Line #28 Film/Boomerang1992


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boomerang_eddiemurphy_poster.png]]
2
3	->''"I am Mr. Romance when I meet a woman. And then once I hit it, I lose interest, but that ain’t my fault."''
4	-->-- '''Marcus'''
5
6	A 1992 RomanticComedy starring Creator/EddieMurphy, Creator/RobinGivens and Creator/HalleBerry, directed by Creator/ReginaldHudlin.
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8	Murphy plays Marcus, an advertisement executive who regularly picks up women and as soon as he has slept with them, breaks up the relationship for petty reasons. He then falls in love for real, but it turns out the "perfect" woman he falls for is exactly what he is--a player. She breaks his heart the way he's broken other women's hearts before, so everything has come full circle and now Marcus has to figure out his love life now that he's fallen for a player.
9
10	!!This film has examples of:
11	* AdamWesting:
12	** Eccentric supermodel-turned-singer/actress Creator/GraceJones parodies her media persona as deranged supermodel Helen Strangé.
13	** Eartha Kitt plays Lady Eloise as an [[DirtyOldWoman overtly sexual, positively voracious older woman]] who acts like she's still a fierce mankiller and corporate tycoon, parodying her own image as a SilverVixen. Nevertheless, Kitt felt it went too far and balked at the role until it was toned down.
14	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Angela chooses Marcus over Gerard.
15	* AnimalMotif: Marcus is referred to as a dog, which is slang for [[TheCasanova a man who sleeps around]], throughout the movie. He turns his head like a dog anytime he sees an attractive woman and is thinking of how to get her in bed, and his {{Leitmotif}} is "Atomic Dog" by Music/GeorgeClinton.
16	* ArmorPiercingResponse: Marcus tells Jacqueline he can’t sleep with her, because he [[LoveEpiphany realizes he’s in love with Angela]]. To which Jacqueline responds:
17	-->'''Jacqueline''': If you’re in love with Angela, why are you here with me?
18	-->'''Marcus''': Exactly. ''[Marcus gets up and leaves.]''
19	* BelatedLoveEpiphany: Marcus only realizes he’s in love with Angela after he has cheated on her. Once he comes home to be with her, he finds a DearJohnLetter and her stuff gone. Ultimately subverted though, as she takes him back [[TimeSkip a few months later]].
20	* BettyAndVeronica: Angela vs Jacqueline. Later in the movie, Gerard and Marcus are this to Angela.
21	* BigEntrance: Strangé’s arrival at the party, riding a chariot powered by half-naked men.
22	* BreakTheHaughty: The movie is one long "break the haughty" for Marcus. Its title is referring to the idea that "what goes around comes around" so Marcus being a jerkass who seduces women and dumps the instant after he's slept with them is paid back in full when Jacqueline makes him fall for her, then dumps him after she's slept with him enough times to be satisfactory.
23	* BreakupSong: "End of the Road" by Music/BoyzIIMen and "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" by Music/ToniBraxton.
24	* TheCasanova: Marcus is a massive womanizer, having his assistant send flowers to numerous women saying "Only thinking of you."
25	* DadaAd: Nelson and Strangé create an ad, in which Strangé is in a flaming jungle in labor and gives birth to a bottle of perfume.
26	* DirtyOldMan: Both averted and played straight.
27	** Averted with the cosmetic line’s chemist, a seasoned professional whose initial offerings of a sensual perfume are thoroughly rejected by Strangé. She tells him he knows nothing about the odor of sex and makes her point by pulling off her panties and rubbing them on his face. [[DudeNotFunny He is less than thrilled.]]
28	** Played hilariously straight with Gerald’s father, whose raunchy talk over a mixed company dinner embarrasses everyone present (except his wife). He then has noisy sex with her right before [[DoubleEntendre dessert.]] Poor Gerald, who had invited Angela to this meal, is mortified.
29	* TheDitz: Christie comes off as this during her date with Marcus.
30	* EasilyForgiven: '''Definitely''' Marcus. He steals Angela from Gerard, then cheats on Angela with Jaqueline, and then "realizes" he wants Angela, not Jaqueline only after cheating, but by then, Angela's fed up and has moved out. However, despite this, Marcus is somehow still able to mend fences with Gerard, whom he outright stole Angela from (and it's worse given that Gerard, unlike Marcus, is a true NiceGuy) and [[spoiler: Angela in the end.]]
31	* EroticEating: Nelson creates a cosmetics commercial that takes this beyond the target rating limits. Marcus has to step in get him to tone it down.
32	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Marcus’ scheming to get Christie in bed by pretending to have [[TropeyComeHome a lost dog]], then pretending to have [[{{Cuckold}} a lost love]], and [[NotStayingForBreakfast immediately leaving once they have sex]] all set up his [[TheCasanova ladykiller]] character.
33	* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Angela makes unprompted remarks about how attractive Jacqueline is, leading Marcus and Angela to discuss this trope and the EvenTheGuysWantHim trope.
34	* EverythingIsRacist: Tyler. He accuses a white waitress of being racist, because she asks them if they want to order asparagus "spears" rather than "tips". He later explains how the game of pool is actually a racist metaphor.
35	-->'''Tyler''': The white ball dominates everything, right? Knocks the shit out of the yellow ball, the red ball, right? And the game’s over when the white ball drives the black ball completely off the table. Now why is that?\
36	'''Gerard''': I don’t know. But I’m sure you’ll tell me, ''[[JiveTurkey my brutha]]''?\
37	'''Tyler''': It’s because of the white man’s fear of [[BlackIsBiggerInBed the sexual potency of black balls]].\
38	'''Marcus''': Now that one was interesting. And the pool table is the Earth, that’s why it’s green. And they used to think the world was flat.
39	* FanDisservice: It's heavily up to the viewer, but if you never wanted to see [[ImmodestOrgasm Eddie Murphy's O-face]], then this movie is not for you. There are at least two explicit sex scenes (though to be fair, if you're not interested in seeing a naked, orgasming Eddie Murphy, there is half-naked Robin Givens to enjoy instead) and [[SexyDiscretionShot they don't cut away at all.]]
40	** In-universe, this is invoked when Marcus forces himself to sleep with Lady Eloise (though to be fair, many people consider Earth Kitt to still be, you know, ''Eartha freaking Kitt'' even in her golden years). She has a Clap On light and turns the lights off just before sleeping with Marcus. You then hear a beat and then Marcus whispers, "...can you make it just a ''little'' darker?"
41	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Before his hookup with Lady Eloise, Marcus sees the woman's bodyguard looking at him, then laughing to himself. At the time, Marcus thinks the guy is getting a kick of Marcus sleeping his way to the top. When Marcus discovers Lady Eloise is just a figurehead and has no power in the company, he sees the bodyguard laughing harder and realizes too late the guy knew that the entire time and was enjoying Marcus' AllForNothing "strategy."
42	* {{Flanderization}}: Angela starts out as really laid back, and in one scene where she finds out where Marcus cheated on her, she tells him to [[PrecisionFstrike "Stay the fuck out of her life!"]]; later on in the movie her cursing habits are amped up whereas, before that scene, she was relatively mellow.
43	* ForgotAboutHisPowers: After doing such a great job picking up Christie, Marcus’ technique with Jacqueline is surprisingly incompetent.
44	* FriendToAllChildren: To further drive home that Angela is the stereotypical NiceGirl, she also volunteers as an art teacher to under-served teenagers.
45	* GirlOfTheWeek: Christie is this for Marcus at the beginning of the movie.
46	* IronicEcho: After Marcus cheats on Angela with Jacqueline, Angela tells him, "Love shoulda brought your ass home last night." Later, when he has a BelatedLoveEpiphany and comes home to an empty apartment, [[MockingMusic the song playing is "Love Shoulda Brought You Home"]].
47	* ImmodestOrgasm: Unfortunately (well, depending on your view), just on Marcus' part, not Jacqueline's. She clearly enjoys the sex too, but she's just not loud the way he is.
48	* IWantMyMommy: The first time he has sex with Jacqueline, ''Marcus'' is the one who needs to call his mother.
49	* KarmaHoudini: Jacqueline spurning Marcus is intended to serve as comeuppance for all of his previous philandering. However, he then goes on to first steal Angela from his best friend, Gerard, and then cheats on Angela with Jacqueline. Despite all this, Marcus [[EasilyForgiven wins back both Gerard’s friendship and Angela’s love]] '''and''' gets to reject Jacqueline like she rejected him.
50	* LadykillerInLove: The whole plot point of the movie. Marcus falls in love with the one woman he thinks is his equal. [[spoiler:But soon finds out that she's an even more ruthless player than he is]].
51	* MayDecemberRomance: Marcus and Lady Eloise, though it's not exactly a romance...
52	* MeaningfulName: Strangé, who is definitely a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
53	* MinorFlawMajorBreakup: Marcus spends most of his relationships doing this to women due to an unconscious fear of commitment. He waits until after they've had sex, then breaks up with women because they don't have tiny feet and other such jackassery. Then he finally meets a woman he can't find fault in and falls in love.
54	* MonochromeCasting: Every member of the cast is of African descent, with most being African-American and a few (Creator/GraceJones, Creator/GeoffreyHolder) Afro-Caribbean.
55	* NiceGuy: Defied. Part of Marcus' pick up artist strategy is pretending to be a sweet, sensitive guy to fool the women into sleeping with him. Pretty much the instant the sheets are cool, he then abandons them, usually citing a shallow reason (for example, he leaves Christie because she has ugly feet). It's seen most clearly the first time the audience sees him enter the office, where he flirtatiously greets pretty much every single pretty woman on his way to his desk, outlining what a dog he really is (as enforced by the use of George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" motif used throughout the film.)
56	* NippleAndDimed: A perfume commercial is being edited and the main characters go to great lengths to figure out whether a shot of her bare chest features a nipple. Marcus insists it's just a shadow. Eventually, the editor does a close-up and declares, "It's a nipple, 'cause I'm drooling".
57	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The film does put Marcus in his place big time for spending so many years being an unapologetic womanizer, but he is still forgiven ''way'' too easily for cheating with Angela and later stealing her from NiceGuy Gerard and for later [[spoiler: cheating on Angela with Jacqueline.]] The film seems to want the audience to still want him to end up with a woman he loves even after we've seen what a jerkass he can be.
58	* RedShirt: Marcus and Angela [[ConversedTrope talk about this trope]] while watching an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and seeing Kirk, Spock, [=McCoy=], and "Yeoman Johnson" beam down to an unknown planet.
59	* RomComJob: Marcus, Jacqueline, and Angela are all in the advertising business.
60	* SexyCoatFlashing: Jacqueline does this for Marcus after she shows up extremely late for a date.
61	* ShooOutTheClowns: Bony T, played by Creator/ChrisRock, disappears from the movie after Jacqueline spurns and humiliates Marcus.
62	* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Angela quits her volunteer work as an art teacher after Marcus cheats on her with Jacqueline. Even includes a [[DownplayedTrope minor]] EvilMakeover.
63	* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Marcus sleeps with Lady Eloise in hopes of being appointed head of marketing, but his plan is ultimately subverted, because Lady Eloise isn’t in charge of her own company.
64	* SleepingWithTheBoss: {{Subverted}} to comic effect. Marcus forces himself to sleep with Lady Eloise who just acquired his company. He's confident the day after, meeting Jacqueline and boasting of how he's got the inside track for the upcoming promotion. Jacqueline then breaks it to him that Eloise hasn't been involved with the company for years and is just a figurehead with no power.
65	* {{Straightforward}}: Marcus pictures filmming a very straightforward commercial for Strangé's fragrance. {{Subverted}} because he gives Nelson complete creative liberty. It ends up being a DadaAd instead.
66	* TitledAfterTheSong: Inverted. Angela tells Marcus that "love shoulda brought your ass home last night," inspiring the ([[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerised]]) title of the Music/ToniBraxton song, "Love Shoulda Brought You Home".
67	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Nelson's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYgpnWoRbXg commercial for Strangé's fragrance]], for which Marcus unwisely gave him total creative control; what was meant to be a [[{{Straightforward}} straightforward ad]] becomes a bizarre tableau of simulated gore and Strangé as an earth-mother made of steel and roots, giving orgasmic birth to a perfume bottle (tying in with her original concept, "[=AfterBirth=]"). Nelson is rapturous, while Marcus can only watch through his hands by the end.
68	-->''[[OurSloganIsTerrible Strangé: It Stinks So Good!]]''
69	* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Angela leaves Gerard for Gerard’s best friend, Marcus.
70	* WackyParentSeriousChild: Gerard is [[BlackAndNerdy extremely straight-laced]], while his father is flamboyant, outspoken, and loves to "coordinate".
71	* WomanScorned:
72	** Yvonne, Marcus’ CrankyNeighbor who was one among many women Marcus slept with and then spurned. She now spends her time warning away other woman Marcus invites over.
73	** When Marcus refuses the advances of Strangé in the restaurant (to the extent he falsely claims to be gay), she does not take it well. ''At all''.
74	---> '''Strangé:''' "Gay". You're not gay, you just don't wanna ''fuck'' me! ''[Various patrons gasp in shock and one even does a mid-meal SpitTake]'' I mean, I know a gay man when I see one, I know what a gay guy looks like; my brother is ''gay''! ''[Turns to a random man]'' And you! You; he's gay! ''[Turns to another man]'' And he is ''gay''! ''[Storms off]'' [[BilingualBonus Merde! Toi tu sais même pas, fais chier, même pas baiser! Va t'enculer, tout le monde!]][[note]]The English approximation is as follows: [[ClusterFBomb "Holy shit! You don't know how to, shit, how to fuck! Go fuck yourselves, all of you!"]][[/note]]

Context Film / Boomerang1992