I always remember seeing Eddy Murphy's smile beaming at me from the cover of this movie, for a few years, in the local video rental joint and that's where this movie perfectly sits, in a 1985 VHS
Outside of that, I guess it works as a little time capsule example of when movies were churned out with the production values of the A-Team, with your vigilante hero, wandering about the oh so Hollywood backstreets of either New York or Los Angeles. Just add some carefully, curated, graffiti and some hard rock music in the background and boom we are in the, "tough ghetto".
Seriously though, what is it with that music? They use it everywhere in this movie. They really thought that the kind of track that you would have in a cop chase works for the Tibetan monks. Half the time it doesn't even match the pace. It's just used to indicate everything is a bit gritty and it doesn't work.
Eddie is just on instructions here to play it like Beverly Hills cop, whilst they add a bit of supernatural and special effects, which in their defence aren't actually too bad.
Its the 80s though, so, despite this being a mishmash of comedy and investigative case, there still needs to be a few punches a bit of excessive violence and some carefully choreographed fight scenes.
Overall, it plods along okay and it's more a movie that you would have on in the background than really focus on. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it unless you are Eddie Murphy completist The are better films of this type out there, but there's also a ton of movies that are exactly like this out there so if this is your thing I guess you'll like it. But it's all a bit too generic studio production, mid 80s rental fodder for my liking.
Outside of that, I guess it works as a little time capsule example of when movies were churned out with the production values of the A-Team, with your vigilante hero, wandering about the oh so Hollywood backstreets of either New York or Los Angeles. Just add some carefully, curated, graffiti and some hard rock music in the background and boom we are in the, "tough ghetto".
Seriously though, what is it with that music? They use it everywhere in this movie. They really thought that the kind of track that you would have in a cop chase works for the Tibetan monks. Half the time it doesn't even match the pace. It's just used to indicate everything is a bit gritty and it doesn't work.
Eddie is just on instructions here to play it like Beverly Hills cop, whilst they add a bit of supernatural and special effects, which in their defence aren't actually too bad.
Its the 80s though, so, despite this being a mishmash of comedy and investigative case, there still needs to be a few punches a bit of excessive violence and some carefully choreographed fight scenes.
Overall, it plods along okay and it's more a movie that you would have on in the background than really focus on. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it unless you are Eddie Murphy completist The are better films of this type out there, but there's also a ton of movies that are exactly like this out there so if this is your thing I guess you'll like it. But it's all a bit too generic studio production, mid 80s rental fodder for my liking.