Director Brian Robbins keeps things moving along briskly and maintains a genial air throughout; all that plus an air-conditioned theatre makes Meet Dave a good bet for family viewing.
Meet Dave (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:95
Fresh:18
Rotten:77
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Easy gags and slack direction drag this occasionally clever alien-out-of-planet comedy down to unimaginative lows.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for bawdy and suggestive humor, action and some language.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jul 11, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $11,644,832
Synopsis: Actor-turned-director Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES, THE PERFECT SCORE) is at the helm of comedian Eddie Murphy's alien adventure, MEET DAVE. Murphy stars as the minuscule captain of an alien... Actor-turned-director Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES, THE PERFECT SCORE) is at the helm of comedian Eddie Murphy's alien adventure, MEET DAVE. Murphy stars as the minuscule captain of an alien spaceship that lands on Earth in the shape of a human being that looks just like him. The tiny crew is responsible for making the spaceship look and act like a human being as they search for a powerful orb that went off course and landed in Manhattan. Along the way, the captain--aka Dave--is befriended by Josh (Austyn Lind Myers), a fifth-grade boy who is being raised by his artist mother, Gina (Elizabeth Banks), since the death of his heroic Naval officer father. Although Dave and his crew land on Earth believing that the human race is inferior, they soon realize that there is something to be said for emotions, feelings, and friendship. The fun in this film lies in watching the spaceship Murphy try to assimilate as a human. His exaggerated facial expressions are priceless, and his skill at physical comedy is apparent throughout the film. Dave is a sponge soaking up everything around him. The crew's attempts to understand human culture are also amusing, as they get most of their cultural information from Google and Yahoo. Gabrielle Union stars as No. 3, the cultural officer, while Ed Helms is No 2., the second in command who thinks that his captain is adapting to Earth way too easily. Kevin Hart is No. 17, the crew member charged with dealing with many of the spaceship's internal functions. [More]
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Scott Caan
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Scott Caan, Ed Helms, Kevin Hart
Director: Brian Robbins
Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Rob Greenberg, Bill Corbett
Producer: Jon Berg, Todd Komarnicki, David T. Friendly
Composer: John Debney
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Release:
Nov 25, 2008
Reviews for Meet Dave
It's a silly kid's movie, nothing more. But for some, this may be a chance to meet Eddie.
Meet Dave, the latest in a long line of disposable Eddie Murphy vehicles, plays like a half-hour sitcom episode that has been stretched to feature-length running time.
You'd expect to see chinzty-looking visual like this in one of those made-for-Sci-Fi-Channel cheese-fests not in a major studio release.
Let's be honest: The shocker here would have been if it were any good.
The key image is a close-up of Murphy's gleaming choppers, but aside from that the movie is toothless.
Murphy appears to be on the verge of cracking himself up. This is good news. At least someone found him funny.
There are other things that Meet Dave is better than... like famine, disease and genocide... but not by much.
It's about time this guy realized he doesn't need those Norbit prosthetics.
If anything in Meet Dave surprises you, you've never seen a family movie before. Instead, go to the movie only for Murphy, whose talents really shine in this role.
Meet Dave is "Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy," literally, metaphorically, exhaustively.
I'm sure a more refined filmmaker could've squeezed the premise tighter for sophisticated laughs, but as family-angled sci-fi comedies go, Dave is actually quite agreeable. Who knew Murphy still had some fun left in him?
Lord knows you have seen worse movies than this one and Lord knows that Eddie Murphy has probably been in many of them.
It's enough to keep smaller kids amused, and the ugly vibe that plagued Norbit is thankfully absent.
Not much about Meet Dave is memorable, so I'm having trouble remembering.
Meet Dave is passable family fare, occasionally even inspired, but in the end it remains earthbound.
It's kind of sweet, innocent almost -- kid-friendly in the best sense.
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July 15, 2008:
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Buried in bad reviews and ignored by moviegoers, Meet Dave will go down as one of the biggest flops of the summer. How did it happen, and what's next for Eddie Murphy's career? More...
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