Not one funny line. Abysmal script. Awfully shot and edited. Useless villains. Virtually non-existing plot. Whoever made this, probably thought they could pull off another Beverly Hills Cop. That film had a very basic plot, and was made to work through excellent performances and an awesome soundtrack. But this time around, Murphy has no funny lines, and he has no one interesting to interact with. The result is a very boring film that's awfully stitched together. And on top of all this, it is tonally confusing. Jumping from lighthearted comedy to scenes of dead children and bowls filled with kids' blood doesn't work at all. Ghostbusters pulled tonal shifts effortlessly, but its writers knew what they were doing. As for the silly Oriental lore... John Carpenter does it better. But the greatest crime remains putting Eddie Murphy in the film and not giving him funny things to say. His charisma still keeps the film watchable, but not enjoyable.
Review of The Golden Child
