Paul J. Nemecek What do you get when you combine the writer of Dead Poet's Society (Tom Schulman) with the director of Mr. Holland's Opus (Stephen Herek)? Before you answer the question, I should tell you that Schulman also wrote Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Herek's directing credits include The Mighty Ducks and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. What we get in the film Holy Man is much closer to being Ricky and G's mediocre adventure than anybody's opus.Ricky Hayman (Jeff Goldblum) is the producer for a home shopping network. Kate Newell (Kelly Preston) is a marketing consultant brought in to help fix the flat sales that are plaguing the network. As they are getting to know each other, they (almost literally) run into a holy man named G (Eddie Murphy). When G stumbles into the middle of a live sales pitch for laundry detergent, he criticizes the materialism of contemporary society and almost ruins the show. When the producer and the consultant discover that sales actually went up with this infusion of new age spirituality, a star is born.The real problem with the story is confusion over the central character and confusion over the plot. The advertising and title of the film would suggest that Eddie Murphy is the star since G is the main character. Murphy's role is really a supporting role, and the central plot ends up being the ethical transformation of the amoral producer Ricky Hayman. It's actually not a bad story, and the film is engaging at points, but by choosing to focus attention on the wrong story line, the film ends up being little more than an adequate clichÈ.If the story had focused more on the commodification of religion (or for that matter the religification of commodities) this could have been an interesting story. Any extraterrestrial visiting this planet and observing our behaviors would have to conclude that shopping is a religious ritual, the NY stock exchange our main temple, and Christmas the holiday when we worship through consumption and excess. The film teases in this direction, but this part of the story remains an underdeveloped subplot. This could have been an interesting story. Unfortunately, when all is said and done, what we are left with is another formula film filled with merely adequate performances and trite clichÈs.

SnoopyStyle Sales have been flat for 27 months at the Good Buy Shopping Network under the arrogant Ricky Hayman (Jeff Goldblum). John McBainbridge (Robert Loggia) brings in Kate Newell (Kelly Preston) and gives Ricky 2 weeks to raise sales 8%. Ricky and Kate get a flat tire and encounter spiritual almost-supernatural guru G (Eddie Murphy).It's a comedy spoof of the Home Shopping Network. Quite frankly, they don't need to be spoofed. It would be more compelling to be more realistic. There are plenty of fun weird stories without going over the top. The idiocy simply makes the movie stupid, ugly and annoying. As for the three main actors, Kelly Preston contributes very little. Jeff Goldblum is wrong as the leading man. Eddie Murphy is not funny and lacks the likability for this guru character. His entry walking across that highway is terrific but it's a long downward slide from that point. This is unfunny and actually off-putting for the most part.

FilmBuff1994 Holy Man is not a terrible movie,it's definitely not as bad as critics mad it out to be,but it isn't brilliant.Eddie Murphy has done some brilliant movies and some terrible movies,this isn't either of those,it's not Beverly Hills Cop but it's also not Norbit.There are a good few parts that made me laugh,but nothing had me laughing out loud,but there's also just as much jokes that didn't work out.I found Eddie Murphy's character very likable,but I really didn't like Jeff Goldblum in this movie,I found his character and his overall performance very irritating,and I think this movie could have done much better with a more comedic actor,like Ben Stiller or Jim Carrey,they would have done a much better job.There were a few parts of Holy Man that made me laugh,but I wouldn't recommend this movie,it isn't Eddie Murphy's worst,but it's certainly not his best.Ricky Hayman (Jeff Goldblum) is the head of a failing shopping cable channel and only has two weeks to save it,he finds the answer in G (Eddie Murphy),an enigmatic holy man.

sh_bronstein I really like Eddie Murphy, which is why I rented this film, but I was very disappointed. The film is very boring, the plot doesn't ever seem to "take off" and the characters lack, well, character. The film storyline could have perhaps brought in many more comical situations, but one had the impression that the filmmakers were afraid of making their "guru" or their other heroes look bad. So the film drags on and on, with some weirdo who is neither too good nor too bad, some hero who is also neither heroic nor anti-heroic and a "romantic interest", who never gets interesting... Strangely enough, although this is supposed to be a comedy, one rarely has the impression the movie is even "trying" to be funny. At the same time, it is not serious or dramatic enough to be something other than a comedy. Well, maybe you get the point, the film is "bah". I wouldn't watch it again or recommend it to anyone.