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.
After breaking up a string of mediocrity with a pair of commercial and critical hits (Shrek 2, Dreamgirls), Murphy returned to the realm of the Razzies with this 2007 rom-com that yet again sees the star playing multiple characters—including one that requires him to don a fat suit for the umpteenth time (as in his Nutty Professor films) and another that finds him playing a Chinese-American man, Mr. Wong, which some critics equated to Mickey Rooney's infamous performance in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Oh, and did we mention that the fat-suit character is the wife of the titular Norbit, also played by Murphy? And that Murphy co-wrote the film?
Norbit marked the final collaboration between Murphy and makeup effects legend Rick Baker, who first worked with the actor on 1988's Coming to America and collected four Oscar nominations along the way, including one for this film.
“Stereotype-based comedy from Eddie Murphy in a variety of fat suits is just not enough to make a decent film.” —Tony Horkins, Empire