Eddie Murphy's 7 Best Movies

Stand-up comic Eddie Murphy took long-running sketch show Saturday Night Live by storm in 1980, carrying the previously flagging series on his back as its undisputed star at the age of 19. A couple of years later, his transition to films catapulted him to the top of the Hollywood A-list as Tinseltown's biggest box-office draw -- a position he'd hold for the remainder of the 80s. Trying his hand at a variety of genres, including: buddy cop; action comedy; animation; stand-up; and biopic, his cinematic career has spanned five decades. Here are his seven best movies:

7. Dolemite is My Name

Appropriately enough, Murphy portrays 1970s comedic sensation Rudy Ray Moore in this biopic chronicling his rise from underground comic to unlikely movie star.

6. Shrek

Saturday Night Live generations collide in this subversive adventure-comedy starring Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy (who steals the show). Proving that Disney hasn't yet cornered the market on fairytale animation, this story that casts an ogre as the hero was the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001 and spawned three sequels and a spin-off.

5. Raw

To this day, comic legend Eddie Murphy's movie, Raw, is still the highest-grossing stand-up comedy concert film of all time. And Raw's opening sketch features a star-studded cast, including: Samuel L. Jackson, Tatyana Ali and Kim Wayans. If that weren't enough, the movie itself is directed by independent filmmaking legend Robert Townsend. Raw is just one more piece of evidence that, with or without a stellar support team, Eddie Murphy ruled Hollywood in the 80s.

4. Coming to America

Thirty years before Killmonger fulfilled his life-long dream of assuming the crown of Wakanda, Prince Akeem Joffer made us all wish that we could move to his idyllic African kingdom, Zamunda. In a staggeringly impressive display of versatility, comic legend Eddie Murphy breathes life into four distinct characters in this star-studded rom-com with the emphasis on the com.

Coming to America also features one of two 1988 movies that feature a pre-famous Samuel L. Jackson in a fast food joint. Go figure.

3. I-Spy

I Spy is a loose adaptation of a 1960s television show of the same name starring Bill Cosby in his first tv series. It was also the first weekly television drama to star an African-American. The premise was that two intelligence operatives -- one white, the other African-American -- conducted espionage missions posing as a tennis player and his trainer, respectively.

The operatives undergo a sort of race reversal in the movie, with Murphy as Kelly Robinson (the white spy from the show) and Owen Wilson as Alex Scott (the African-American tennis trainer from the show). Also, this time around there's no tennis. Robinson is now an actual middleweight world boxing champion, whom George W. Bush personally requests to provide cover for BNS (Bureau of National Security) screw-up Scott, who poses as Robinson's personal assistant. Robinson's participation is importane because his 56-0 boxing record has earned him legions of fans, one of whom is Scott's target -- an international arms dealer who plans to auction a stolen prototype stealth fighter at Robinson's upcoming title fight. The partners don't gel, the mission doesn't go as planned, and the boxer ends up in the middle of the action.

2. Boomerang

Murphy's advertising executive Marcus Graham is on top of the world: nice income; good friends; full social calendar; and no romantic strings attached. The titular trouble comes in the form of Marcus' own dating habits being displayed by his new office fling, Jacqueline. But where Marcus is disinterested in commitment, Jacqueline is a straight-up narcissist. And another coworker, good girl Angela, finds herself caught in the middle. Murphy's supported by an all-star cast, including: Martin Lawrence; David Alan Grier; Halle Berry; Chris Rock; Grace Jones; Lela Rochon; Tisha Campbell; the late, great John Witherspoon; the late, great Melvin Van Peebles; and the late, great Eartha Kitt.

1. The Nutty Professor

After ruling the box office for 14 years, comedy legend Eddie Murphy returned to theaters with a vengeance with arguably his best movie to date. The Nutty Professor, a remix of Jerry Lewis' 1963 hit of the same name, showcases Murphy's incomparable talent for embodying multiple characters in a single film (which he previously showed off in Coming to America).  

Fed up with the depression that stems from his obesity, Dr. Sherman Klump develops a formula for instantaneous weight loss. And tests the somewhat unpredictable concoction on himself! While the elixir is successful, the effects are complicated. See, Sherman also develops a serious case of dissociative identity disorder: the professor remains fat but his id, calling himself Buddy Love, gets an in-shape physique. And the two consciousnesses are forced to battle for control of the body.