Alternate Best Actor 1984: Results

5. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop- Murphy is funny in his funny scene but quite lacking in his dramatic scenes.

Best Scene: Any one of his purely comic scenes. 

4. Steve Martin in All of Me- Martin gives an enjoyable performance as at first a straight man, than later very entertainingly as a man with another person sharing his body.

Best Scene: Edwina tries to act like a man when Roger falls asleep in court. 

3. Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America- De Niro carries this epic by powerfully portraying both the violent youth, and the haunted age of a career criminal.

Best Scene: Noodles meets Secretary Bailey.

2. Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor- Hall shows how one should portray Nixon in his effective performance that makes for an outstanding one man show.

Best Scene: The whole film since it is one long scene.

1. Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas- Harry Dean Stanton gives a great subtle performance as a man trying to rebuild himself. It is a quiet but deeply moving performance that shows his abilities as an actor goes far beyond the usual small parts he is given.

Best Scene: Travis tells his story to his wife.

Overall Rank:

1. F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus
2. Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas
3. Haing S. Ngor in The Killing Fields
4. Tom Hulce in Amadeus
5. John Hurt in The Hit
6. Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor
7. John Hurt in 1984
8. Terence Stamp in The Hit
9. Mickey Rourke in The Pope of Greenwich Village
10. John Hurt in Champions
11. Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America
12. John Lone in The Iceman
13. Bill Murray in Ghostbusters
14. Mel Gibson in Mrs. Soffel
15. Steve Martin in All of Me 
16. Tsutomu Yamazaki in The Funeral
17. Albert Finney in Under the Volcano 
18. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom  
19. Sam Waterston in The Killing Fields
20. Matthew Modine in Birdy
    
21. Clint Eastwood in Tightrope 
22. Keith Carradine in Choose Me
23. John Lynch in Cal
24. Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone
25. Christopher Guest in This is Spinal Tap 
26. Victor Banerjee in A Passage to India
27. Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty 
28. Jack Lemmon in Mass Appeal
29. Michael McKean in This is Spinal Tap 
30. Michael Palin in A Private Function
31. Sam Shepard in Country
32. Mel Gibson in The Bounty 
33. Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid 
34. Francisco Rabal in Los Santos Innocentes 
    
35. Michael Biehn in The Terminator
36. Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose 
37. Dudley Moore in Micki & Maude
38. Matt Dillon in The Flamingo Kid 
39. Nicolas Cage in Birdy
    
40. Craig Wasson in Body Double
41. Ryan O'Neal in Irreconcilable Differences
42. Michel Piccoli in Dangerous Moves
43. John Lurie in Stranger Than Paradise 
44. John Cassavetes in Love Streams
45. Alexandre Arbatt in Dangerous Moves
46. Alfredo Landa in Los Santos Innocentes
47. Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator  
48. Emilio Estevez in Repo Man 
49. Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn 
50. Robert Redford in The Natural
51. Gregory Hines in The Cotton Club
52. Kevin Bacon in Footloose
53. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop
54. Howard E. Rollins in A Soldier's Story
55. Timothy Hutton in The Iceman 
56. Lance Guest in The Last Starfigher 
57. William Shatner in Star Trek III  
58. Mel Gibson in The River
59. Christopher Lambert in Greystoke 
60. Zach Galligan in Gremlins  
61. Kyle MacLachlan in Dune
62. Noah Hathaway in The Neverending Story 
63. Zeljko Ivanek in Mass Appeal
64. Jeff Bridges in Star Man 
65. Eric Roberts in The Pope of Greenwich Village
66. Christopher Reeve in The Bostonians
67. Tom Hanks in Splash
68. Richard Gere in The Cotton Club
69. Barret Oliver in The Neverending Story
70. Steven Guttenberg in Police Academy 
71. Anthony Perkins in Crimes of Passion
72. John Laughlin in Crimes of Passion

Next Year: 1960

Alternate Best Actor 1984: Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop

Eddie Murphy did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop.

Beverly Hills Cop is a some what amusing but certainly not great comedy about a Detroit Cop who goes to Beverly Hills to investigate the death of his friend.

Eddie Murphy now is considered to bit of a wash up as he rarely has a successful comedy. Back in the 80's when this film came out though he was considered to be on top. This does not mean though Murphy was necessarily the greatest actor at this point though. In Beverly Hills Cop he portrays the Detroit cop who makes his way to Beverly Hills to avenge his friends, and there are really two sides of this character the serious side and the Eddie Murphy side.

Originally the film was going to star Sylvester Stallone, and it is pretty easy to see how the film would have been with Stallone in the lead, it is also easy to see the ways Murphy presence changed the film, but as well to a degree was forced to stay in line with the original idea for the film. There are basically two types of scenes for Murphy in this film which really do not overlap in the way they probably should which are the serious and the humorous ones, and yes there are far more serious scenes than one would expect from a Eddie Murphy comedy.

I might as well mention Bill Murray as a great example of an actor who is able to traverse through the serious and the comedic without a problem as he did in this year in Ghostbusters, as well as later on in fantastically in Groundhog's day. Murphy though pretty much separates them, trying maybe a little to put some comedy in the more dramatic moments, but mostly that just involves him doing his somewhat odd dry heave laugh which he always does in the more serious scenes of the film.

Murphy I can't say is all the convincing in any of the dramatic moments such as when Foley is hanging out with his friend or later reacting to his death. There is not any conviction in his performance, nor is there anything in his performance to make their relationship mean anything. Murphy though very well could have taken the route of always going for laughs, but he does not instead he actually tries to be convincing as the character and he is a bit awkward in these moments.

What made the film popular though I'm sure are all of the comedic scenes which apparently Murphy improvised for the most part. This actually seems quite obvious since Murphy is on a much better level during these moments. He has a high energy, and he really does try to make the most of riff he can come up with. To Murphy's credit as well he does make these seem as Foley's method rather than simply Murphy being Eddie Murphy.

It is hard to say that every one of the scenes that Murphy humorously goes through are downright hilarious, but most of them are quite amusing, and some of them are hilarious. It is probably rather safe to say that without Murphy this would have had very few if any redeeming features, since his full fledged comedy scenes are by far the best scenes in the film. Still I cannot forget that the serious scenes are certainly very lacking, something Murphy as well did better in films before and after this one.This is not a bad performance by Murphy becuase when he is funny he is funny, but that is really the best that can be said about this performance, which may be enough I suppose.

Alternate Best Actor 1984

And The Nominees Were Not:

Steve Martin in All of Me

Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop

Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas

Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America

Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Results

5. Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls- Murphy throws a great deal of energy into his role, but for me I could never separate this from his earlier comedic performances.

4. Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond- Hounsou is only ever really loud or really quiet, which is acceptable for much of his performance, but when his limits are noticeable they are very noticeable.

3. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed- Wahlberg is enjoyable enough as the loud abrasive police officer, it is not a complex performance but it serves its purpose.

2. Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine- Arkin gives a strong performance that is both consistently humorous, but Arkin also effectively brings a great deal of his heart to his performance.

1. Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children- In a part that could have portrayed in an overly cinematic or stylized fashion, Haley always keeps his portrayal far more effective by playing it truthfully to his character.

Deserving Performances:
Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
Michael Caine in Children of Men

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls

Eddie Murphy received his first Oscar nomination for portraying James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls.

Dreamgirls tells about the rise of a group of black female soul singers.

Eddie Murphy joins the ranks of other comedians who would only nominated for being in roles where they are mostly not funny. As well know an actor can only win or most the time even be nominated for an Oscar for a comedic role if they are just as prolific with their dramatic work like Peter Ustinov, Walter Matthau, Kevin Kline, or Jack Lemmon. If you are almost exclusively a comedic actor like Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, or Eddie Murphy you better make sure you role is mostly dramatic if you want to be nominated for that Oscar as Murray was.

Eddie Murphy plays James "Thunder" Early a flamboyant singer who takes on the three singers to be his backup early on. I must apologize for this review I really must. This is the only time this has ever happened to me in all my reviews of every performance that I have done. This entire performance by Eddie Murphy was impossible for me to separate from his previous performances. I really am sorry, but for whatever reason well I watching him here I could never detach this performance completely on his own.

For example James Early is suppose to be a charming energetic singer. I could never find myself actually seeing Eddie Murphy as charming here, not because he isn't charming. No the problem was for me was whenever he was being charming in Early's highly energetic fashion I could only see Eddie Murphy doing Buddy Love from the Nutty Professor. I honestly could not see him as the singer in this film, I only saw Buddy Love. It was driving me a little crazy actually that I could not separate this performance from his earlier work, but honestly I just could not.

This fact made it very difficult for me to really take him ever as this singer even though Murphy certainly is very believable in the singing scenes, but even they reminded me a little too much of his James Brown parody on Saturday Night Live. I just could never quite take this performance, well for lack of a better word, seriously. I never forgot his earlier work with his performance even though I did try best to look at it as a individual performance. I was never able to see it on its own terms, and because of that I never became invested in the character.

Murphy does put a lot of effort and energy in the part, doing his very best to show the charisma and constant  manic intensity in the performance scenes.  He also is believable enough, even though the film gives him very little time to deal with it, in portraying Early's later drug addiction and depression he faces later on. He does realize the part, but it never affected me as the film or Murphy wanted it to. The reason for this I would say mostly would be the fact that I could not detach his work here from his earlier comedic work. This certainly is a fine performance, but I can't say it was amazing. I also can't say I was really able to give this performance a fair shake, as I do believe my reaction could have been very different if I never say an Eddie Murphy performance before this one.

Best Supporting Actor 2006

And the Nominees Were:

Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond

Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls

Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine

Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed