The Golden Child

Directed by Michael Ritchie, The Golden Child follows Eddie Murphy’s Chandler Jarrell as he agrees to help track down the title figure, a young boy with mystical powers, after he’s kidnapped by Charles Dance’s nefarious Sardo Numspa. Filmmaker Ritchie, working from Dennis Feldman’s screenplay, delivers an oddly sluggish, mostly uninvolving endeavor that has little worth recommending aside from Murphy’s dynamic performance, and it’s clear, ultimately, that the actor’s perpetually charming efforts ensure that The Golden Child, at the very least, remains tolerable for most of its 94 minutes – as the film is otherwise consumed by its far-from-engrossing and somewhat overstuffed narrative. (There’s little doubt that Ritchie is aiming for the feel of a fun, fast-paced adventure, yet the picture is rarely, if ever, able to achieve that vibe.) The growing emphasis on broadly-conceived action sequences only contributes to the less-than-captivating atmosphere, while the special-effects-heavy closing stretch results in a hopelessly anticlimactic finish that’s indicative of The Golden Child‘s half-baked, misbegotten sensibilities – which is a shame, certainly, given that Murphy turns in solid work that deserves much, much better.

** out of ****