MURPHY'S LAW (1997)

The reinvigorated Eddie Murphy who wowed audiences this summer in The Nutty Professor has, apparently, left the building. In METRO (Touchstone, R), he's been replaced by a slick, businesslike machine of an actor, playing an uninspired variation on the Axel Foley character he's done for over a decade now, since starring in 1984's Beverly Hills Cop. Only this time he's not even funny.

Murphy plays San Francisco hostage negotiator Scott Roper, whose partner is murdered by a stereotypically cold-blooded criminal (Michael Wincott) intent on reuniting with the cache of jewels from which he was parted during a botched robbery. So Roper goes after the killer (named Michael Korda, same as the well-known real-life editor-author, for reasons that confound), assisted by his sharpshooting protege (Michael Rapaport). The pursuit is a remarkably slack and slow-paced affair, despite a couple of elaborate chase sequences that eat up a major chunk of screen time.

It's also a notably sadistic exercise, involving lots of beating, slugging, shooting, crashing, stabbing, and the stalking and torture of Roper's pretty, two-dimensional girlfriend (British actress Carmen Ejogo in her American feature debut). In fact, if I didn't know that such treatment is nothing new in a Murphy production (remember Eddie the womanizer in Boomerang?), I'd say this mean, enervated, foul-mouthed, and formulaic piece of work (have I left anything out?), directed by TV-trained Thomas Carter (Equal Justice, Hill Street Blues), is particularly dim about how to use female characters as anything more than props.

In a faint reminder that he has it in him to be an ingratiating comedian, Murphy, who looks grimly chic throughout this ordeal, occasionally trots out a few trademark humorous smirks and riffs, written by Tango & Cash scripter Randy Feldman with ''f -- -'' inserted every third word. (That's how you know the part was written for Murphy and not, say, Jean-Claude Van Damme.) Rapaport, who can be interesting (in Mighty Aphrodite) or hackneyed (in Beautiful Girls) doesn't get a chance to do much more than aim through his rifle scope.

Only Wincott (Basquiat), with his death-rattle voice and stone-faced expression of menace, appears to be having any fun. Regularly escaping from impossible situations including flaming automobiles, out-of-control cable cars, and maximum-security prison, his Korda keeps on ticking with a persistence that, in another movie, might be entertaining. ''When you think you're f -- -- -' them, they're f -- -- -' you,'' Korda warns Roper. That's about as deep as the philosophy gets in Murphy's latest precinct. D-

You Might Also Like

• Video Review Metro | Denise Lanctot
• Movie News Hollywood's high-grossing summer (Jul 18, 2008) | Nicole Sperling
• Movie News A look at insider movies (1995) | John Young
• Movie News This season's box office bombs (Jul 11, 2008) | Nicole Sperling
• Hit List Scott Brown's Hit List | Scott Brown
• Movie News Notable quotes from 1990 (1990)