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Year Released 2008
Duration 90
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Meet Dave
Editorial ReviewMovie Summary
Movie Genre:
Comedy
Rated:
PG
Director:
Brian Robbins
Starring:
Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union
Editorial Review
What's up, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers and Adam Sandler? Get the feeling that your best years are behind you and that younger, hipper US comedians are where it's at? Sandler's new release You Don't Mess With The Zohan, Myers' The Love Guru and Murphy's Meet Dave have at least one major thing in common. They show that these 80s/90s comedy titans are coasting on fumes of their success, turning out derivative and largely unfunny "comedies" which tarnish their impressive catalogues.
Meet Dave begins with more pluck and potential than anticipated, considering Murphy's recent Norbit and Klump family films. But it all-too-quickly drops pleasant gibes for standard-issue scenes, messages and resolutions. Without a fat suit in sight, Murphy is a human-shaped spaceship piloted by a Lilliput-like crew, including a miniature Murphy and curvaceous Gabrielle Union. In New York City to find some space rock which will drain Earth's oceans because his home planet needs our salt for fuel, spaceship "Dave" gets some help from bumbling single mum Gina and her kid.
As Dave encounters our modern world for the first time, Murphy does a good number on facial expressions and comic timing. But once Google and Bee Gees jokes are dropped in the amusing first half-hour, Meet Dave falls away. Everything from gay stereotypes to poo jokes flick past as Murphy's mini romance and the dull "believe in yourself" chestnut poorly paper over worn-out material.
Thankfully not trying to play every character on screen, mugging Murphy remains a long way from his foul-mouthed prime. His upcoming Beverly Hills Cop IV seems like a last chance for him to return to his former glory, or forever wallow in the mediocrity of all-ages mainstream movies.
Reasonable start offers smiles and giggles before a rapid descent into predictable, rehashed fare. Still, Murphy isn't wearing a female fat suit.
Ben McEachen
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3 comments
Monica: I took my nephew to watch this & the poor child nearly walked out from the embarrassment of me laughing so hard. I have not laughed so much in a long time. Eddie Murphy is hilarious & convincing as a robotic version of himself, the story-line was sweet (albeit a tad corny with some predictable sterotypes coming out as the characters developed), but the laugh value alone is worth going for! (08 August 2008)
Janies: Yahuh! (16 July 2008)
Barry: This looks worse than tinea. (11 July 2008)
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