Apparently Michael Ritchie's The Golden Child originated as a more serious "Raymond Chandler" detective drama that happened to feature supernatural elements. It was only after Eddie Murphy was cast in the lead role that the film was reworked into a comedy. And let me tell you: it shows. You can almost see where the filmmakers sutured in moments where they just told Murphy to either ad-lib or do Axel Foley shtick. Here is a movie that tries to run solely on two things: over-the-top "Far East" pseudo-Tibetan mysticism and Murphy's personal charisma. Much like Ivan Reitman's earlier film Ghostbusters (1984), it tries to combine comedy with big-budget special effects sequences. Only whereas the former film had several comedians at their prime in front of and behind the camera, The Golden Child has only one. And, tragically, they never really let him say or do anything that inherently funny. I'm not sure if the original serious version would have worked, but I imagine it would have at least been better than this.
4/10
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