Seen on: July 12, 2008

The players: Director: Eric Brevig, Writers: Gavin Scott, Michael D. Weiss, Cast: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem

Facts of interest: Brian Robbins also directed "Norbit."

The plot: A crew of aliens travel to Earth to find a way to save their planet.

Our quick thoughts: Unless you got a bunch of time and money to waste this weekend, I highly suggest you stay as far away as possible from “Meet Dave,” a boring 90-minute comedy filled with lame jokes, embarrassing physical comedy and bad acting. Granted, it’s certainly not the worst we’ve seen from Eddie Murphy over the past years, but the film’s obvious lack of laughs and surprises still makes it almost unbearable to watch.

As far as the plot is concerned, Murphy stars as the captain of a human-looking spaceship operated by a crew of tiny, humanoid aliens, who have come to Earth looking for a way to save their planet. Although their objectives are clear and time is running out, the little visitors from space soon discover that there may be a little more to the human race than they originally thought.

I really did my best to give “Meet Dave” a fair chance, but 10 minutes into the movie I found myself bored and ready to go home. The main problem of Eddie Murphy’s latest escapade is its incredibly monotonous story line, which has nothing remotely interesting to offer. There’s absolutely nothing funny about it, but all we get to watch for an hour and a half is Murphy acting like a robot who struggles to imitate human behavior.

Underdeveloped subplots, absurd dialogue, shallow characters and plenty of ridiculous toilet gags are just a few of the film’s devastating weaknesses, which make “Meet Dave” a perfect candidate for the title of worst summer movie so far. Director Brian Robbins tries his best to boost the pace of the plot during the last third of the movie, but by then it’s too late to turn things in his favor.

I really don’t know what’s going on with Eddie Murphy, but here lately he’s just become less and less funny and more and more annoying. It’s pretty clear he really tried to look goofy his double role in “Meet Dave,” but eventually there’s nothing hilarious about it. Performances by Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union and Scott Caan go completely unnoticed.

Freaky quote: “I really think I can do this!” – Eddie Murphy

The final word: A big mess that boasts crude humor and a bunch of cheesy life lessons no one is really interested to hear, “Meet Dave” is yet another clear failure for Eddie Murphy. I just don’t see the fun in starring in a family comedy infected with homophobic jokes and plenty of other annoying stereotypes. Dave is definitely not the kind of character you want to meet.  

Article by Franck Tabouring