Directed by Michael Ritchie

At Cinema 57

THE GOLDEN CHILD is one huge golden star trip for Eddie Murphy. With his tailor-made script as his ticket, he flies from Hollywood to Tibet, makes love with exotic women and jokes around with demons. Nice work if you can get it, but what in hell can he do for an encore?

The premise for The Golden Child, the first of what will be a long series of "Eddie Murphy Productions," is the year's silliest. In his contrived script, screenwriter Dennis Feldman puts Murphy's wisecracking persona up against a story that combines a sappy romance with the classic Spielberg formulas.

Thus, this Golden Child has ET's golden touch, Murphy has the swashbuckling bravado of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the demon has satanic transformations a la Poltergeist. More miraculous than the storyline, though, is the fact that this movie is, indeed, entertaining. The credit, of course, goes entirely to Murphy, who revels in the silliness and delivers his lines with effortless hilarity.

The film opens up in the remote, blizzard-wracked regions of the Himalayas, with a strange Tibetan ceremony that involves offerings to a child (J.L. Reate) who has magical, healing powers. Shortly, an evil, darkly-clad figure (Charles Dance) invades the temple and, with the help of his marauders, kidnaps the youngster. Cut to Los Angeles, where Chandler Jarrell (Murphy) is a finder of lost children. He is, according to ancient scrolls, the "Chosen One," destined to rescue the boy. Persuaded by Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis), a beautiful Tibetan, Jarrell takes on this unusual case. The rest of the plot is easy to predict, but Eddie Murphy is hard to resist.

The charm of The Golden Child comes from Jarrell's rude and playful skepticism of the wild, supernatural stories he is being told. He takes nothing seriously, including himself.

There are several good touches in Feldman's script--for instance, its ill-mannered version of the stereotypical Asian mentor and a particularly odd dream sequence--but all of these showcase Murphy's familiar comic talents. For his next outing, let's hope for a star vehicle that is a little bit more demanding to drive.