Reviving the Murphy touch

Eddie Murphy’s Oscar-nominated turn in “Dreamgirls” should mean a second coming for the dethroned superstar.

Or will it?

The comic actor’s ascent from “Saturday Night Live” standout to box office titan was as swift as it was deserving.

He was cool and compelling, whether he was staring down rednecks in “48 Hours” (1982) or outhustling the fuzz in “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984).

And how could you forget that laugh, so winning you couldn’t help snickering, too.

For a while, Mr. Murphy’s Midas touch seemed permanent. We even bought weak vanity projects like “The Golden Child” (1986) and explained away his more mean-spirited stand-up bits. Fans can revisit Mr. Murphy on stage via his 1983 concert film “Eddie Murphy: Delirious,” finally on DVD this week.

Then came “Harlem Nights,” “Vampire in Brooklyn” and the punch line that was “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” (2002).

But even if he hoists Oscar Feb. 25, it doesn’t guarantee his artistic resurrection.

For starters, there’s “Norbit.”

Mr. Murphy’s new comedy, which opened last week, finds him playing a multitude of roles again a la “The Nutty Professor” films. He’s Norbit, the henpecked husband, as well as Norbit’s overweight, overbearing wife, Rasputia. The laughs come chiefly from paint-by-numbers slapstick, which is beneath him.

Yet this kind of sophomoric farce has kept him relevant, at least commercially, for the past decade. For every clunker like “Showtime” or “Holy Man,” he has a “Daddy Day Care” or “Nutty Professor” to cushion his bank account.

True to form, “Norbit” hauled in $34 million in its first week, perhaps abetted by Mr. Murphy’s current buzz.

But where’s the edge, the fire that made him a star? He’s too talented to play the vapid comic lead in these bland features.

Besides, that’s Steve Martin’s job now. We don’t need two great comics phoning it in.

Mr. Murphy can be forgiven for “Norbit” mainly because he shot it before the “Dreamgirls” hysteria. But the actor is talking up a “Beverly Hills Cop IV,” the kind of desperate move he might have made if he’d never come within 100 yards of an Oscar.

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