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Holy man
Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
The comedy where nothing's sacred!
Eddie Murphy (G) pulls out all the laugh stops and delivers another comedy home run with Touchstone Picture's Holy man. In this sharp-edged, high-octane comedic look at life, love, and TV shopping, Murphy is an inspirational televangelist who hilariously proves his message - that in today's world, shopping by TV can be a religious experience. Only Eddie could so completely become this over the top marketing genius, who takes a TV shopping company - and the country - by storm.
Persons of interest
- Eddie Murphy .... G
- Jeff Goldblum .... Rick Hayman
- Kelly Preston .... Kate Newall
- Eric McCormack .... Scott Hawks
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
A very slow flick which is destined to be stuck in the back of the comedy section of your local video shop where you will find it ten years later and wonder how come you've never watched it.No, it's not really that bad, but I am a little short on sleep, so being nasty is to be expected.
Anyhoo, Holy man is an attempt to merge spirituality and humour, after all, religion doesn't have to be boring, does it? Unfortunately, if this film is any example, then yes it does. There are a few humourous bits, but mostly there's an unconvincing relationship between Jeff and Kelly, stereotypes for days and clichés for weeks. If you want to see real life on TV watch Ed TV.
With regards to the spiritual yet funny pilgrim on his way to find god somewhere along a freeway, well, Eddie doesn't manage to pull it off. When he was an angry young African-American (Raw) he was hilarious. Homophobic, but hilarious. By the time he got to Beverley Hills cop he was older, calmer and whiter. In Holy man he's thinking about the kids and what they're going to think when they see him in a movie. Get the picture?
Jeff is doing that thoughtful but confused guy thing he does, and apart from the new hair he still looks like he's in Earth girls are easy. Kelly looks good not only because she's acting opposite the other two but because she has the most complex character in the whole thing. As an aggressive woman of the 90s who finds spirituality and true love in the same script, then holds out for both on her own terms, Kate provides the driving force for Holy man. It's a pity that the leading men don't live up to Kelly's standards. Eric is a good nasty piece of work but doesn't appear much.
There are some funny bits (mostly to do with home shopping) but save this movie for when you've watched everything else. Except for home shopping.
Media intelligence (DVD)
- Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
- Languages: English, German, Spanish
- Picture: Widescreen (1.85:1)
- Subtitles: Closed captions, Danish, Dutch, English captions, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
Security censorship classification
PG (Low level coarse language)
Surveillance time
114 minutes (1:54 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
VHS rental: 12 May 1999
DVD retail: 2 April 2003
VHS retail: 2 April 2003
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