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MEET DAVE

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Scott Caan, Ed Elms, Kevin Hart, and Austyn Myers

Directed by: Brian Robbins

Rated PG for bawdy and suggestive humor, action and some language.

By John Delia

The goof’s are sneaking through the cracks and the first one to hit the screen is Meet Dave, a trite film featuring nonsensical comedy. It reminded me of Murphy’s earlier flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which nose-dived at the box-office and rightly so. If there is any redeeming value in Meet Dave it’s the audience that it will attract; 6 to 9 year olds whose parents need some time to chill out while their youngsters laugh till their noses bleed.
Meet Dave goes something like this. A special sphere that will suck the salt out off Earth’s oceans and send it back to a far off planet that thrives on the spice hits New York City, but not where it was intended. Instead of falling in the ocean it ends up in the home of Josh (Myers) who stuffs it in his backpack.
The spaceship Dave arrives in New York lead by Captain (Murphy) on their quest to find the orb and throw it into the Ocean. Not knowing enough about Earthlings (although they already look like them and talk like them) Dave the spaceship roams the New York streets getting into some dumb situations until he finally meets up with Josh. When Dave finds out that the orb was taken from Josh by some bullies, the two start out to retrieve the item. Along the way the two get into some comical situations and the Captain gets ‘googly’ over Josh’s mom Gina (Banks). When the police get involved, thing go down hill for Dave.
Even though the film does have an audience, it is sad to see Murphy in a role that makes him look dumb. Looking wild and crazy is better for Murphy playing characters like Donkey in Shrek. What happened to the Murphy that did Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, Coming to America and 48 Hrs.? In his hey day, no comedian could top Murphy’s talent. To add insult to injury, they wasted the fine talent of Gabrielle Union by having her play a part way below her stature. As number 3 she stammer around inside the Dave spaceship while backing Captain in all his decisions until you find out that she’s (well, I can’t give that away because it is the only adult plot point in the film.)
When you get past all the poop, nose and ingestion jokes, your children may start to ease off on the popping up an down. That’s when you can chill out and amuse yourself wondering why the film was made. There’s some language and suggestive humor in the film so be cautions when taking the very, very young.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Meet Dave, a film full of nonsense, has little going for it. (1 of 5 stars)