Meet 'Dave' a stereotypical wasted Murphy comedy
I couldn't watch a single sequence in Eddie Murphy's new comedy "Meet Dave" without thinking I'd been magically teleported to the Cranium Commander exhibit at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Cranium Commander has teams of miniature guys controlling different parts of a boy's body. We see what he does through giant windows representing the eyes. "Meet Dave" has teams of miniature alien guys controlling parts of Dave's body, which is really a human-shaped spacecraft. We see what the craft's captain does through giant screens representing the eyes.
The difference? Cranium Commander is a lot smarter and more entertaining. To be fair, at least "Meet Dave" is better than "Norbit."
A ship from an emotionless Spock-like alien civilization arrives at Ellis Island in New York. The occupants intend to steal the earth's water and take it home. Based on intercepted broadcasts, the aliens assume earthlings are a dangerous subspecies that deserves to be extinct.
When the aliens lose their water transportation device, (about the size of a baseball), the ship, now dressed as Eddie Murphy in a 1970s snow-white suit, goes looking for it in New York. There the ship gets rammed by a car driven by the charming widow Gina (Elizabeth Banks), mother to an emotionally needy son named Josh (Austyn Myers) who has actually found the alien device. Gina eventually brings the "man" to her apartment where she thinks the accident is responsible for his bizarre behavior and odd way of speaking.
Inside the ship, now called Dave Ming Chang, the Captain (Murphy) controls the humanoid robot/vessel, acting as its personality as his underlings No. 2 (comedian Ed Helms) and No. 3 (Gabrielle Union) and crews carry out his orders.
Quickly, "Meet Dave" crumbles as an inventive comedy. It frequently plays the fish-out-of-water card in the dialogue, such as when Dave hears the phrase "the cat's out of the bag," and Dave says, "Where? What cat?" Har-de-har-har.
But director Brian "Wild Hogs" Robbins and two screenwriters ("Frasier" sitcom writer Rob Greenberg and "Mystery Science 3000" writer/actor Bill Corbett) never follow through with the premise. Aliens start throwing around idiomatic expressions and slang with complete understanding. "I stumbled on an interesting fact," No. 3 says. The Captain never replies, "Did you hurt your toe?"
As the Captain attempts to familiarize himself with human culture, "Meet Dave" dabbles in racial and sexual stereotyping. When a headset pipes rap music into Dave, the miniature white aliens can't stand it. But a miniature black alien starts grooving to it. When Dave accidentally walks into a stage production of "A Chorus Line," it turns the no-nonsense alien security officer (Pat Kilbane) into a lisping gay hairdresser.
With the Earth turning the aliens into emotional noodles, the Captain and No. 3 become a twosome (they cry while watching "It's a Wonderful Life") and begin to think humans aren't so bad, not even the stereotypical screaming New York police sergeant who thinks that Officer Dooley (Scott Caan) is daft for asserting that a spaceship has landed.
Instead of being smart and edgy, "Meet Dave" goes the other direction, opting for dumbed-down jokes that suck up to the adolescent boy market with bathroom jokes. ("Excuse me, my colon is impacted," Dave says after winning a hot dog-eating contest).
One part of "Meet Dave" works. That's how utterly stupid white people can sound when imitated by Murphy with perfect mimicry.
"Meet Dave"
Rating: 1½ stars
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Gabrielle Union, Elizabeth Banks, Scott Caan
Director: Brian Robbins
Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG. 90 minutes