Redundant and unnecessary.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There's no way to put into words how it feels to come from a film having taking something special away. I've come to the conclusion that this is one of those movies most people just don't get. This is indeed the age of crudity, where shock value is held in higher regard than genuinely good storytelling and uplifting characters. This film succeeds on all fronts by offering itself not just as a hilarious comedy(which it certainly is), but also as a means to convey a message that's too often ignored and scoffed at. Let's face it, most people today are master cynics, unwilling to accept any positivity but always ready to rebuke something. It seems to me, that's why this film was not a commercial success.Eddie Murphy has created a phenomenal character in G and plays him with enough love and abandon I found myself smiling all the way through. Forget wondering exactly who G is. If you're really spending time on that, you've failed to see the point of the story. Besides, some things are best left to the imagination. Ambiguity doesn't have to be a scary concept. The love story between Goldblum and Preston isn't perfect, but their performances-particularly Goldblum's are worth seeing. I actually loved this movie, and recommend it to everybody, although you shouldn't expect an average comedy, but a deep thought-provoking movie instead.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Where Holy Man might have been a rather scabrous attack on the shallowness surrounding those both working within the television shopping channel industry and the industry itself, it ends up being a pretty meek love story; where it might have been a quite gripping story of one man being put through a proverbial wringer as his life and job threaten to fall apart, it ends up a damp squib of flat laughs and uninvolving drama; where it might have had its two lead male players bounce off of one another as they effectively 'body swap' their respective film star demeanours, it ends up an uninteresting and gloomy tale about the exploration of one's soul with additional life-lecturing content which drags. Stephen Herek's Holy Man is a disjointed and loose item, a film whose central tract appears to be about faux-public idolisation with a television star quite literally brought in off the street combined with the fatuity behind a shopping network, but in actual fact is about a rather dull love story between two people we don't like with one of them eventually coming to suffer a moral crisis we don't care about. Its politics and basic roots are there, but coming from the director of such films as 1988's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and 1996's 101 Dalmatians, it just doesn't quite gel.It's Jeff Goldblum's character at the core of Holy Man; here playing rather-a high flying television executive, a manager at a local television network station named Ricky Hayman whose life it is established during the opening exchanges usually begins with the cruising to work in a sports car across the sun drenched roads of Miami against some pumping techno music in order to start a new day. After waltzing into his workplace, the super smooth manager glides from one locale within the television studio to another, finding time for small talk to any women within the vicinity as well as dealing with the odd cell phone call. What comes into his little world to upset this balance of perfection is in the form of his boss, and the owner of the entire station, John McBainbridge (Loggia); whom calls him into his office and outlines, in what is a guilty example of agonising exposition for both Hayman's and the audience's benefit, what it is that's on the line. That is, that times are not good. The network is loosing more money than it is making and Hayman has two weeks to make 'x' amount of money, or face redundancy at a cost of the network's flailing sales. With Kelly Preston's Kate Newell looming ominously in the background and supposedly pining for Hayman's job, Hayman notes what's on the line and sets to work on his task of rectifying the situation so as to preserve what he's got running already.Central to these proceedings is Eddie Murphy's spiritual figure named 'G'; a man whose name is what it is so that the writers can crack dopey 'G' jokes such as "G Whizz" or "G Spot" later on; a linen cloth-clad man whom parades down the central reservation of a main road kissing the grass and smelling the air, an eternal pacifist, even ignoring impacting litter thrown specifically at him by youths riding along in an open top vehicle. Hayman is initially as reluctant to have anything to do with G: where he is calculating, G goes with the flow; where he is a ruthless businessman, G is a free-and-easy spirit and where Hayman is stiff and reactionary G is relaxed and greets everything with a grin - it is only through Kate's intrigue of the man that they are all brought together, before having to come to form a bond throughout the rest of the film. As it becomes obvious that G might just be the thing the network needs to boost sales, a crucial question arises which determines both the path and respective framework both the film and Hayman will go down; something attentive viewers will work out relatively quickly: will Hayman merely exploit the guru? Or, will he have an overall change of heart before coming to realise that those of a polar opposition, whom might initially be shunned, do in fact have their place in life and aren't all that bad once you get involved with them.Dull framework eventually comes to win out over crass political incorrectness, the aforementioned body swapping seeing Goldblum play the eccentric; loud; frenetic; all-over-the-place protagonist to Murphy's calmer; more reserved and reigned in supporting act, something both actors are perhaps more commonly associated with doing the other way round. They don't bounce off of one another particularly well, sharing little chemistry and flat exchanges while it is very difficult to get behind a character of Hayman's stature given his goal is to, ultimately, get people out there in the world to begin buying stuff again in this brutal world of consumerism and materialism. The film doesn't quite explore the fatuity of the world in which its set; limp celebrity cameos-come-pay cheques effectively defeating the purpose of what it is ought to be explored, while G's eventual status as a God-like television personality does little but highlight idolisation through TV as a phenomenon without much else. The film will build to a moral crescendo you do not care for; the fate of a love affair hanging delicately on the precipice you do not feel for and a limp attack on shopping networks as well as materialism you oddly cannot root for, Holy Man fizzling out with some nice ideas and bizarrely would-be theological content into a bit of a mess which does not particularly resonate.

I first caught Holy Man a few years ago and was highly impressed. I didn't go into it knowing much about it, so I wasn't disappointed to find out it wasn't a comedy -- and it's not, despite some funny moments.It's just a very light hearted charming movie that will make you think about life's more important aspects. Give it a chance, you'll probably enjoy it more than you expect!The movie can be a little sappy at times and casting Eric McCormack was probably a mistake. All I could think of when he was on screen was his character from 'Will & Grace'. I guess that's what they call typecasting, eh? Either way, this movie is worth the two hours.

I just recently saw this movie on television. quite frankly i think everyone who gave it a low rating had the wrong impression. this was NOT meant to be a Hollywood movie. hence the theme behind it and the title being Holy man. why would you think that something with a message of love and not exploiting people and products would be made out as exactly that? And thats why its so beautiful, because they didn't make it "popular". the message however is that of true love and peace to all the earth. i think Eddie Murphy did a great job filling the role, and i think his humor and love by all races and religions makes the casting brilliant. The rest of the actors/ actresses are not of my appeal, however i believe i have a new appreciation for them. I think the whole world could benefit from a simplistic but meaningful movie like this. thats all i have to say about that.