It took me awhile to sync with this films changing tones, a young Dalai Lama type is kidnapped, and his kidnappers attempt to make him eat oatmeal mixed with the blood of a young girl they killed, yet its a comedy. Eddie Murphy is pretty subdued (for Eddie Murphy) as Chandler Jarrell, a social worker and child abduction expert (this works better then it has any right to, especially in the early part of the film) who turns out to be a prophesied "Chosen One" recruited by an ill defined group of Buddhists to rescue The Golden Child whose destiny is to save the human race if he survives. Jarrell's love interest and point of contact with the group is played the beautiful Charlotte Lewis, the rest of the supporting cast is forgettable, save Charles Dance as the bad guy.
I think I would probably like this film better on second viewing, in many ways it seems like two films, maybe more, with Murphy rather gradually going into his comic mode. The winged stop motion demon at the end is actually pretty terrifying, and I just never felt that this film know what it was trying to be. **1/2
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