After the global success of "Beverly Hills Cop", Eddie Murphy's next project was to expand his wisecracking on-screen personna in comedy / action flicks to a more adventure / fantasy oriented, galloping on the ressurgence of the adventure films such as the two first "Indiana Jones" films and the major hit of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" released the year before."The Golden Child" was conceived as a straight action / adventure / fantasy / horror film with the 'Master of Suspense", John Carpenter in the director's chair and the rising star, Mel Gibson in the lead role of Chandler Jarrell (the main character's first name was a homage from the screenwriter Dennis Feldman to Raymond Chandler, the famous 'detective fiction' writer and the creator of Philip Marlowe, P.I.).When Carpenter left the project to direct his own (& similar themed), "Big Trouble in Little China" and Mel Gibson took a year off movies before starting shooting "Lethal Weapon", Eddie Murphy stepped in as a replacement (the same happened before when he replaced Sylvester Stallone in "Beverly Hills Cop"), the movie was re-written to acommodate Murphy's humour routine and Michael Ritchie, the veteran director of comedy flicks such as "The Bad News Bears" ('76); "The Survivors" ('83) or "Fletch" ('85) was hired to enhance the lighthearted comedy aspect.The end result is a fun film, but not as fun as the previous Murphy's films and even if it made a good money at the B.O., it was critically torn apart and was considered a financial disappointment by the studio.Murphy returns in a re-hash of his two previous (& widely famous) film roles as Reggie Hammond in "48 Hrs." and Axel Foley in "Beverly Hills Cop", but this time a bit more contained and less vibrant & exuberant as if he tried to pursuit more his dramatic side, following the mixed tone of the movie (part dark fantasy / part lighthearted comedy), but still improvising his trademark wisecracking humour which was probably estipulated on his contract with Paramount Pictures.The movie suffers from the crossover genres imposed, because it's way apparent that it went into production as a straightforward and 'serious in tone' fantasy film and the added comedy, even if some gags were nicely staged and always hilariously performed by Murphy, it still feels a bit out of place.In the supporting cast, Charlotte Lewis is almost as wooden as she is stunning beautiful and Peter Kwong, Victor Wong & James Hong came straight from the "Big Trouble in Little China" set to perform here similar parts, except for James Hong, playing here a way different character than his evil sorcerer, David Lo Pan in the latter. Classical trained English actor, Charles Dance is superb playing the 'Machiavellian' main villain, Sardo Numspa, with his usual wicked bureaucratic snobbery and a touch of exquisiteness.In short, despite its flaws, "The Golden Child", emanates that movie magic that only the 80's could do, it's a very entertaining flick that appeals to both, children (i loved it when it was released, i was around 10 years old or so) and adults (i still like it a lot now) and a good watch for a movie marathon with "Big Trouble in Little China", "Shangai Surprise" and even "Howard the Duck", curiously all also released in '86.I give it a 7 / 7.5 stars, but as a nostalgic film from my youth and because it's way better than the 99,9 per cent of the fantasy / adventure movies that came out nowadays, it surely deserves an extra point.

You will get a few chuckles out of this action comedy starring Eddie Murphy, who plays a private detective specializing in missing persons. He has been chosen to help find a kidnapped Buddhist mystic called the Golden Child, who is the key to saving the world from a demon.The pacing of the movie is steady and slow at times, but it is straight and to the point of finding the missing child without much fillers. Murphy does play his character pretty well, with his sharp, somewhat comedic approach and quick action, blending in with the mixture of modern-day child abduction and ancient mysticism well. There is also some nice special effects, particular the Golden Child moving objects around with his mind.I would have like to see more action, though, between the good and bad guys as I thought the second half was rushed somewhat and scenes cut away from one and another too quickly. Murphy wasn't too funny in this one, but gave me a few chuckles here and there, particular in the scene where he tried to speak Cantonese. I would have have liked to see the Golden Child emphasized more as well.But, above all, it isn't too bad of an action comedy. It's watchable to spend the night with.Grade C+

Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy) is an expert at finding lost children. Jarrell learns of a case where a missing Tibetan child known as The Golden Child has been kidnapped and is asked to assist in rescuing the child. The Golden Child is no ordinary child and is the sole person responsible for ensuring peace will remain on Earth, but evil sorcerers lead by Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance) intend to use the child for their own evil purposes and in order to appease their evil god.I'm prepared to commend this film because despite some of its weaknesses it is a fairly original story and for that reason it is very easy to get involved with the film. This film of course has Eddie Murphy in it from a time back in the 1980's when he was very much still in his prime. Part of the reason that this film works is Murphy himself - he brings his usual energy to the table and the fact that he also plays a good guy who's fairly likable also helped to keep me invested in the film.This film is also pretty funny - I liked it at the start where Murphy is trying to make an appeal about his search for a lost kid and the talk show host is talking over him and tries to change the subject or discuss more trivial matters. It's funny because it's believable and I assume it meant to act as some sort of satire on arrogant and self-absorbed talk show hosts. What the writers were trying to say here didn't really matter to me (the fact that I found it funny was more important). The humour here was also surprisingly clean for a Murphy vehicle and it's even more surprising given the dark plot that the writers serve up here. All these aspects work well to create an entertaining and original film but....I've applauded the film for having a fairly original story, but sadly the development of the story is quite poor and is never really fleshed out enough to make this aspect work. There was also a random section where it's as though Murphy and the evil sorcerers are on a film set with a live audience which I never really understood. It kind of goes from interesting & refreshing to bizarre and strange - the final sequence is ridiculous and mildly embarrassing. I also felt that because the bizarre story dominated so much of the second half of the film that it almost undid all the humour and intrigue that had been built up in the first half.This film is far from perfect, but Murphy's energy, the original story, and the reasonable number of laughs that you get here do make it watchable. Dance isn't given much to do, but he is effective in his scenes and actually makes a good villain (albeit his character is a little thin). Lewis is more than a pretty face and actually holds her own well here and the chemistry between her and Murphy isn't bad.This film has an IMDb rating of 5.8 and I think that the IMDb community have got it about right; it's not great enough to stack up against some of Murphy's better vehicles, but it isn't bad enough to render it unwatchable.

Mystic baddie Sardo Numspa, seeking to do away with The Golden Child, is challenged by missing child detective Chandler Jarrell when the action moves from Tibet to Los Angeles.After a straight faced set up, with Charles Dance quite chilling as Numspa the nature of the film changes at the same time as the location, with the arrival of Eddie Murphy as wisecracking Jarrell. The film then becomes a decent romp - lots of action, some special effects which are mostly a bit shoddy even by the standards of the time, a dash of improbable romance, and Eddie Murphy being even Eddie Murphier than usual. This latter point means that he's really irritating, of course, but the character is drawn warmly which defuses it somewhat. Charles Dance is good, Charlotte Lewis is attractive, James Hong is great (as usual) and Jasmine Reate is charming as the Golden Child himself.While not being great, this is still a fairly solidly entertaining movie pitched at family level.