Eddie Murphy Does The Funky Robot

Plenty of movie have a weak assumption but elevate it via smart as a whip carrying into action . And then there ’s the occasional flick , like Eddie Murphy ’s Meet Dave , that has a premiss so clever that even a completely lackluster carrying into action ca n’t ruin it . The idea of one - inch - aliens journey to Earth in a human - sized spaceship that look like their captain is just so rich that no amount of dubious Hollywood talent can ruin it – and believe me , they test . And guess what ? There ’s spoiler in this review !

I went to see Meet Dave with tilt - bottom expectations , and found myself sort of enjoying it . It ’s not on the nose funny , per se , but it ’s fun . ( Does that make sense ? A funniness can be fun , without really ever making you laugh . ) If your kids want to go see a silent movie , and you ’ve already seen Wall - tocopherol twice , you could do worse than look Meet Dave . It ’s about as good as Murphy ’s other family - friendly mad - scientific discipline comedies , the Nutty Professor and Doctor Doolittle .

So . Murphy plays the spaceship as well as its captain . As the ship , he ’s sort of a foul robot , moving jerkily , especially at first , and move wooden . There ’s some pretty decent physical drollery around Murphy learning to move around . And as the captain , he ’s doing his Coming To America accent and acting silly . There are some precious gag , including Murphy print imitative money with his butt , struggling to understand basic societal skills , and bring home the bacon a raging - dog eating contest with automatonlike upper . Etc . etc .

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The basic storyline is about Murphy ’s crewmembers conk out native , so to talk . They ’re all inhabiting the torso of this faux human , and over time they become more and more immersed in human culture . The security officer turns out to be festal and begin snapping his fingers and making the human - sized Murphy dance fabulously . A random black guy on the crew start talk in a stereotypical hip hop way , and the 2d in statement gets a makeover and becomes beautiful . Etc . etc . The only crewmember who does n’t go native is the second in command , act as by The Office ’s Ed Helms in his least suspect use ever . ( Seriously , what small fishy this movie has dries up wholly whenever Helms is on concealment . And I ’ve like him in other stuff . )

I ’m pretty certain the original screenplay by MST3 K ’s Bill Corbett had something interesting to say about inhabiting bodies and being unplug from the physical structure you endure in , but that ’s jolly much go in the version as shoot by Norbit director Brian Robbins . What ’s left is some cunning gags about small guys in hamster balls operating arm and peg juncture , a guy cable who lives in Eddie Murphy ’s stooge , and the pitiful guy in a wetsuit who ’s in Eddie ’s mouth and gets douse with whatever Eddie swallows . ( Sort of like the “ sperm ” sequence in Woody Allen ’s Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To enquire . )

The biggest surprisal in Dave is that its foreign visitant are far from benign : their mission is to launch a golf game - ball - sized equipment that will drain the Earth ’s oceans to generate a unexampled power source for their conk out planet , which runs on Strategic Arms Limitation Talks . ( Just roll with it . ) Due to their bumbling , they lose this machine and have to befriend a widow and her precious boy who is ( wait for it , wait for it ) being bullyrag , for get it back . ( I ’m in reality rack my brains to intend of the last scifi movie I saw with a fry who was n’t bullied . ) Do you think Dave the extraterrestrial will rekindle the widow woman ’s faith in love ? And help the kid resist up to those mean hooligan ? It ’s like you ’re clairvoyant !

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Anyway , it ’s your basic fish - out - of - weewee clowning integrate with your hero - pretending - to - be - someone - else amorous funniness . But rent ’s get back to the trivial people inside Dave . It ’s very self - consciously Star Trekky , specially in the other scenes – supposedly Murphy is a huge Trek fan , who ’s still sad he ended up not being the wacky sidekick in Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home .

There ’s also a love trigon of kind . The ship ’s senior pilot get down having romantic feelings for the widow , Gina ( Elizabeth Banks ) . But meanwhile , his third in command ( Gabrielle Union ) has the hots for him and take off dressing vampy and showing him Frank Capra movies to gain him over . Will he choose the woman who ’s 1,000 time his size ? Or the tiny woman who baked him cookies in the academy and aid him become the space Heron he is today ? In a agency , this subplot is a turn of a broadside against inter - species dating , although it ’s not made rottenly denotative .

So fundamentally , Meet Dave has two great concepts wind together : the tiny people being menaced by cats and basketball game and cups of coffee that are gargantuan to them ; and the human - looking robot that ’s full of little hoi polloi . Either of those concepts alone would make it worth watch over at three A.M. with your preferent intoxicant . Together , they may really make it worth watching in the theater with your favored intoxicant , if you’re able to smuggle it in or consume it in overture . Probably not a motion-picture show you want to follow somber , unless you ’ve got little tyke .

Lesdilley