It's Eddie Murphy ... in Eddie Murphy!

While the premise for Murphy's latest film, Meet Dave, definitely had some potential (think: Innerspace), I'm not so sure this new trailer brings all the boys to the yard, if you know what I mean. Here, Norbit director Brian Robbins re-teams with Murphy on a film that tells of a crew of miniature human-looking aliens whose human-looking spaceship walks around Earth doing funny things. Though, originally, they set out to save their planet, problems arise when their spaceship (in the form of Eddie Murphy) falls for a regular Earth girl (Elizabeth Banks).

Murphy looks to be using a combination of his Coming to America accent and his usual shtick for the spaceship character, and then he also plays the miniature alien operating said spaceship. Cue up a ton of fish out of water jokes, a few raunchy set pieces and a good amount of special effects -- and, well, Meet Dave. The film's July 11 release date will definitely secure a healthy box office take, especially since all our brains will be in dumb, popcorn summer mode. Check out the trailer above (or in a better quality over at Yahoo), then let us know what you think.

Sure, it's the time of Sundance, and the push towards the Oscars, but it is also the time of the Razzies! There's a million and two fests and awards ceremonies that tout all that is good in the world of cinema, but sometimes, you just want to revel in the bad. So, enter the yearly Golden Raspberry Awards.

Last year, the big, battling losers were Basic Instinct 2 and Little Man. This year, LiLo's I Know Who Killed Me is battling I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Eddie Murphy's Norbit. Miss Lohan's film has scored the first hurrah by grabbing the most nods (9 over Larry and Norbit's 8), but Eddie got the personal title with a record-setting five nods just for himself.

Rounding out the top stinker nomination-grabbers was Bratz, Daddy Day Camp, and Captivity. On the actor side of things, we've got talent wasting their abilities like Jim Carrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Julia Ormond, while others aren't so surprising -- Carmen Electra, Dane Cook, or Jessica Alba. (The last on this list, Alba, also scored herself romantic doom -- she hit the worst on-screen couple nod three times for her work in Awake, Good Luck Chuck, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).

Also, I give big props to the Razzie folks for their Patty Duke reference. See what I mean after the jump.

Yesterday, we unloaded a bunch of movie pics on you from Universal Pictures upcoming 2008 slate (including two new pics from The Incredible Hulk). Today, we have a few more for you, courtesy of Universal once again, as well as a few other studios who have also unveiled their 2008 calendar. The first image (see above) is from 20th Century Fox's upcoming comedy What Happens in Vegas, starring Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. The photo comes with the caption: "A night of debauchery culminated with impromptu - and soon regretted - nuptials for Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz in What Happens in Vegas." Considering these are two of the most annoying actors working today, here's hoping what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Zing!

From Disney's official 2008 preview comes the first image from the animated film Bolt, which you can view below. Bolt stars the voice of John Travolta as a dog who is the star of a hit TV show. However, when Bolt accidentally gets shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he sets out on a cross-country trip through the real world. Here's more from the synopsis: "Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and with the help of two unlikely traveling companions: a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens (voice of Susie Essman) and a TV-obsessed hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino, Bolt discovers he doesn't need superpowers to be a hero."

In a recent article for Cinematical, I wrote: "Too often, Asian-American actors are relegated to bit parts (the food delivery guy, gangster #3, mysterious prostitute) simply because of their race." Historically, there's another reason why Asian-American actors have not been cast in leading roles, even when the role is that of an Asian or Asian-American character: the "yellow face" factor, in which a non-Asian actor is cast as an Asian.

Playwright/actor David Henry Hwang has written a play with that title, which was inspired by the controversy that arose in the early 1990s when non-Asian actor Jonathan Pryce was cast as a Eurasian character in the original stage production of Miss Saigon. (Hwang's play opens shortly off-Broadway in New York.) Robert B. Ito wrote a biting article on the subject in Bright Lights Film Journal that gave historical context.

Philip W. Chung commented on the phenomenon last week in AsianWeek: "Often, these 'yellow face' performances [by non-Asian actors] both reinforced and embodied all the negative stereotypes -- funny accent, slanted eyes, buck teeth, and enough 'Orientalism' to send the yellow fever meter through the roof." Chung compiled a list of 25 "yellow face" film performances "that have arguably had the most impact on our cultural landscape." Last week's article counted down from #25 to #11.

Chung starts off his list with a recent example -- Christopher Walken in Balls of Fury -- and then stretches back to Richard Barthelmess in D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1919), which he says formed a "template for Hollywood's take on Asian men ... unrealistically noble, feminine and utterly asexual." Chung takes a fascinating skip through the decades and points out "yellow face" performances by Fisher Stevens (#20), Eddie Murphy (#18) and Peter Lorre (#13).

AsianWeek's Top 10 will be counted down this week. Who do you think should be included on the list?

If you wondered when it came out if there needed to be a third Shrek film, all you need to do is ask the kids. Adults may be growing tired of the clever plays on modernity -- mascot contests, bubblegum-blowing teeny-boppers, endless takes on modern store names made to sound "fairy-taleish" -- but kids never seem to tire of the toilet humor that permeates the Shrek series.

The advantage of making a film with ogres and a donkey at the center is that you can acutally (kind of) justify the endless stream of projectile vomiting and fart jokes, and my own kids, at least, never seem to tire of them. And when you have the film on DVD, well, they can rewind to watch the baby spewing green-pea vomit out of the baby carriage over, and over, and over again. So, rejoice, parents, Shrek the Third is here.

Actually, for a third film in a series, Shrek the Third isn't a terrible effort. While it's not as strong as the first two films (the second was surprisingly good for a sequel) and at times it feels that the filmmakers are really reaching by stretching the franchise to support a third film, if you compare it to, say, the dreadful Happily N'Ever After, it's pretty tolerable. Any time you can find a kids' film that the adults in the household can stomach watching multiple times, that's a good thing -- but you might want to make sure to have Shrek and Shrek 2 on hand as well.

Director Brian Robbins' name keeps popping up, and still, all I can think is: "Hey, it's that middle-of-the-road actor from the '80s." He had a bunch of 1-episode stints on the big, classic shows from that decade like Cagney & Lacey, The Facts of Life, Three's Company, and Knight Rider before nabbing the part of Eric on Head of the Class. He's the guy who had the little, black and white pictures in my issues of Teen Beat because the Coreys, the Brat Pack, and other cuties ruled the color spreads. But he's actually had a lot more success directing, mainly in that uber-fluffy sort of way. These days, he's got a directorial man-crush on Eddie Murphy and the projects just keep coming.

They brought us Norbit, we're about to get a little Starship Dave, and now Variety reports that they will team up for a DreamWorks comedy called A Thousand Words. To give the duo credit, it's an interesting idea: the movie will focus on "a glib man who finds out that he has only 1,000 words left to speak before he dies." Steve Koren, the guy who penned Click, wrote the screenplay. This being said, it all depends on execution, and it doesn't help that they want to rush this before the strike. But that might just be a little tricky -- Murphy has a slew of projects stacking up, from Nowhereland to Fantasy Island. But get ready, sports fans! At some point, we'll probably have yet another battle between the critics and those who love the world of Robbins!

I have absolutely no idea why, but I'm kind of into Eddie Murphy's new family comedy called NowhereLand. I should be having flashbacks to the disappointing roles he's taken on over the last decade. I could go on and on about how much of a bummer it was that they could make Pirates of the Caribbean into a great series, and then flounder so pitifully with my favorite ride -- The Haunted Mansion. But forget Disney. NowhereLand is about a man named Evan who solves his work problems by exploring the fantasy world of his six-year-old daughter. It's the sort of flick that could be really good if it has some smarts, and I'm hoping that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is right when he says this is a role Murphy hasn't played before. I think Eddie not becoming five million different characters would be a good first step. However, I'm probably putting too many positive expectations on this project.

But on to the new castmates that The Hollywood Reporter just announced. Murphy and Thomas Haden Church (who will play his ruthless co-worker) are being joined by Brown Sugar's Nicole Ari Parker, DeRay Davis from License to Wed and ol' Beverly Hills Cop alum Ronny Cox. Parker will play Evan's estranged wife, who can't understand his preoccupation with their daughter's imaginary world, Davis plays his best friend -- "a therapist who calls himself the Man Whisperer and believes that all Evan needs to overcome his troubles is a good cry," and finally Cox plays the boss of a capital fund group who thinks Evan is doing some insider trading, but doesn't care as long as it works. Now all we need is the young tyke and we'll be set.

No, it's not a biopic on Eddie Murphy's latest big-screen role choices. Variety reports that Thomas Haden Church has joined Murphy in Nowhereland, a comedy for Paramount that's already set a release date of September 26, 2008. We previously told you that Murphy would be starring in the flick, with Karey Kirkpatrick (or "KK" as we used to call him back in the schoolyard) signed on to direct. In the film, Murphy will play a once successful financial exec whose career winds up in the crapper. From there things take a strange turn as Murphy's character finds the answers to his problems "within the magical world created by his daughter."

I know, they're traveling to the DMV -- that's what I thought too! But I gather it will be a tad more inventive than that. Sandman, er, Church will play Murphy's ambitious rival at work, and the film also reunites Kirkpatrick and Church; both worked together on Kirkpatrick's 2006 directorial debut, Over the Hedge. You hear Murphy's name, you hear Over the Hedge, and you begin thinking "Did I leave the gun loaded?" However, the good news is that the film was scripted by the on-again off-again writing team of Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson -- two guys who brought us the totally awesome (and very imaginative) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Solomon also penned Men in Black, and so I do have hope that Nowhereland will turn into Somethingland. Paramount is giving it a late September release, clearly avoiding the August comedy rush. That either means a) they have enough faith to release it during Oscar hunting season or b) they want to keep it as far away from potential competition as possible. I'd opt for the latter.

I know what you're thinking: "Please don't tell me the guy who directed Norbit is remaking the classic Elvis flick from 1957." Good news -- he's not. This will be an entirely different Jailhouse Rock based on the true story that was written about in an L.A. Weekly article by Joshuah Bearman. Disney has optioned the article and tapped Brian Robbins to direct. The story will follow a musician-turned-detention officer at Arizona's Tent City who decides to hold an American Idol-type singing contest at the jail. Called Inmate Idle Singing Con-Test, the event became so popular that Alice Cooper himself showed up to judge the finals. Something tells me Simon Cowell's snarky attitude wouldn't go off so well here. Whaddya think?

Robbins, who was very vocal towards critics when Norbit received tons of bad reviews, just wrapped his second film in a row with Eddie Murphy as star, Starship Dave (not to be confused with the other Murphy atrocity that was Pluto Nash). Seeing as Disney is putting this one out, I imagine the jail environment will be rather tame -- even though Tent City is one heckuva nasty place. Oh yes, I watch MSNBC's Lock Up -- I've seen the inside of practically every prison in the country. Tent City is outside though, and the inmates have to stay in tents. And since this is Arizona, it gets hot. Real hot. Needless to say, this isn't the sort of place you'd like to end up. But Robbins feels good about the project, telling Variety "I don't see this as a prison movie as much as about the healing power of music." Ah, but can that music help heal his relationship with critics as well? Guess we'll see.

I don't know what is worse, that Steve James (Hoop Dreams) hasn't already been a member of the Academy all this time, or that Simon West (Con Air) is now allowed to take part in the Oscar voting process. Both directors are part of the list of 115 individuals who have just been invited to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Unlike last year's list, which seemed to be gearing for younger influences (like Dakota Fanning), this year's is pretty normal, and consists of a lot of people nominated for awards back in February. These include actor Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), supporting actress Adriana Barraza (Babel), supporting actress Jennifer Hudson (winner, Dreamgirls), suporting actor Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), supporting actor Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), director Paul Greengrass (United 93), foreign film writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (winner, The Lives of Others), screenwriter William Monahan (winner, The Departed), screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), foreign film producer Agustín Almodóvar (Volver), composer Javier Navarrete (Pan's Labyrinth), composer Gustavo Santaolalla (winner, Babel and Brokeback Mountain), composer Alexandre Desplat (The Queen), animator Torill Kove (winner, The Danish Poet), production designer Eugenio Cabellero (winner, Pan's Labyrinth) and documentary filmmaker James Longley (Iraq in Fragments).

A lot of non-nominees were invited, too. Some of those included are Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Daniel Craig, Aaron Eckhart, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Huston, Christopher Plummer (you'd think he was already in there, too), producers Jonathan Glickman (The Pacifier) and Jane Rosenthal (The Good Shepherd), directors Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and D.J. Caruso (Disturbia), composer Carter Burwell (Kinsey), animation cinematographer Sharon Calahan (Finding Nemo), documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen (nominated in 2000 for On the Ropes) and, as mentioned, Steve James (nominated in 1995 for editing Hoop Dreams) and Simon West (shockingly no Oscar noms nor any Razzie noms). This is only the fourth year the Academy has made the list public, and you can see all of those invited here. All of the new members will be officially welcomed at a ceremony this September.

What with Rocky, Rambo and John McClane making late comebacks, it only makes sense that we'd get a new visit from Axel Foley. If producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has his way, we'll be seeing Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop 4 some time relatively soon. (Yes, even after that third one. Ugh.)

The producer told ComingSoon.net that while they haven't officially hired any writers yet, they've been consulting with folks and trying to hash out what the infamous cop's next adventure might be like: "We have not hired a writer yet, but we've been analyzing the franchise and asking lots and lots of people about Axel Foley. 'What do you love about Axel and what would you want to see with an Axel Foley movie?' I think we have enough information now that we'll probably be hiring a writer in the next four to eight weeks and taking a good shot at it."

The original Beverly Hills Cop (1984, Martin Brest) still stands as one of the mega-blockbusters of all time ($234 million, domestic). The first sequel (Tony Scott, 1987) was more of the same, right down to the profit margin ($153 million). The wholly unnecessary and frankly terrible second sequel (1994, John Landis) pretty much killed the franchise ($43 million) ... until now, it seems. Despite the fact that I only like the first BHC flick, I'd probably be open to a third sequel. If I have to choose between Beverly Hills Cop 4 or Norbit 2, well, that's not a very tough decision. (Knowing Eddie, we'll probably get both of those movies.)

You don't have to be a rocket scientist in order to spot the pattern developing during this much-hyped summer of sequels. Following two highly-entertaining and well thought-out installments in the Spider-Man franchise, we were offered a discombobulated third part that couldn't clean up its room without making it messier. Though Spidey is certainly not a tough act to follow, our lovable green ogre was in a similar position. Both Shrek and Shrek 2 were gems; ideal family comedies. A little something for the kids, a little something for the adults, and a lot of something at the box office. But when you begin to venture into threequel territory, there's a certain amount of risk that continuously whispers in your ear -- "How do we keep this thing fresh?" it asks. After all, even a little kid -- the kind that jumps up and down, screaming "Do it again, daddy!" -- will eventually become bored and move onto something else.

Although it's become increasingly more difficult to stand out in an animated marketplace flooded with generic knock-offs, Shrek the Third makes a bold attempt to reignite the magic using familiar ingredients and a whole new cast of characters. That said, the series is beginning to lose its flavor; Shrek (Mike Myers) and his cohorts continue to remain sharp, witty and adorable, but that inventive shine is fading. And what remains is an enjoyable, yet predictable version of something we used to love ... when it was new, when it was fresh and when it wasn't trying as hard to send multiple messages through a few neatly-placed Hallmark-esque monologues. For parents (especially soon-to-be fathers), Shrek the Third might seem therapeutic in a way, and it's also a great film to show those kids struggling to fit in at school. As far as the rest of us go, well, Shrek himself summed it up nicely when, half-way through the film, he blurted out, "Would you like some eggs with that ham?"

Raise your hand if you love it when Eddie Murphy plays nine different characters in one movie. OK, hands down. Now raise your hand if you thought it was hilarious in Coming to America and The Nutty Professor but movies like The Klumps and Norbit make you nauseous. Yeah, I'm with the second group. (OK, Murphy's dual-role turn in Bowfinger was pretty funny too.) Looks like we'll soon have another such flick to ponder -- and it's not just another "Eddie Murphy in latex" comedy. Nope, this one will also be a "based on a silly old TV series" thing. Because we all know how awesome I Spy was.

Yes, old people, that show you used to watch on Friday nights after The Love Boat is about to make the leap to the silver screen. Multiple incarnations of Eddie Murphy will star in an adaptation of Fantasy Island, which (conveniently enough) comes from the writers who gave us the wonder that is Norbit. Not even remotely surprisingly, The Hollywood Reporter indicates that the movie will be a "family-oriented comedy," which is exactly what the Ricardo Montalban / Herve Villechaize series was: a family-oriented comedy. Ahem. (Oh, wait: I can see it now: Murphy will be playing a Spanish man with a verrrry thick accent AND a squeaky-voiced midget! This stuff writes itself!)

We can thank Sony for this brilliant idea. Murphy will get started on Fantasy Island once he's done shooting Starship Dave and counting all his Shrek the Third money. (And I gotta say it: Murphy opting to star in something called Starship Dave, after once opting to star in Pluto Nash, just reeks of masochism.)

Eddie Murphy hasn't made an R-rated movie since 1999's Life, and he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to do more any time soon. That seems like a real shame to me, as Murphy is one of the great modern vulgarians. Nearly all of his best roles have given him the freedom to really cut loose and let the expletives fly. Whither the Murphy of 48 Hours? The Murphy of Trading Places? The Murphy of Coming to America? I haven't laughed at Eddie since Bowfinger, and he hasn't had a truly great comedic role since The Nutty Professor over 10 years ago. He seems downright neutered in the children's films especially, and now he's signed on to what sounds like another one. In Nowhereland, Murphy will play "a successful financial exec who finds his career going down the drain and discovers the answers to his problems within his daughter's imaginary world." Sigh.

Karey Kirkpatrick will direct the film. He made his directorial debut last year with Over the Hedge -- the animated movie with the wacky talking animals. No, the other one. No, the other one. Nope. Yeah. That one. Nowhereland was written by Ed Solomon (Men In Black) and Chris Matheson (Mr. Wrong), an occasional writing team who first collaborated on a favorite from my youth: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Solomon was inspired to write Nowhereland when his young son had an idea that wound up solving a business problem. Hope that kid's getting story credit! Now I know very little about this Nowhereland, so I don't want to speculate on its quality. But I wonder if Murphy might have headed his career in a different direction had he won the Oscar for his strong performance in Dreamgirls. Would it have re-energized him? Would he have started challenging himself ... a little bit? We may never know. Shooting on Nowhereland begins September 10th.

The cast for Norbit Nash, er, Starship Dave is starting to take shape; Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms and Elizabeth Banks have joined the Eddie Murphy comedy, to be directed by Brian Robbins (Norbit). Pic, which kind of reminds me of that awesome 1987 flick Innerspace, tells of a spaceship full of aliens that takes the shape of a human and comes to earth seeking out a way to save their planet. Inside the human (played by Murphy, of course) are 100 human-looking aliens operating its every move. (Don't you hate it when all the aliens look like humans? Knowing Robbins, he probably thinks it's the smartest idea in the history of ever.)

Once on earth, pic switches gears and becomes more like Innerspace meets Coming to America -- the captain of the ship (yes, Murphy) accidentally falls in love with a woman (Banks) who strictly dates losers (who use Soul Glow, we hope). I imagine things will get complicated from there -- there's no way Robbins is ending this flick without at least one attempted sex scene. C'mon, 100 people aliens trying to operate Eddie Murphy having sex. Comedy was invented for scenes like that! Gabrielle Union and Ed Helms will play members of the miniature alien crew; Union as the chief cultural officer and Helms as the uptight second-in-command. Does it have potential? Yes. Will critics hate it? Probably. Will Robbins take a critic hostage and force him (or her) to watch Norbit and Starship Dave back-to-back for 100 hours in a bizarre attempt to somehow convert them and reveal "the light?" Probably not ... although that would be a good idea for Eddie Murphy's next flick.