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Movie Review: Meet Dave
by Bill Wine
A group of miniature aliens board a spaceship, and arrive in Manhattan on a mission
RATING: PG
GENRE: Science fiction comedy
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2008
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
VIOLENCE FACTOR: None
BAD WORDS: None
RACY? There is some mildly suggestive humor, but nothing that should bother anybody — or that kids will even notice.
GRANDS:
CRITIQUE:
He’s been Reggie Hammond, Billy Ray Valentine, Axel Foley, Sherman Klump, Dr. John Dolittle, and James "Thunder" Early. Not to mention Donkey three times. This time out, comedy icon Eddie Murphy is Dave, who is ... a starship.
Meet Dave is a science fiction comedy that tells of a group of inch-and-a-half-high aliens from the planet Nill who arrive in New York City. In order to fit in among the gigantic humans they see everywhere, they disguise their spaceship in computerized human form and size. Thus does their transport vehicle strongly resemble Eddie Murphy in a white suit.
The tiny travelers are here because they want to recover a water-absorbing meteorite orb that’s been sent to Earth to drain its water. And the aliens see humans as strange creatures set on destroying not only one another but the environment on their own planet.
When the machine that they arrive in runs into another kind of machine, Dave is struck by a car-driving human, engagingly played by Elizabeth Banks. He’s smitten, which doesn’t sit well with his second-in-command, the cultural research officer played by Gabrielle Union, who has more than just military feelings for her superior officer.
Might these odd, demonstrative humans have something to teach their advanced visitors?
Science fiction comedies are not exactly in abundance, so Meet Dave (originally titled Starship Dave) has an affable charm that feels fresh. Director Brian Robbins, who collaborated with Murphy on the anything-but-charming Norbit, drops the ball for a stretch in the late going. Robbins inserts a hokey sequence reminiscent of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids that wobbles under the weight of its transparent special effects. But what precedes that sequence is highly amusing, with plenty of effective sight gags, and what follows it is moderately touching.
Even the youngest grandchildren should feel anything but alienated, and pleasurably entertained, when they Meet Dave.
GP Rating System:
Four Grands = Bravo, don’t miss it
Three Grands = Pretty good, short list it
Two Grands = Just okay, don’t dismiss it
One Grand = Yeah, we dissed it
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