Film Review

09 January 2009 02:47 BST

Meet Dave

Directed by Brian Robbins, out July 18th in cinemas, starring Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms, PG, running time 90 mins .

In a nutshell...

TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's involvement

What's it all about?

First we met Norbit, now we meet Dave and we accidently tar him with the same brush BUT surprisingly he's not a young man, old man, fat man, fat woman, Chinese man, white man, exercise obsessed spandex wearing... (well nearly), he's an alien called Dave Ming Chang.

Dave falls to planet Earth from his hometown planet Nil and winds up wandering the streets of New York decked out in a cool disco-era white suit. Dave does his best in mimicking the expressions of the Earthlings while also trying to understand the language but his reaction stiff and sudden movements that make him end up looking more along the lines of a disoriented pigeon.

Meet Dave is the new sci-fi family comedy in which Murphy plays dual roles as a human-sized spaceship and also the miniature captain who controls the spacecraft from inside the head. A team of miniature extraterrestrials (well shrunken humans to be exact) join him on a desperate mission to save their planet and help Dave pilot the big spacecraft. At the same time the ship seems to have other ideas and forms a semi-love interest, when a young single mother, Gina (Elizabeth Banks) accidentally hits him with her vehicle. After various encounters with humans, Dave and his crew start discovering feelings and emotions they've never had and that is when all hell starts to break loose.



Who's in it?

Meet Dave gives us two Eddie Murphy characters for the price of one, for one he plays a pocket-sized alien from outer space and the other, a spacecraft replica of himself, which he journeyed to Earth in. This is the second collaboration for Murphy and director Brian Robbins who previously guided Murphy through the fat suit in Norbit.

The wishy-washy gags fail to make full use of Murphy's gift for substantial humour although saying that, on just on about every occasion in Meet Dave, Murphy appears to be on the brink of cracking himself up. Well at least someone was exercising their jaw.

Hoping the other cast would add some flavour to the recipe, Elizabeth Banks and Gabrielle Union seem to be used purely for decorative purposes and Ed Helms seems to do nothing but look constantly constipated in most scenes.

As an example...

"I dont want to hear another word about ET, Big Foot or the Tooth Fairy, unless they're jacking someone's car." - Police Sergeant (Charles Guardino) tells off Dooley

"Excuse me, my colon is compacted." - Dave (Eddie Murphy) after eating 85 hotdogs

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Even though the chances of any positive attention for this film seem highly unlikely, Eddie Murphy still proves he is a versatile actor. I mean anybody who could pull off the role/rolls (literally and metaphorically) of a geeky chubster in The Nutty Professor and the singing junkie, Jimmy Earl in Dreamgirls with equal success can do just about anything in my eyes.

What the others say

"Are you under the age of 11 and instantly amused by the notion of a spaceship that looks like Eddie Murphy, captained by a tiny Eddie Murphy and a crew of Spandex-clad explorers? If you answered 'yes', proceed to Meet Dave... Sadly, laughs are in short supply in this beyond-mild comedy." - Onion AV Club

"To say this high-concept sci-fi comedy is one of the funnier major-studio releases of summer 2008 is something less than high praise: films like You Don't Mess With the Zohan and The Love Guru the bar set pretty low. But aside from some unnecessarily crude stereotypes, Eddie Murphy's least-painful comedy in years has a certain peculiar charm." – Ken Fox, TVGuide.com

So is it any good?

Move over Pluto Nash, Meet Dave just took your place as the worst science-fiction family comedy we have seen in a long time.

Murphy used to be willing to say anything and get a laugh, now he's clearly willing to do anything to produce such results and this is evident in this new flop of a movie. Nevertheless, you can't ignore Murphy's prolonged existence in the film industry, you may just sometimes ask yourself what the hell he is doing this sort of film?

But Meet Dave does in fact offer an escape to some who aren't actually in need of a serious-minded flick. It seems no matter what he does there will always be an audience for the Murphy machine.

Meet Dave proves to be high in ideas and funds, but low in brow and actual substance. If you loved Men in Black, you'll slightly approve of Meet Dave that's how bad it is. It's Murphy in Murphy with a hackneyed and unfunny plot.

On the other hand after investing time and effort, this film is quintessentially a safe option. It is relatively tolerable, it's by no means good or anyway near the mark of hilarious but merely a straight up fish-out-of-water comedy, just with a rather irritating fish.

This film is a sad and constant reminder of how long it's been since Eddie Murphy actually made us laugh out loud rather then just throwing out silly witless gags. The only hope we have now for Eddie, is if he ever goes under the knife for a new funny bone - now that would be the man I'd be much more willing to meet.

4/10

Natalie Gurvitz

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