DeuceWild_77 After the global success of "Beverly Hills Cop", Eddie Murphy's next project was to expand his wisecracking on-screen personna in comedy / action flicks to a more adventure / fantasy oriented, galloping on the ressurgence of the adventure films such as the two first "Indiana Jones" films and the major hit of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" released the year before."The Golden Child" was conceived as a straight action / adventure / fantasy / horror film with the 'Master of Suspense", John Carpenter in the director's chair and the rising star, Mel Gibson in the lead role of Chandler Jarrell (the main character's first name was a homage from the screenwriter Dennis Feldman to Raymond Chandler, the famous 'detective fiction' writer and the creator of Philip Marlowe, P.I.).When Carpenter left the project to direct his own (& similar themed), "Big Trouble in Little China" and Mel Gibson took a year off movies before starting shooting "Lethal Weapon", Eddie Murphy stepped in as a replacement (the same happened before when he replaced Sylvester Stallone in "Beverly Hills Cop"), the movie was re-written to acommodate Murphy's humour routine and Michael Ritchie, the veteran director of comedy flicks such as "The Bad News Bears" ('76); "The Survivors" ('83) or "Fletch" ('85) was hired to enhance the lighthearted comedy aspect.The end result is a fun film, but not as fun as the previous Murphy's films and even if it made a good money at the B.O., it was critically torn apart and was considered a financial disappointment by the studio.Murphy returns in a re-hash of his two previous (& widely famous) film roles as Reggie Hammond in "48 Hrs." and Axel Foley in "Beverly Hills Cop", but this time a bit more contained and less vibrant & exuberant as if he tried to pursuit more his dramatic side, following the mixed tone of the movie (part dark fantasy / part lighthearted comedy), but still improvising his trademark wisecracking humour which was probably estipulated on his contract with Paramount Pictures.The movie suffers from the crossover genres imposed, because it's way apparent that it went into production as a straightforward and 'serious in tone' fantasy film and the added comedy, even if some gags were nicely staged and always hilariously performed by Murphy, it still feels a bit out of place.In the supporting cast, Charlotte Lewis is almost as wooden as she is stunning beautiful and Peter Kwong, Victor Wong & James Hong came straight from the "Big Trouble in Little China" set to perform here similar parts, except for James Hong, playing here a way different character than his evil sorcerer, David Lo Pan in the latter. Classical trained English actor, Charles Dance is superb playing the 'Machiavellian' main villain, Sardo Numspa, with his usual wicked bureaucratic snobbery and a touch of exquisiteness.In short, despite its flaws, "The Golden Child", emanates that movie magic that only the 80's could do, it's a very entertaining flick that appeals to both, children (i loved it when it was released, i was around 10 years old or so) and adults (i still like it a lot now) and a good watch for a movie marathon with "Big Trouble in Little China", "Shangai Surprise" and even "Howard the Duck", curiously all also released in '86.I give it a 7 / 7.5 stars, but as a nostalgic film from my youth and because it's way better than the 99,9 per cent of the fantasy / adventure movies that came out nowadays, it surely deserves an extra point.

Fluke_Skywalker Plot; A man who specializes in finding missing children is tasked with recovering "The Golden Child", a young boy who is prophesized to be the savior of mankind.This is a weird movie. And also terrible. This is a weird and terrible movie. With star Eddie Murphy coming off of the smash hit Beverly Hills Cop, it's no surprise that he and director Michael Ritchie more or less try to make this Beverly Hills Monk, with Murphy essentially porting over his Axel Foley character in all but name. Unfortunately the material here is vastly inferior, and even Murphy's shtick isn't enough to spackle over this disjointed mess of a movie.

m-ozfirat I remember watching the Golden Child when i was young and have fond memories of it during those periods. The story is well known about a remote area in Tibet when a magical child is abducted by an evil wizard and a mysterious beauty comes to an American (surprisingly) to rescue this magical child and the I am sure you can guess the rest of it by pure logic on how it unfolds. The story is action packed and allows us from a westerners view to respect eastern culture and be enchanted by all things different so it has a deep meaning although it follows the same legacy of old conservative films going out to the exotic this one bridges as during this period people had become accepting. Along with good action, fast adventure and a modern attitude without being reticent about Tibetan traditions enriching the film. The characters are well written and cast, the story is unique though follows a simplebut effective continuation along with good music and realistic action intriguing the audience. Charlotte Lewis is perfectly cast in this film. Eddie Murphy plays well and is entertaining with good humour but is miscast. I read on here IMDb that Mel Gibson was originally offered the role which would of suited the story and overall film better but perhaps for obvious (ideological) reasons he refused it which is the only critic i have of the film but overall its good, underrated but a good 80s classic with action and humour.

richieandsam THE GOLDEN CHILDI like this movie.It has been a lot of years since I last watched this film, and even though it was still very good... it was not as good as I used to think it was.Eddie Murphy is a legend. I love his movies from the 80s. He was so funny. Don't get me wrong... he still is, but he is more family friendly now. I thought he was funnier when he was swearing etc... his stand up gigs (Delirious and Raw) were brilliant.The Golden Child was funny, but not as good as some of Eddies others.There were a lot of special effects in this. They were great at the time, but these days they look pretty weak. The story was good though. I liked the idea of the knife and the way Eddie has to get it. The bad guy, played by Charles Dance, was awesome. I loved the way he was so British and calm through the whole film. He played the part really deadpan. I also loved the creature he turned into near the end. The only thing I am slightly disappointed about, was they killed him off too quickly. They could have stretched the ending out a bit. It seemed to end very quickly.But I love a lot of 80s films... I honestly believe they were brilliant. The look of them, the stories, the effects and the soundtracks were great. You can almost always tell an 80s movie from the background score of a film.I will give this film 7 out of 10.A great movie, but not as good as Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading places etc...For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl