After the disaster of this year’s Academy Awards hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, where do you go to try and redeem yourself?
How about… Eddie Murphy?! Yes, apparently the reports are true that Eddie Murphy will be hosting the next Academy Awards, and reactions are mixed already.
Deadline reported the news first, and if you regularly read the site, when they break news first it comes with their catch-phrase, “Toldja!,” and this was apparently the brainchild of Brett Ratner, who’s producing the ceremony, which I’d be more worried about actually, but here’s the Murphy pros and cons.
As Variety notes, with Murphy, “Ratner managed to bring an element of surprise to a traditional choice.” And as Ratner told Deadline, Murphy is also a huge movie buff, even more than Tarantino in his knowledge of film.
Now as Variety points out, the cons are “his star power isn’t near its peak in the late 1980s and early ’90s,” and his style of comedy is more edgier than say when Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal and Steve Martin would host.
Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times weighed in, saying he’s “not delirious” about this choice, and with the article they ran a photo from one of Murphy’s most embarrassing stiffs, Meet Dave.
“Maybe Ratner thinks he has an ace up his sleeve,” Goldstein writes. “Or maybe he just likes hiring his pals; Murphy is, after all, the star of Ratner’s upcoming thriller, Tower Heist.” Along the Murphy hall of shame, Goldstein included Norbit, Meet Dave, Imagine That, and A Thousand Words, which apparently has been on the shelf since 2008 (!), and will finally be released next year.
“It’s great to have an African American Oscar host again,” Goldstein continues. “The last was in 2005, when Chris Rock tried to bring a little razor-edged humor to the show. Murphy, though, is such an inside-the-beltway showbiz creature by now that it’s hard to imagine anything shocking or subversive coming out of his mouth.”
Not sure exactly where this one could land myself. Murphy hosting could be great, it could be a disaster, or even a dull misfire, which could be the worst of the three cause at least a disaster can be memorable. (Rob Lowe’s musical number with Snow White? For audiences today, that’s the worse remembered career blunder than his sex tape.)
We’ll see how Ed makes out next February 26, for the 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony.
