48 Hours / Coming To America / Trading Places / Norbit / The Golden Child / Beverly Hills Cop

Collection of six films starring Eddie Murphy. In '48 Hours' (1982), when he is the only survivor of a cop shooting, hard-nosed Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) springs prison inmate Reggie Hammond (Murphy) from jail for just 48 hours to help him catch the perpetrators. Cates knows that he can rely on Reggie's assistance, as the killers are now heading for the half million stash of dollars for which the jailbird went down in the first place.

In 'Beverly Hills Cop' (1984), Murphy plays fast-talking Detroit cop Axel Foley, whose regular assignments include tracking down cigarette thieves. When a friend is killed, he begins an unofficial investigation which leads him to Beverly Hills, where he runs into trouble with the straight-laced police force who disapprove of his anarchic methods. However, with the help of fellow cops Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton), he tracks down the killers.

In 'Coming to America' (1988), an African prince (Murphy) is dissatisfied with his luxurious life and unimpressed with the subservient bride his parents have chosen for him. So, along with his faithful manservant (Arsenio Hall), he travels to New York with hopes of finding the woman of his dreams. When he arrives he takes a job in a burger bar, hoping to meet someone who will love him for himself and not his money.

But despite his eagerness to learn the customs of this strange new land, the comic culture shocks keep coming thick and fast. In 'The Golden Child' (1986), a divine emissary bearing the promise of peace for all mankind has appeared on Earth in the form of a small child. The forces of evil are naturally quite keen to put an end to this and send their representative Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance) to kidnap the mystic youngster.

Some wise Oriental elders then decide that their best chance of getting the child back again is to seek help from Chandler Jarrell (Murphy), a Los Angeles social worker who specialises in tracking down missing children. Chandler agrees, mainly because he wants to seduce the beautiful Tibetan messenger Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis), and soon finds himself involved in all manner of supernatural hijinks. In 'Trading Places' (1983), bored, millionaire brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) make a wager on whether two people from opposite ends of the social spectrum can adjust successfully if they trade places.

To this end, they engineer the rise of streetwise tramp Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy) and the fall of Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), a pompous yuppie who works for them on Wall Street. However, when the two guinea pigs find out what has happened, they join forces with smart hooker Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) and loyal butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott), and plot their revenge. Finally, in 'Norbit' (2007), abandoned on the steps of a Chinese takeaway cum orphanage as a baby, Norbit (Murphy) grows up to be a rather confused man.

The only father he's known is Mr Wong (Murphy in Chinese makeup) - proprietor of above establishment and racist bully who can't stand black people. Somewhat of a milquetoast, Norbit is unable to avoid an arranged engagement and imminent marriage to Rasputia (Murphy in a fat suit) a gigantic woman who's also a terrible bully. He'd drop her in a minute but she has three brothers who are eternally in the wings, punching their palms in silent threat.

This means that getting together with his childhood sweetheart Kate (Thandie Newton) is out of the question and, sadly, she's looking like marrying the handsome Deion (Cuba Gooding Jr.).