Holy Man

Holy Man follows Ricky Hayman, a stressed executive at a home shopping network whose ratings have been sliding. When the network changes ownership, Ricky fears for his job and searches for something that will revive sales. He meets a wandering preacher known as G, a man in white who travels the country delivering sermons and who turns out to have a remarkable gift for persuasion. Ricky's solution is to put G on the air in his own live show, an idea that works far better than anyone expected. G's appearances sell products, and even persuade viewers to buy things nobody wants.

Stephen Herek directed the film, his eighth of nineteen features, arriving between 101 Dalmatians and Rock Star. Tom Schulman wrote the screenplay, and Eddie Murphy plays G opposite Jeff Goldblum as Ricky. Kelly Preston appears as Kate Newell, with Robert Loggia, Jon Cryer and Eric McCormack among a credited cast of 91. Touchstone Pictures released it in October 1998.

The production carried a budget of 60 million dollars and returned about 12 million worldwide, making it a costly misfire. Reception split along familiar lines: on IMDb it holds 5.2 out of 10 from 471 votes, and the critics' rating stands at 3.8 out of 10 from 50 reviews, lower still. The gap is modest but consistent with a comedy whose satire of television commerce found limited favour at the time.