Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com:
Eddie Murphy makes a graceless debut as a romantic lead in this comedy from Reginald Hudlin. Murphy stars as a ladies man for whom the tables turn when he suddenly finds himself taken for granted by a lover (Robin Givens). Meanwhile, the platonic friend (Halle Berry) whom Murphy regularly visits is obviously--to the viewer, anyway--the woman he's supposed to be with. The absurdly long film is filled out with some fairly crude humor, such as the sight of Geoffrey Holder taking a whiff of Grace Jones's underwear. Yet Hudlin and Murphy also strain for a veneer of elegance and sophistication. Wanting to play it both ways, they end up with nothing. But there are several good sequences where Murphy is quite funny just being Murphy, such as his explanation to Berry of how you can tell which characters in an old episode of Star Trek are destined to die. --Tom Keogh

Rating : - Just try making that out of a cola nut
Boomerang was not a huge success for Eddie Murphy, but I think it is a very entertaining film that unfortunately was too racy to appeal to a family humor audience, but not raw enough for the raunchy crowd. As a romantic comedy, it is perfectly adequate, but what really made it entertaining for me were the incredibly talented women.

Legendary Diva Eartha Kitt has done it all. She was born in South Carolina, but she sang and danced her way out of poverty, and by the 50's she had performed with the Katherine Dunham troupe on a European tour, soloed at a Paris night club, and was the toast of the Continent. Orson Welles called her "the most exciting girl in the world". Kitt was virtually exiled from the United States after making anti-Viet Nam war statements during a White House luncheon with Lady Bird Johnson in 1968. However, she was welcomed back to the White House by Jimmy Carter who took office in January of 1977. She played Cat Woman #2, after Cat Woman #1, Julie Newmar, on the Batman TV Show. Eartha Kitt was a good friend of actor James Dean. She had a sexy Christmas hit song with "Santa Baby". She was a guest on the very first Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and her Raving Diva came out, as she berated the poor Conan as a talentless hack. Her name can be seen on a Marquee in the famous cult film Plan 9 From Outer Space.

In Boomerang, she plays Lady Eloise, the figure head for a cosmetics company. For a lady of 65, she is surprisingly sexy, and she has great legs.

Robin Givens got her start on The Cosby Show, then was on the TV sitcom Head of the Class. Her marriage to heavy weight champion Mike Tyson in 1988 thrust her into the spotlight, but the troubled marriage lasted only a year. On the 28th of January 2004 she accidentally struck an 89-year old woman with her SUV in Miami. That is something she has in common with Halle Berry, who also had a car accident, and was charged with hit and run. Both Halle and Robin also dated Boomerang co-star Eddie Murphy.

In Boomerang, she plays Jacqueline 'Jackie / Jack' Broyer. Murphy's character is a womanizer, a successful ad executive who beds and discards women at an alarming rate. The tag for the movie is "The player is about to get played." Jackie gives him a dose of his own medicine when he finds out that due to a merger, she is his new boss. She turns the tables on Marcus, using him for her own pleasure, but keeping him at arm's length when he wants to take the relationship to the next level. In short, she treats him just like he treats all of his conquests. This makes for quite an amusing reversal of fortunes, as when he makes her a romantic dinner, but she wants to watch the Knicks game and drink beer.

Halle Berry is yet another amazing Black woman. She has had her ups and downs. She looked great as Cat Woman but the movie was a catastrophe. She was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay $13,500 in fines and penalties after pleading no contest on May 10, 2000 to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a traffic accident. The judge also ordered the actress to perform 200 hours of community service and to make restitution as determined by the outcome of civil litigation arising from the February accident when she was driving a rented Chevrolet Blazer and ran a red light and crashed into another car on Sunset Boulevard. She showed great commitment to acting when playing a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. She didn't bathe for days. Halle Berry is the first Black woman to win the Oscar in the lead category for her role in Monster's Ball.

In Boomerang she plays Angela Lewis, a creative woman who quietly steals Marcus' heart, only to have her own heart broken. A sadder but wiser Marcus Graham finally realizes that she is his true love, and struggles to win her back.

I've saved the most outrageous diva for last: Grace Jones plays Helen Strangé, a model hired to be the face behind a new fragrance. She is very far out there, and she crosses over the line several times. Her scenes are shocking, to say the least. Her first appearance on screen is way over the top. Don't want to spoil it by telling you what happens, but watch out for it. She really puts the 'boom' in Boomerang. There is a great scene where she storms off and hops in a cab set to the music of her own hit, "Pull Up to the Bumper."

Eddie Murphy shows a lot of range, though he only plays one character in this one. He is a charming player, a dog, really, but he has a sensitive side. He thinks he is all that, yet he doesn't really take himself too seriously:

Marcus Graham: Check it. Like Jet magazine. This is my mack daddie vibe I am giving you. In all its splendor.

He is given ample support by sidekicks, Tyler and Gerard, played by Martin Lawrence and David Alan Grier respectively. John Witherspoon and Bebe Drake also shine as uncouth country parents who embarrass the nerdy Gerard:

Mr. Jackson: I bet we've eaten everything on a pig from the rooter to the tooter.

Chris Rock plays Bony T, who is trying to work his way up from the mail room:

Bony T: Hey Marcus, I been working here about 8 days, been on time most of the time even when it rains. Don't you think it's about time we talk promotion?

Last but not least, Geoffrey Holder is Nelson, a commercial director whose slogan should be sex sells, but who has to be carefully watched lest he go too far. Nelson would be the kind of director who would have thought of the 'wardrobe malfunction' when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed for the Super Bowl Halftime show.

Holder is from Trinidad, and besides being an actor, he is also an award winning choreographer, costume designer, and director. He is the 6'6" tall bald man with the hearty laugh most familiar as the Uncola Man in soda commercials from the 70's and 80's. Upon winning the best-director Tony Award in 1975, he said in his acceptance speech, "Just try making that out of a cola nut!"


FILMS AND ROLES OF EDDIE MURPHY

Norbit (Widescreen Edition) (2007) .... Norbit / Rasputia / Mr. Wong. The critics panned it. He won Razzies for both his male and female roles, and also Razzie nominations for worst couples, all played by Murphy.
Dreamgirls (Widescreen Edition) (2006) .... James "Thunder" Early earned Murphy an Oscar nomination, and a win for Jennifer Hudson.
Dr. Dolittle (1998) .... Dr. John Dolittle
Trading Places (1983) .... Billy Ray Valentine

FILMS AND ROLES OF HALLE BERRY

Catwoman (Widescreen Edition) (2004) .... Patience Phillips / Catwoman
Monster's Ball (2001) .... Leticia Musgrove
X-Men (Widescreen Edition) (2000) .... Ororo Munroe / Storm
Bulworth (1998) .... Nina

OTHER FILMS AND ROLES FROM BOOMERANG CAST MEMBERS

Doctor Dolittle (1967) .... Geoffry Holder was William Shakespeare X in the original Doctor Dolittle, much better than the Eddie Murphy remake, by the way.

St. Louis Blues (1958) .... Eartha Kitt played Gogo Germaine in this great film about W.C. Handy, the first musician to put a Blues down on paper. Bessie Smith sings the title track and Nat "King" Cole plays W.C. Handy.