The Golden Child

Name: The Golden Child
Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy
Released: December 12, 1986
Duration: 94 min
Rating: 37
Cast: Eddie Murphy

1986

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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6.8

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6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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The Golden Child

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 12, 1986 | PG-13

Starring: Eddie Murphy

Summary: A private detective specializing in missing children is charged with the task of finding a special child who dark forces want to eliminate.

Director: Michael Ritchie

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 94 min

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Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

There are a lot of moments to remember in The Golden Child, but the one I will treasure the longest happens when Eddie Murphy gets behind the wheel of a beat-up station wagon and is led by a sacred parakeet to the lair of the devil. Read full review

Nathan Rabin

A non-movie that seems to wash over audiences without making any kind of impression. Except for those it does impress. Read full review

Janet Maslin

After his triumphant Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy could have done anything. Why, then, did he choose to head for the mysterious Orient to make a film as rich in mumbo jumbo as The Golden Child? Mr. Murphy's comic skepticism in the face of all this is the film's greatest asset. But it is worn thin by the awareness that not even he seems able to take the adventure seriously, and by the preposterousness and inconsistency of what surrounds him. Read full review

Paul Attanasio

The action sequences are cloddishly orchestrated. And for the most part, the movie simply doesn't make sense. Read full review

Jay Scott

The Golden Child is certainly not a Michael Ritchie movie - the talented director of Smile and The Candidate is never more than a referee in the war between the special effects and the star. The special effects win, which is no victory, but the star is not knocked out. [13 Dec 1986, p.F5]

Dave Kehr

A weirdly out-of-scale movie that constantly juxtaposes the trivial and the cosmic, less to comic effect than to a mounting sense of muddle and uncertainty. Read full review

David Ansen

Though an expensive production, padded out with special effects and side- trips to Nepal, it fails to achieve any grandeur or dash. Murphy seems to be present mainly to mock the film's pretentions and shoddy plotting, as if the producers deliberately had chosen a piece of third-rate pulp, pumped millions of dollars into it, and then brought in Murphy to make them look stupid. [22 Dec 1986, p.75]

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User Reviews

Zahncr

May 14, 2020

I love this movie. It's not just nostalgia. It's a genuinely fun movie. Eddie Murphy kills it. Seriously, I can't recommend it enough.