Eddie Murphy's career has been steadily going downhill, in some critics opinions he hit rock bottom last year with Norbit, which I found bad but semi-funny at the same time. It was ironic really that arguably his worst movie came out after one of his best performances in Dreamgirls, a performance that to this day I still say deserved the Oscar. Anyway from the trailers I was not looking forward to Meet Dave at all, there are funny, odd movies and there are odd movies, Meet Dave just looked downright odd. The premise, while I suppose original, didn't really look like prime comedy in the making. Still I had the opportunity to see an advance screening of it today and so I took it. Surprisingly the first half hour of the movie I actually really enjoyed, had the movie kept up with that level of consistency I would have quite given it an 8/10. Eddie Murphy does some great physical comedy as the actual robot (or spaceship depending what way you look at it) Dave, and a decent performance as the actual captain of the ship. While it wasn't hilarious it was amusing, and did make me laugh. Unfortunately after the half way mark the sentimentality just gets thrown in our faces and eventually drags the movie down. Still the moral is relatively well done and there are moments here to make this an above average movie. A shame though as the earlier scenes showed potential for a great movie.
So onto the performances. True to form Eddie Murphy takes on multiple roles in this movie, however unlike The Nutty Professor and Norbit he looks and sounds like Eddie Murphy in both roles. The main role I suppose has to Murphy as the Captain of the ship, in this role he does seem to be having fun at first. He seems a bit like a captain of the Star Trek Enterprise, obsessed with the mission, constantly requesting "diagnostics reports". However Murphy excels in the actual role of Dave. His first scenes require no speaking, just a lot of physical comedy, and it is these moments that the movie really works. His sequence where he learns how to smile is priceless, and his first few scenes wondering round New York too do really work. Its when he seems to practically be a human the movie does falter. The rest of the performances are relatively mixed. Elizabeth Banks does well in a very limited role, as does the sadly wasted Scott Caan in a sub-plot that never really achieves anything. The kid is your average Hollywood kid, he might as well have stereotype slapped right across his forehead. Ed Helms is a laugh as Number 2 in command and comes into his own near the end, but Gabrielle Union as Number 3 is pretty pointless.
Meet Dave is a mixed bag when it comes to the comedy. As I keep saying the opening physical comedy does really work, and unlike in the trailers the scenes shown do work when put in context. But after the half way mark the movie just seems to be trying to shove its message in your face way too hard. There is a well executed moment where a hobo shares a blanket with Dave, that delivers the moral quite well, but later scenes just do not work and verge on excruciating. The movie also doesn't seem sure what to do with itself after a certain point. We get some back story surrounding some ball thing that can save the Captain's planet, the story is all a bit vague and just an excuse for Eddie Murphy to do some funny stuff. The ending is a bit bland although relatively funny and much better than the middle section of the movie. The direction isn't bad neither is the script, I think the main problem really is the story of the whole thing. What I did notice was that many people in the screen got bored, most namely kids, suggesting this isn't as main stream a movie as it first might seem. This also seems to imply that this won't do all too well as the box office.
Overall Meet Dave is relatively light entertainment which does give Eddie Murphy something to do between Shrek movies. Its not revolutionary, and I doubt many people will remember it the following day, but the first half hour does really work and shows what could have been a much better movie.
So onto the performances. True to form Eddie Murphy takes on multiple roles in this movie, however unlike The Nutty Professor and Norbit he looks and sounds like Eddie Murphy in both roles. The main role I suppose has to Murphy as the Captain of the ship, in this role he does seem to be having fun at first. He seems a bit like a captain of the Star Trek Enterprise, obsessed with the mission, constantly requesting "diagnostics reports". However Murphy excels in the actual role of Dave. His first scenes require no speaking, just a lot of physical comedy, and it is these moments that the movie really works. His sequence where he learns how to smile is priceless, and his first few scenes wondering round New York too do really work. Its when he seems to practically be a human the movie does falter. The rest of the performances are relatively mixed. Elizabeth Banks does well in a very limited role, as does the sadly wasted Scott Caan in a sub-plot that never really achieves anything. The kid is your average Hollywood kid, he might as well have stereotype slapped right across his forehead. Ed Helms is a laugh as Number 2 in command and comes into his own near the end, but Gabrielle Union as Number 3 is pretty pointless.
Meet Dave is a mixed bag when it comes to the comedy. As I keep saying the opening physical comedy does really work, and unlike in the trailers the scenes shown do work when put in context. But after the half way mark the movie just seems to be trying to shove its message in your face way too hard. There is a well executed moment where a hobo shares a blanket with Dave, that delivers the moral quite well, but later scenes just do not work and verge on excruciating. The movie also doesn't seem sure what to do with itself after a certain point. We get some back story surrounding some ball thing that can save the Captain's planet, the story is all a bit vague and just an excuse for Eddie Murphy to do some funny stuff. The ending is a bit bland although relatively funny and much better than the middle section of the movie. The direction isn't bad neither is the script, I think the main problem really is the story of the whole thing. What I did notice was that many people in the screen got bored, most namely kids, suggesting this isn't as main stream a movie as it first might seem. This also seems to imply that this won't do all too well as the box office.
Overall Meet Dave is relatively light entertainment which does give Eddie Murphy something to do between Shrek movies. Its not revolutionary, and I doubt many people will remember it the following day, but the first half hour does really work and shows what could have been a much better movie.