Meet Dave

I think I'm in a small minority of folks who still have faith in Eddie Murphy.  He has hardly done any wrong in my mind. I caught 'Pluto Nash' on cable and was actually sorry it was the only one of his films I never sought to see in a theater.  With the exception of his brave and underrated performance in 'Dreamgirls' things haven't been going to great for the funnyman at this latter stage of his career.  Trying his hand at family friendly films was a good choice on his part, but with the success of R-rated raunchy comedies from the likes of director/producer Judd Apatow, its time for Murphy to return to the genre that made him a legend.  Though his latest 'Meet Dave' is a family friendly picture, its sadly another decent idea that wasn't executed to its full potential.

The promos for this flick may look completely silly (I personally get a kick out of the whole "Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy" tagline), but this comedy does have more good elements than bad.  Murphy plays not just an alien spacecraft built in the guise and proportions of a human being, but it's quarter inch tall Captain who commands an entire crew living and working within.  After traveling across the stars and landing (face first) on Liberty Island, their mission is to locate a small orb sent to drain the salt from Earth's oceans to be used as a power source for their dying world. 

Murphy the ship may look like a human in a Saturday Night Fever suit, but his behavior is robotic and quite alien.  He should blend in rather nicely in New York where he encounters single mother Elizabeth Banks who not only hits him with her car, but her son (Austin Lynd Myers) coincidentally has the orb in his possession. Murphy the Captain controls the ship's speech and facial expressions from the deck of a bridge within the head while various crew members work the limbs and torso at key stations.  Banks, a widower,  is either clueless or desperate to meet a man since she never picks up on the fact that this guy acts a little weird.  That fact that he calls himself "Dave Ming-Chang" apparently wasn't big enough a clue.

The story misses several opportunities starting with the relationship between Banks and Murphy the ship aka "Dave".  I though this was going to be a film where Dave the ship would become self aware and fall in love with Banks against the orders of its internal crew, but this is not the case.  Rest assured if he were a white male it would be another story.

Murphy is not really funny as the ship.  Writers Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett attempt to milk humor from Dave through various encounters with Banks and her son as well as customers at an Old Navy store during a scene where he attempts to shop for a new wardrobe.  So many opportunities are wasted.  With Dave as the "straight man" there are so many hilarious situations and encounters he could have been thrust into.  Imagine if he ventured away from Times Square towards maybe Harlem and encountered black residents who could have asked "Brother, why the hell do you talk like that?"

Dave talks in much of the same tone as Murphy the Captain, which resembles Murphy the comedian's impression of a white guy.  It's a little jarring at first, but a brave creative choice, because he is after all an alien.  What occurs outside in the real world isn't as interesting or humorous as what's going on inside the ship.  There's a subplot involving the crew experiencing culture shock that builds slow and rather nicely.  Despite the warnings of the ship's doctor, the crew don't realize they are being influenced by American culture until its too late.  Murphy the Captain and No. 3- Cultural Officer (Gabrielle Union) begin to notice each other and she even experiences jealousy over the attention he gives (or is it Dave?) human female Banks.  The security officer decides to come out of the closet and the ship's engineer (Judah Friedlander) discovers the social joys of making friends on MySpace.  All of this abnormal behavior causes the Captain's No. 2 (Ed Helms) to not only stage a mutiny, but apparently go insane.  There's even a gag involving Murphy and Union bonding over a viewing of Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life" that would normally be cheesy, but actually plays rather well.

Then there are the gags involving the bodily functions of the ship with crewman Kevin Hart always ending up as the victim.  I thought the disposal of the multitude of hotdogs Dave devours in an eating contest was funny until Banks takes him to Havana Central where he downs a Mojito and the crew inside gets more than a buzz.

Of course the story is filled with additional unnecessary elements like Dave helping Banks' son stand up to bullies and believe in himself as well as beat cop Mike O'Malley bickering with partner Scott Caan, who deploys tricks used only on CSI to determine that an alien has crash landed here.

Murphy hasn't seemed to learn his lesson by teaming up again with 'Good Burger' director Brian Robbins.  They previously worked together on the atrocity known as 'Norbit' and will next collaborate on 'A Thousand Words'.  With his track record, this might be one of Robbins' better films.  For the most part the picture fails, but there are more than just a few moments that provide a chuckle or two.  Murphy still has his skills as an actor and comedian and hasn't aged much during his twenty-five plus year film career.  Even if we never see Axel Foley again, there is still some edgier material out there waiting for him.