Eddie Murphy

The Hangover had another fantastic weekend at the box office. The comedy came in at No. 1 with an estimated $33.4 million, and is now being called a bona fide box office phenomenon. Pixar's Up also did very well, coming in second place with an estimated $30.5 million over the weekend. According to Variety, "It's unusual for two films like Hangover and Up to simultaneously have such solid holds domestically."

Meanwhile, The Taking of Pelham 123 debuted at No. 3 and earned a solid $25 million, followed by Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost took the fifth spot while Eddie Murphy's newest comedy, Imagine That, had a fairly dismal debut at No. 6.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

According to Entertainment Weekly, writer/director Bill Condon (screenwriter of Chicago, writer/director of Dreamgirls) is shopping around his newest script, Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? The magazine notes that Eddie Murphy, who has included Pryor impressions in his act for years, would be a natural fit for portraying Pryor in the biopic. This would reunite Condon and Murphy after Dreamgirls earned Murphy much award recognition.

Murphy has credited Pryor as his inspiration for becoming a comedian, though apparently Pryor wrote in his autobiography that he found Murphy's comedy to sometimes be too insensitive.

Another interesting aspect of this news is that Fox Searchlight — a studio that has been positively on fire the past few years, putting out award-grabbing films like Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, The Wrestler and Slumdog Millionaire — is interested in the film. Perhaps we have a future Oscar darling on our hands with this biopic? Do you think Murphy could — or should — play Richard Pryor?

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• Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright were arrested during a bar fight Saturday morning in Shreveport, LA, and charged with the misdemeanor of interfering with police. The actors are in town filming the Oliver Stone movie, W, in which Josh plays President George W. Bush. — Shreveport Times
• Former White House press secretary Tony Snow, 53, died of colon cancer in Washington, DC, Saturday morning. — CitizenSugar
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army won the top spot at the box office this weekend earning an estimated $35.9 million and beating the first Hellboy's opening weekend profits. Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave, which cost $60 million to make, only earned $5.3 million. — BuzzSugar
• Amy Winehouse was seen smoking this weekend, and her father, who collapsed last week due to stress, continues to express his concern over her well being. — PopSugarUK
• Bernie Mac made inappropriate and offensive jokes at a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Chicago Friday night, upsetting many people who were waiting for Barack to come on stage. — AP
• Quentin Tarantino is supposedly flying to France today to meet with father of newborn twins Brad Pitt about starring in a World War II movie called Inglorious Bastards. — Page Six

Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army won the weekend box office with an estimated $35.9 million, not only handily beating the current competition, but also surpassing the first Hellboy's opening weekend earnings ($23.2 million). Yippee! I'm happy for that ragtag group of superheroes.

On the other end of the spectrum was Meet Dave, which Variety described as "one of the worst opening grosses ever for an Eddie Murphy pic." The details are even more painful. Consider this: It cost $60 million to make Meet Dave and it only earned an estimated $5.3 million over the weekend. That's not a pretty picture.

Hancock remained a draw (fun aside: at the movie theater over the weekend, a group of young boys sped past me while one yelled, "Hurry up! I don't want to miss a single second of Hancock!"), coming in second place, followed by the 3-D action flick Journey to the Center of the Earth. Pixar's Wall-E came in at No. 4 followed by Wanted to round out the top five.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

So, full disclosure: I dragged myself to this movie with the lowest of expectations. Things like Norbit and The Adventures of Pluto Nash danced through my mind and I prayed to the comedy gods to spare me a numbingly unfunny experience. I mean, I've just barely recovered from The Love Guru.

And guess what: They sort of heard my prayers. I'm happy to report that Eddie Murphy's new comedy (that even he couldn't bring himself to watch) isn't all that bad. I wouldn't say it's good, either, but my soul is intact and I'm not as worried about the fate of all that is funny, so those are good signs. What's more, I came away with a renewed sense of Eddie Murphy's talent, and I think it's possible he might be back on that screen making me hurt with laughter one of these days.

To see what I think gets in the way of Murphy's hilarity in Meet Dave, making this another one of his forgettable comedies, read more