While it is a decent movie, especially for a Netflix production, I didn't find Eddie Murphy to be a good choice for Dolemite at all. He just doesn't have the delivery and it mostly comes off as Eddie Murphy doing Eddie Murphy as usual.

@aholejones said:

While it is a decent movie, especially for a Netflix production, I didn't find Eddie Murphy to be a good choice for Dolemite at all. He just doesn't have the delivery and it mostly comes off as Eddie Murphy doing Eddie Murphy as usual.

Fair enough.

I've never seen the original Dolemite movie...BUT, in the closing credits, when they were showing the scenes from the original vs. this production, it looked pretty bang on to me...so, I'm going to have to watch the original, and then circle back here to discuss whether Eddie disappeared into the role or if he was just Eddie being Eddie.

In the meantime, tell us, whom might you have cast?

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@aholejones said:

While it is a decent movie, especially for a Netflix production, I didn't find Eddie Murphy to be a good choice for Dolemite at all. He just doesn't have the delivery and it mostly comes off as Eddie Murphy doing Eddie Murphy as usual.

Fair enough.

I've never seen the original Dolemite movie...BUT, in the closing credits, when they were showing the scenes from the original vs. this production, it looked pretty bang on to me...so, I'm going to have to watch the original, and then circle back here to discuss whether Eddie disappeared into the role or if he was just Eddie being Eddie.

In the meantime, tell us, whom might you have cast?

I don't know if you've seen 'Bowfinger' with Eddie Murphy, but Eddie's portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore reminded me really much of his work in that movie in his portrayal of what you might call a clueless actor and clueless director in 'Bowfinger'. Well, actually to be honest, I didn't find his portrayal here any different than his work on any other film really. I feel he really lacks in the strong delivery Rudy Ray Moore had and it was especially evident with some of his iconic cussing lines in the movie.

It's a good question who might've been a better pick. No single name comes to mind immediately, but I think David Chappelle had a sort of similar style of delivery as Rudy Ray in his Chappelle show back in the day. Haven't seen his more recent comedy stuff, though.

Coincidentally I found 'Bowfinger' to be a better comedy film, but I suppose this is more of a biopic than a comedy.

Bowfinger is a great movie. Eddie played two different personalities in that film and, while the one brother was rather over the top, he was quite un-self-aware. The other character was not at all the braggard type.

Rudy Ray Moore was very self-aware, and Eddie did, in my opinion, capture that. However, I can see how you might put the characterizations in one bucket.

Dave Chappelle? Interesting. Maybe. But there were a number of young actors in it that Eddie was developing (as he has been doing with nearly every young black comedian/actor through his history of work) as well as supporting contemporary peers (like Wesley Snipes). Chappelle hasn't assumed that role in the industry, and that position and contribution to the overall project was perhaps as important - if not more so - than the character itself (which, I concede, is a bit of a digression).

Great to see Eddie Murphy doing good films again.

I haven't seen it yet but I understand this was a pet project of Eddies for the past fifteen years held up by his flops like Pluto Nash. I have seen Rudy's films and met the man himself at a Dolomite screening years ago. Glad to hear Eddie got this off the ground finally.