Every Eddie Murphy Movie, Ranked
Updated January 2023 to add You People.
After a successful stand-up career in the 1970s and a wildly acclaimed run on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s, Eddie Murphy launched his film career (while still on SNL) in 1982 and has been appearing on the big screen fairly steadily in the decades since, starring in over 40 titles. To date, Murphy's films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide, but only occasionally has the material on screen matched Murphy's comedic talents—and, even when it has, reviews have sometimes been less positive than you might expect. In the gallery above, we rank all of his films to date (including his newest, Coming 2 America) from worst to best by Metascore, which reflects the consensus of professional critics for each film.
Murphy's biggest box office hit (outside of the animated Shrek series) was this Martin Brest-directed action-comedy classic that saw Murphy's Detroit detective Axel Foley (cue Harold Faltermeyer score) heading out to Beverly Hills as part of an unsanctioned investigation. There, he teams with local cops played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton (and also encounters characters played by future TV staples Paul Reiser, Jonathan Banks, and Bronson Pinchot). The film outgrossed all other 1984 releases despite its R rating, and also spawned one hell of a soundtrack album (sadly, largely absent from Spotify).
“Beverly Hills Cop is no masterpiece, but it uses Murphy to maximum effect. At its best, the movie is exactly as brazen, charming and mercurial as Murphy himself, which is to say it is unimaginable without him.” —David Ansen, Newsweek
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