Amazon.com video review:
Holy Man could have been a stellar satire in the tradition of
Frank
Capra, George Stevens, or Preston Sturges. Instead, this well-meaning
romantic comedy was bluntly written by Tom Schulman (Dead Poets
Society) and broadly directed by Stephen Herek, who fared better with
his 1995 drama Mr. Holland's Opus. Their good intentions shine
through, however, and while it's easy to appreciate Eddie Murphy's attempt
to shift his career in a more substantial direction, Holy Man
delivers some pointed criticism of commercialism and its deadening effect
on spiritual well-being.
Murphy plays an enlightened eccentric named "G" (for "guru" or "God"?) who
rises to national celebrity when he's enlisted to host a TV shopping
network. Jeff Goldblum and Kelly Preston play the show's producer and
marketer, respectively, and their formulaic romance provides the movie's
lackluster subplot. With skyrocketing ratings and a flurry of cameos by
celebrity hucksters (Morgan Fairchild, Florence Henderson, Dan Marino, and
even James Brown), G delivers preachy platitudes urging America to stop
buying and embrace the finer values of life and love (a hollow message
coming from Disney, the most conspicuously commercial of all major
Hollywood
studios). To its credit, Holy Man occasionally achieves a delicate
balance of comedy and commentary, and receptive viewers will be grateful,
at
a time when crude comedies rule the box office, that someone bothered to
try. For that reason, this flawed movie deserves to be seen. --Jeff
Shannon
