to them as well.
Speaker 10 (23:35):
She reconsidered the role and, although her scenes
are too steamy for the MPAAratings board to release for
this story, she hopes she willchange the image of the elderly.
Speaker 7 (23:44):
Maybe they will see that even though I'm 60-some odd
years old, I don't havethoughts to you.
Speaker 10 (23:53):
Having decided to grin and bear it.
Both Grace Jones and EarthaKitt are glad they came back to
Boomerang.
Sherri Sylvesternnentertainment news hollywood
yeah and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
With um, with um, grace jones, she didn't want to
be like.
She was like no, I don't wantto do this.
No, no, you know, and it wasmore of a character of who she
is, but she doesn't want to dothat, like she wasn't with it.
She had to like Eddie Murphyhad to convince her and Eddie
(24:25):
Murphy had to be like listen.
I think Eddie Murphy opened upfor her one time and he sang her
songs and knew her whole setlist and he was able to convince
her to do it.
But at first she didn't want todo it.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
That is wild, and who else could have played that
part other than Grace Jones?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Nobody could turn down this one Right.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Wild, wild, look at you.
All the boomerang trivia.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I try.
That's why I needed to do thisepisode, because there's a lot
of stuff that I wasn't able totalk about in the other episodes
.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Yeah, you know what I would love if there was like a
study, or even just one personjust coming out to say you know
what?
I saw a boomerang that inspiredme to get into marketing and
advertising.
I think for a lot of people ithas, I think I wouldn't be
surprised the same way that theworld inspired so many people to
(25:29):
go to HBCUs and I was justabout to say that.
Maxine Shaw, attorney at law,inspired so many people to be
attorneys Like, yeah, I couldsee the same for Boomerang.
I know there's some people withsome stories out there.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think, I think, um, I think that's true.
I think, when it comes toBoomerang, a lot of my male
friends and I'll say that forthe male friends, and mostly the
ones that I talked to on thispodcast uh, they more identified
with Eddie Murphy being theplayer instead of getting the
whole message.
When it comes to they, more sothey will, yeah, yeah, cause I
(26:11):
have a lot of like.
I even have one friend his lastname is Graham and he was like,
yeah, I don't want to be, Idon't want to be like my uncle,
marcus, and he was like, yeah, Idon't want to be like my Uncle
Marcus.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
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 mylife.
And then his last name isGraham either.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yo, oh my God, till this day, I refer to that as my
uncle marcus or your uncle rightright but yeah, I do believe
that this movie sparked a wholebunch of people to be in
industry, to be in corporateamerica.
I do, um, you know, and it's aspace that is still like at the
(27:03):
time it was it wasn't.
At the time it they felt likeit wasn't needed.
But now you see, over the yearsit is.
You see a lot of people doingbrand management.
You see a lot of people doingcommunity outreach.
You see a lot of companieswanting to adopt.
It wasn't until the 90s wherethey figured out oh, black
(27:25):
people can actually sell stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And that's why this movie is so important, besides
the fact that John Witherspoon'sin it.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You got to coordinate .
Speaker 8 (27:40):
I'm trying to impress you.
You know that.
I know Now.
Where'd you get the mushroomshirt?
I got to know.
Well, the secret is.
Speaker 9 (27:45):
You got to coordinate .
Most people don't coordinate,so you got to coordinate.
That's what you did.
Yeah, interesting See, I toldyou they don't stink when you
pull the membrane out.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
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 withthe mushroom shirt you got to go
on.
Speaker 9 (28:02):
I had to stop the shirt.
No, you got to keep going.
Okay, Now let me show yousomething.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
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 (28:20):
Look what I got Da, gerard.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Did you know on the inside was special mushroom?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, I think and this is probably gonna blow your
mind the director of this moviewas Reginald Hudlin.
He placed a world where House,party and Boomerang are in the
same universe.
This is why it blows your mindIf you look at the scene with
(28:51):
John Witherspoon and his wife inHouse Party.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
it's the same characters in Boomerang you the
one making all the noise.
I got the wrong number too baby.
Speaker 11 (29:14):
Hold on one second oh, dance now with your big ass.
Go on dance 9-1-1?
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I'll hold.
Speaker 9 (29:25):
Look, officer, I spent $15,000 for my house.
I don't want to hear no goddamnpublic enema around here.
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yes, sir, shut up old man, which means in-house party
.
Yes, sir, yes sir, which meansin house party.
Those were david allen grier'sparents that said I don't care
about a public animal.
Wow.
And the only reason I say thatis because, uh, there's another
call back to house party inboomerang.
Um, there is.
(29:52):
Um, reginald hudlin is actuallyin 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 beingchased by a dog or whatever, and
they were on a bus like whatyou looking at.
I don't know if you rememberthe scene, but right before a
kid is actually in the, um, therefrigerator.
Kid is actually in therefrigerator, no, okay.
(30:17):
So Full Force is chasing kid.
And there's these two guys withgold chains and they're wearing
suits with hats on.
No, it's okay, the same twoguys.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
No, I have a part in two, with more of my movie out
of the series it's okay.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's okay watch it again, because I'm telling you
those same two characters areactually in Boomerang if you see
the scene where they try tosell Eddie Murphy a watch in
Boomerang.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yes, I remember them in Boomerang.
Yes, they're also in HouseParty.
I love it.
Tell Eddie Murphy a watch inBoomerang.
Yes, I remember them inBoomerang.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
They're also in house party.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I love it.
Another one of my favorite.
You know what's so dope aboutthis movie too?
It's all like the sidecharacters.
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 allthe extra characters, like Tisha
Campbell screaming over thefence.
Don't do it, girl, whatever shesaid with her sign, trying to
(31:21):
scare Leela Rashan away.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
Niki Slytherin, son of a bitch.
Speaker 8 (31:27):
You want to keep it down.
Get ready to have some company,okay.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
So who's the victim tonight?
Speaker 8 (31:32):
Yvonne, I don't feel like playing with you, okay,
stop.
Why don't you like playing withyou?
Okay, stop.
Speaker 10 (31:35):
Why don't you just tell her the truth?
Tell her you're gonna use her.
Then you're gonna dump her likeyou did me.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Excuse me, excuse me.
I did not dump you.
We went out.
It was whack and it was yourfault.
And I wish, look, why don't youget over and go find another
man?
Huh, get out of here.
I hope you catch a disease andyour dick falls off.
Oh well, I would expect you tosay something crass like that.
Don't forget, I have the courtorder for you to stay.
(32:00):
We ain't even supposed to bethat close to the gate.
We'll call your probationofficer.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
It's yeah, it's just an awesome, awesome, awesome
cast of characters, aside fromEddie Murphy in his lead role.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Yeah, it's.
I love TG Campbell in this role.
Yeah, I love TG Campbell inthis movie.
I think she's the funniestshe's ever been, besides Marty.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
I think that even when she sees Robin Gibbons'
character and she's talking toher over the fence and giving
her you got my size, myweightggie style how could you
imagine well, hopefully youwouldn't be able to imagine
going to a man's house andhaving his next door neighbor
(32:44):
talking about she done, fuckedhim too, like what, and you
still know this side girl butshe having coffee with them,
like she's.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And then, and then, like after his heart is broken,
she's like, oh, you want to comeover for some coffee.
Speaker 10 (32:59):
And he's like not even if jesus was pouring him
some motherfuckers are so blindthey can't see a good thing when
they stand them in the face.
Why don't you just lift yourblack ass off the ledge then
fuck you?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
but you know what's even like crazier about this
movie and I don't know if youknew this, but uh, eddie murphy
and robin gibbons actually datedbefore this movie.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
Really I did not know that you ever had somebody
treat you like robin gibbonstreat 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 (33:37):
But I just found an interest in that.
You know, oh, they did it too.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
So you're in this movie with your ex and like they
had good chemistry, though, soI could see that.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Did you know that this movie was the first movie
that Eddie Murphy was seen as asex symbol?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Really.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Because before this movie Eddie Murphy was doing
action films Mostly.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Don't women, I mean, and I don't know, this is not my
thing, but isn't like a thingthat women are lustful after
action stars?
How was he not seen as a sexsymbol?
And he was in all those actionfilms.
I guess he wasn't like shreddedup, ripping your shirt off type
of action film I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I I think that, and a lot of women tell me this, it's
not just me saying this a lotof women say that they didn't
see eddie murphy as a quotequote, unquote sex symbol until
this movie.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Interesting.
I don't know that I've everseen him as a sex symbol.
Not really a sex symbol, butmore like, like his character,
Right Cause some people thecriticism for this movie is that
he was just playing himself,which he kind of does in every
(34:56):
movie.
Jesus, mr Church, might be theonly stretch.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
You hate, mr Church.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
I can't believe you made me watch that my mother
loves that movie.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Damn grits.
There's secrets in his grits.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
He tried in that one he did, he tried.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
But again, you know, this is the movie that showed
off that he can play a quoteunquote different character,
even though he is quote unquotehimself, like you say.
Um, he played more of a softercharacter than what he normally.
He wasn't jumping and shootingand, like you know, chasing bad
guys as he would in thebelleville's cop movies or in
the 48 hours or you knowwhatever other movies that came
out.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
What was Distinguished Gentleman about?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think you would like Distinguished Gentleman.
He plays a con man who getselected to Congress.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
off of name recognition, he has the same
name as someone else that'srunning for the ballot Right.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
So his name?
His name is, uh, thomasjefferson johnson.
There is a jeff johnson thatdies in the beginning of the
movie and he's like nobodyreally looks at the ballot.
They just keep voting for thesame person every year, and he
hears a story about how peoplevoted for a man into office that
had died and and what's funnyis, the same thing happened uh
(36:37):
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.
Yeah, he, he was running for, uh, something, some kind of
government position in Vegas andactually died before the
election and was voted in Likeeverybody voted for him and they
(37:01):
were like no.
But that's what, distinguishedgentlemen, is about.
It's basically about him, youknow.
You know, shortening his name,making it Jeff Johnson, the name
, you know, and nobody ever seeswho he is or what.
He never does any interviews,he never shows his face.
After he gets elected he goesstraight to Congress and
(37:26):
everybody finds out who he isand why he's there.
And I think it was a good movie, especially when it came out.
I think I watched it in schoolalso.
It showed a lot aboutgovernment 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 (37:46):
There's something different about Eddie Murphy
these days.
It's not that he looks anydifferent, but that undeniable
Murphy edge has been smoothedout considerably for his new
film Boomerang.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You know, I wasn't trying to retool my image and
it's just that as you get olderyou change and the image that I
have.
I don't think I've been whatpeople perceive me as since I
was 22.
What people perceive me?
Speaker 12 (38:14):
as since I was 22.
That image is of the wild-eyed,foul-mouthed party boy, much
like his on-screen Beverly Hillscop character, who enjoyed life
on the edge.
Rumors that Murphy was theepitome of a ladies' man was
never too far from the truth.
Now Eddie says his wild daysare just fun memories memories
the comedian uses to create thestoryline for his new romantic
comedy.
It's the story of a womanizingperfume executive, marcus graham
(38:37):
, who finally gets his due Ithink you draw from all your
life's experiences.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
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 (38:48):
You know, that's him , that's not me, that's marcus
graham murphy hopes he'll be aspopular with his fans with the
release of Boomerang.
His last couple of films,harlem Nights and Another 48
Hours, were box office flops, sohe could use a hit.
But if the new movie doesn'tmake the grade, maybe his
upcoming album will.
Music has been his pet projectfor years and now he's ready to
(39:11):
give it a serious shot.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
They were saying that Eddie Murphy was in the slump
right.
So at the time, after coming toAmerica, you have Harlem Nights
, you have another 48 hours,distinguished Gentlemen, then
you have Boomerang, and whatthey were saying about or I
think, boomerang thenDistinguished Gentlemen, but
(39:34):
what they were saying aboutEddie Murphy was that he was in
a slump.
Harlem Knights didn't do wellin the box office.
Yeah, that's what they weresaying.
Harlem Knights didn't do wellin the box office.
Another 48 hours didn't do well.
Boomerang didn't do well.
Distinguished Gentleman wasokay.
Then you have Beverly Hills,cop 3, which didn't do well.
(39:59):
Distinguished gentleman wasokay.
Um, then you have bevel hills,cop three, which didn't do well.
Vampire in brooklyn, and thenhe didn't redeem himself until
nutty professor that's wow.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
And to me the majority of those are cult
classics.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
So now, but back then they weren't.
People didn't see it that way.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
I don't know.
I also feel like it depends onlike, who are these critics?
Because, again, I'm not goingby the critics.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
I'm talking about the box office for these movies.
Actually, let me, let merephrase that, I'm sorry, let me
rephrase that because the boxoffice was favorable for these
movies.
Because, again me, let merephrase that, I'm sorry, let me
rephrase that because the boxoffice was favorable for these
movies.
Because, again, it's stillEddie Murphy, they're still
showing up for Eddie Murphy andhis films, the, the, the, the
critics and the audience scorefrom a lot of these things
weren't received that well.
Um, and some of the more, thebig critics like um, siskel and
(40:52):
Ebert.
Speaker 13 (40:53):
This is a kinder gentler, eddie Murphy, than
we've seen in the movies before,and I like him in this film.
Speaker 11 (40:58):
Well, I liked one thing that he did in the picture
.
I mean, everyone knows there'sso much publicity about this
picture that Eddie Murphy's youknow sort of been shocked by the
criticism that he's too machoin his Playboy interview and on
the screen with Harlem Nightsand that he's not black enough,
that he's not black enough, thatit is a higher of blacks.
When I out this pictures likean apology of me, a couple, for
my all my sins, but I think whathas happened is they have put
(41:22):
enough laughs in it and thedangerous kind of money, eddie
murphy, is what I was missing inthis picture, because this is
eddie murphy.
Speaker 13 (41:28):
Suddenly you've got the sociological criticism.
Is he black it up?
Does he have enough?
Speaker 11 (41:32):
enough black people.
No, no, no, I don't have it.
I don't have it.
His colleagues have it.
Speaker 13 (41:36):
You've quoted it from other places.
Speaker 11 (41:37):
Exactly right.
Speaker 13 (41:38):
The fact is, I think you have to just look at this
as a movie.
You wouldn't put some otheractor up to that kind of
standard?
Speaker 11 (41:43):
I don't believe, absolutely.
I would put any other actor upto it.
In fact, it's in the agenda.
And let me ask you somethingelse Do you think, think any of
these ideas that I've just saidare in his mind?
Speaker 13 (41:53):
do?
I think they're in his mind.
I'm sure they are, I'm surethey I'm I'm sure that he wants
to show a different side ofhimself 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 Iknow what I'm talking about you
know, roger, on that basis youcould do the show by yourself.
Here's the problem.
I have a very, very good pointI'm trying to make and I can't
make it in 30 seconds.
Speaker 11 (42:14):
Maybe we'll do a show on it okay, the new show
called Ebert, who they gotfeisty they did, but Dean Siskel
was full of shit like who?
Speaker 4 (42:26):
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 (42:36):
That's what.
That's what Spike Lee wassaying well, we know Spike's
issue.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I was watching a device and this is a little bit
off topic but kind of not reallythe vice uh about the the um,
the dark side of the 90s withthe Arsenio Hall show and Spike
Spike Lee was hating on ArsenioHall too and it's like damn, you
was just beefing with everybodyat Eddie's camp, like why was
you so tight and coming out ofnowhere saying all this.
(43:04):
I mean I understand why I gotto Spike.
I adore Spike Lee, he's myfavorite.
But looking at all this inretrospect, like sir who asked
you, but at the time EddieMurphy's the biggest box office
star.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
That's African-American, he's the
biggest one and he exceeds.
He exceeds just the blackquote-unquote black market, you
know what I mean.
So like he's doing thingshigher than what Spike is doing
at the time and Spike is issaying his criticism was you
know, he's not black enough,he's not hiring enough black
people.
He has all this power andposition.
He's not doing that.
(43:40):
And then it bleeds into medialike Gene Siskel and Ebert, like
the clip I don't know if youremember the clip that I gave
you before with Jay Leno andEddie Murphy and Jay Leno going
back and forth about it.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Like I'm reading this thing, I'm reading this through
from.
This is on the LA Times, thisreview.
It says it says the mostintriguing aspect of Boomerang
turns out not its story but itsracial composition.
It says this takes pains tocreate a reverse world from
which white people are invisible.
Speaker 8 (44:08):
Now, oh yeah, this cat and the LA Times is tripping
because there was, there wereno.
Well, there are white people inthe movie but there were no,
like you know, like white leadsin it and you take a picture
like Boys in the Hood.
No one tripped about thatbecause it was, you know, a
movie that dealt with like aviolent thing but regular thing
and it was business.
Where are the white people?
Who's running that office?
(44:29):
You know, that kind of I mean.
So when you, when you get thattype of criticism, you can't
really trip on it.
If someone's reviewing a movieand they're tripping on me, you
know, personally I don't, Idon't even.
Well, it's a cultural bias.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It's the type of thing where people say they're
not.
They're not used to seeingblack 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 (44:57):
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 tohave an all black cast and
people working as advertisingexecutives and bell clerks and
(45:19):
living in nice neighborhoods andworking at community centers
and being artists and graphicdesigners like that?
Why do we act like black peoplehave never done these things?
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Well, at the time it it wasn't happening in on TV.
Like it wasn't wasn't happeningon TV, Like it wasn't happening
on TV, it wasn't happening inthe movies.
Understand that, and I say thisall the time.
In the 70s you have a boom ofBlack movies.
That happened and most of itwas like you know, a lot of like
I'm going to get you suck a job, turkey type action.
(45:50):
And then they started givingyou more stuff like cornbread,
Earl and me.
But then it stopped and theysaid that black people can't
sell tickets and that was theissue in the.
In the eighties there wereabout, let's say, five or six
predominantly African-Americanmovies Like you can.
(46:10):
You can count them on yourhands.
How many black movies were inthe 80s?
And then you come into the 90swhere there's a boom of these
gang, gang member boys in thehood, uh, minister, society type
movies that white people see amovie with black people in the
office.
They're like what is this?
They're wearing suits and ties.
(46:31):
They're wearing suits and ties.
Wild.
I mean it's wild, it's crazy tothink.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
But this is what we had.
True in the sense that we alsoweren't even predominantly
featured in advertisements inwhat the 70s maybe the 70s was
like the start, when advertiserswere like oh, black people have
money too, let's startfeaturing them.
So perhaps we were not inboardrooms and in those rooms
(47:18):
making decisions until the 80sand 90s and that was, at least
at that level, a new careeropportunity.
But I also think that in termsof mainstream media's
examination of the movie, like Ithink Ebert was going in the
right direction.
Like yo, why would?
You wouldn't look at any otheractor and call out their race in
(47:42):
this type of movie.
So why are you doing that toEddie Murphy?
Like, again, you just need toview this from a lens of it's a
movie.
It's a movie and with themsaying like I don't know, I
think it maybe was cisco, that'ssaying there wasn't enough
laughs in it.
To me, the laughs were socultural and specific to us that
perhaps for a mainstream whiteaudience they just didn't get
(48:04):
the jokes simply delicious.
Speaker 9 (48:09):
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 onthe pig, from the rooter to the
tooter, the whole pig.
Huh, you didn't marry me for mycooking you got that right baby
.
Speaker 8 (48:27):
That's why we got little Junior over there Bang
bang, bang, bang, bang bang bang.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
It's what Reginald Hudlin did was well.
Um, what Reginald Hudlin didwas well.
Eddie Murphy picked ReginaldHudlin because he loved House
Party and he loved.
He loved what he did with HouseParty, he said.
He said he even saw the shortfilm.
So what he did was have most ofthe people from House Party
were in Boomerang.
You have your Martin.
Lawrence you have your teacherCampbell, john Witherspoon, uh,
(48:56):
bb Massey, um, who else, likeyou, just didn't have full force
and kid in black.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
That's dope.
I did not know that Um EddieMurphy was such a huge fan of
house party and that's why hewanted.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
That's what he wanted .
So, contrast to what GeneSiskel is talking about Eddie
Murphy not being black enoughand you know, trying to, you
know have that trope against himand saying his contemporaries
are saying that is bullshit.
Because you have a movie likeComing to America which, granted
, it was directed by whitepeople, but it is a
(49:30):
predominantly African Americancast.
You have Harlem Nights, whichis mostly African-American.
Um, I don't know what else youcan do to be more blacker.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
So again, who are these critics Like?
They have absolutely zerocredibility.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
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 acapsule.
I don't know, I don't know, I'mjust telling you what I'm
hearing from the time.
That's all I have as a capsule.
I don't know who these criticsare.
I don't know, but I love thefact that I love this movie so
much and there's new things thatI find out every time I watch
it, time I watch it.
(50:13):
I also love the I guess, therelationship tropes that happen
in this movie.
I feel like and I don't know ifwe talked about this before,
but I feel like this is thefirst African American romantic
comedy.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
I don't know, is it?
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I don't know, I don't , I don't know anything that
predates it, to say, like youknow, are you going to say
strictly businesses?
I don't know.
They came out around the sametime, but this is the first time
that you have a a predominantlyblack cast that's giving you a
(50:57):
romantic comedy.
It's like opening the doors forfor the other ones that came
back, came through, that we loveso much.
Afterwards.
Speaker 4 (51:05):
What year did Mo Money come out?
Speaker 3 (51:08):
Like a year before.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
That doesn't count.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Is it?
I mean Mo Money also has the.
I won't say that it'srelationship based right,
because Mo Money it does have alove story in it, but it's more
about this guy that's like downon his luck and like his way
(51:35):
into credit card dealing andit's kind of borderlines.
An action film.
Speaker 4 (51:43):
It does, yeah, but the scam at the end.
Sorry for spoiling it.
People that have not seen it 30years later.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
But yeah, I don't know anything else that predates
it.
The first black rom-com.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
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 (52:07):
I think so.
I I've tried to.
I mean, like I said, when itcomes to our movies, um like you
have a huge list to scrollthrough.
I don't have a list to scrollthrough, but I do know that.
I do know what was popular orwhat I remember in my mind.
Now there could have beensomething beforehand, but I
(52:29):
don't know.
Like I just told you about the80s, there wasn't that many
predominantly blackAfrican-American movies that
that we had.
We didn't have that many if itwasn't spike doing his movies
toward the end of the 80s.
You also have your.
I'm gonna get you sucker color.
(52:52):
That many.
Action Jackson crush groove.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
There aren't any, I don't.
Yeah, it might be neck and neckwith strictly business.
You really got me Googling thisnow.
I'm like wait, it's strictlybusiness Definitely counts.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Right Cause strictly business was an actual movie
where, uh, he was like it was alove, like he was trying to find
love.
Same thing with boomerang, likehe 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, theafrican-american cast that
predates it.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Right Wow.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
And that's only because they thought that these
movies weren't.
They weren't Hollywood, like itwasn't Hollywood material, it
wasn't box office.
Speaker 4 (53:49):
Why did they put house party on this list?
I don't think that counts as arom-com.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
It doesn't?
Speaker 4 (53:54):
It's Buzzfeed list is questionable.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
It's one of my favorite movies, though, so
that's why I know it so well.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
Right with the poster and the business was 91.
So that that would be theblueprint.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Yeah, but it's only like a year.
You know what I mean.
Like I could tell you whatother movies that were like out
around the time as strictlybusiness, I mean there was what
they weren't.
They didn't deal like a aromantic.
It wasn't.
A romantic comedy had nothingthat was solidifying that.
First it was always somethingelse that dealt with it and then
(54:34):
you sandwiched in somethingelse after.
So it wasn't like and even ifyou really want to predate
something coming to Americacould have been a rom-com also.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
But the fact that he's coming from Africa to
America is the thing that kindof is first.
You see that first, more thanyou see anything else.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (54:58):
But he's coming from Africa to America for the sole
purpose to get away.
That's a rom-com.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Okay, Then again Eddie Murphy started at two.
Speaker 4 (55:10):
Was that 89?
What year did he come intoAmerica?
Speaker 7 (55:12):
88.
Speaker 4 (55:14):
Oh, so then yeah, he started it.
Speaker 3 (55:19):
That's all I could like, because again, um, and I
say I'll say it again, hollywoodonly wanted a certain, certain
type of movie from AfricanAmericans at the time, you know,
and like I said, in theseventies it was more so the
bang bang, shoot them up.
You know, I'm going to get yousuckers shaft type situation
(55:42):
that they were trying to do inthe 80s.
They didn't know, they didn'tthink that African-Americans
were bankable stars.
That's why there was such apush for people saying, hey, go
see black movies, because theyweren't making any.
And then here's another one,your good friend Spike Lee.
She's got to have it.
(56:03):
It's technically a rom-com,it's not funny.
It was built.
It was advertised as a comedy.
It's not a comedy, but it wasadvertised as a comedy at the
time, Hi.
Speaker 9 (56:21):
I'm Spike Lee.
I'm not directing.
I do this.
It pays the rent, puts food onthe table, butter on my whole
wheat bread.
Anyway, I had this new comedycoming out.
It's a very funny film.
She's got to have it.
Check this out.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
But no, I wouldn't classify that and you know also.
No, we quickly say that.
Oh yeah, eddie murphy startedit, because we're on the pod,
but there might have been someother 70s or 80s rom-coms like
what claudine?
I that wasn't a comedy, thoughwas it, it wasn't.
There were other movies likethere's this.
(57:04):
It wasn't blockbuster, obviouslydecades ago and there was um
this dvd that I got it's calledfive on the black hand side I
remember five on the black handside yeah, I'm like, yo, this is
a really dope movie from the70s and it's not like it's just
a story about a Black familywith teenagers coming of age in
(57:28):
the 70s and it wasn't likeBlaxploitation or anything like
that.
I'm like, oh, this is dope.
I didn't know there were othertypes of movies in this black
movies in the 70s that weren'tblaxploitation there were.
Speaker 3 (57:39):
There was, uh, like I said, cornbread earl and me, uh
, cooley high um, but thathappened toward the end of the
70s right sparkle in the 70s toosparkle was in the 70s as well,
the whiz.
So they were making movies thatweren't blaxploitation.
It's just that hollywoodthought that blaxploitation was,
(58:01):
was um, marketable until itwasn't, you know, and that's,
and I think they, I think they.
They make reference to that inthe dolomite movie.
Speaker 9 (58:13):
I don't know if you remember that part either I
don't know how much longer wecan do these pictures.
You see that part eithercollege.
Don't that make you feel goodon the inside, Rudy?
Speaker 1 (58:39):
Brother, don't, nobody want to see, no shit like
that.
Speaker 3 (58:44):
Before I let you go.
I know it's been a minute sinceyou've been on here and I have
to do this because you know Ihave to remind people what are
your top five Eddie Murphymovies.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
Top five, top five.
Well, I know I went on scriptlast time and listed the PJs.
It's not a movie, but it'sstill one of my top five.
Eddie Murphy projects andabsolutely Boomerang is on the
list.
Oh, now I kind of Vampire inBrooklyn.
(59:15):
This might be completelydifferent than last time.
So we got the PJs BoomerangVampire in Brooklyn.
This might be completelydifferent than last time.
So we got the PJs boomerangvampire in Brooklyn.
What would be my last two?
Oh, harlem nights Definitelystill a fave, and life.
That might have been myoriginal five.
Yeah, definitely not in thatorder.
The order kind of switches upand changes, but All right.
Speaker 3 (59:37):
Do you have anything that you're working on lately?
Speaker 4 (59:42):
Yes and no.
I'm not sure that I could sharepublicly, okay, but always,
always cranking out someprojects, so stay tuned Go to my
website gratitudegrielcom.
Join my newsletter, that Inever send out newsletters, so I
won't spam you.
One of these days I'm gonna getback, uh, to my digital life
(01:00:07):
and my content creation when I'mbalanced with motherhood and
that's good, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, jewel, singletary, everybody,
if you haven't already, pleaselike, share and subscribe to the
podcast and, as always, let'shave an open mind, clear heart
and let's end this show.
Heart, and let's end this show.
(01:00:43):
Had a job bum on him, yeah.
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