Boomerang (1992)

Directed by Reginald Hudlin. Starring Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Lela Rochon, Eartha Kitt, Tisha Campbell, Grace Jones, Geoffrey Holder, Chris Rock. [R]

Advertising exec and habitual womanizer Murphy gets a taste of his own medicine when his new boss (Rochon) uses and discards him in the same fashion, wounding his self esteem and inspiring the sort of fixation that makes him not realize that Halle Berry is, ahem, right there. This change of pace for Eddie buffs the edges of his comic personality—his riffs are mild and infrequent—to create a more grounded and credible character for him to play…yet, in turn, additional humor would have helped buff the edges of this thorny star vehicle, which may treat sexism as a two-way street, but is clearly crafted from a male perspective. Besides, going soft toward the end and asking us to care about the chauvinist lead is a fool’s errand (he commits what is arguably an unforgivable act, yet he manages to reconcile without doing anything to earn forgiveness!). The routine polish of the central romantic comedy storyline is offset at times by the broader hijinks on the sidelines, some of which work (like Holder’s hilariously off-color commercials), some of which don’t (like a conspicuously unseemly interlude with a racist clothing store salesman). Soundtrack produced by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L. A.” Reid, includes Toni Braxton’s solo singing debut (“Love Shoulda Brought You Home”). Melvin Van Peebles and John Witherspoon make brief appearances.

55/100