Review - Meet Dave

A small alien race, sends a spaceship from a distant planet to Earth, to see if the planet has enough sodium to restore their dying planet. Their spaceship has a human form and has unexpectedly fallen for an Earth woman, also the ships tiny crew have fallen for Earth's humanity and customs.


Meet Dave was a unexpectedly funny film that exceled at heart! I had my doubts that this film was going to be terrible and from the trailers, my doubts seemed justified. Directed by Brian Robbins (Norbit & Shaggy Dog), Meet Dave was alot of laughs and had a real simple theme, humanity. Meet Dave isn't new at all, 'Making Mr. Right' or D.A.R.Y.L. come to mind, of a computer learning compasion and humanity. What is different, is what is inside of Dave, all of the tiny crew. The tiny crew really are funny and once they each begin developing their own personalities, it makes for some great moments on screen.

The beginning of Meet Dave has some of the funnier moments in the film. Seeing the alien race inside their spaceship trying to understand New York customs is purely hilarious! Meet Dave reminds us, how good Murphy can be as a physical actor. One scene in particular, when he see's his first smile, is simply side-splitting! Furthermore, watching Dave learn greetings and trying to commuincate with the humans is also equally amusing. Meet Dave really had some unexpected laughter that kept me invested all the way to the end of the film. I really was surprised!

Let's be straight, Eddie Murphy hasn't made a really good movie in at least a decade. Movies like Nutty Professor, Holy Man, Dr. Dolittle, Showtime, I Spy, Daddy Day Care, Norbit, and Haunted Mansion were utter crap and only tarnished Murphy's name. To his credit, he has mainly been working on kid and teen movies, sticking to PG or PG13 films. Some of his films like, Life or Bowfinger have been marginaly better, but nothing like his earlier films Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, or 48hrs. Meet Dave is nowhere near his best work, but it reminds us why we liked Eddie Murphy and gave me a little hope of better projects in the future.

All three acts in Meet Dave are very predictable, but they remain very funny and ultimately high in likability. The third act seemed the most predictable but had some memorable moments with the aliens outside of the ship. Kevin Hart (Soul Plane) was hilarious as the alien who was definately developing a liking for the urban style of NY and its hip-hop. His exchanges with Scott Caan (Ocean's Eleven) made for some of the funnier dialogue in the film. Murphy's and Gabrielle Union's (Bad Boys 2) relationship that develops it also charming. The alien race is very un-emotional and when they see humans with so much emotion, they too want to express themselves. The writers did a good job of using emotion and humanity to fuel the script and add heart in places you would have not thought you'd find it.

Overall, Meet Dave is a fun film with a good size heart for such a small alien race. The physical comedy is some of the better stuff you have seen Murphy do in a long while. It is refreshing not see Eddie Murphy playing Eddie Murphy, eventhough he does, it is nothing like Rasputia or the Klumps family! Murphy does a great job as playing the vessel for all of the aliens and a equally good job as the captain of the ship. Meet Dave has so far been a disaster at the box office and shouldn't prove to do much better. Meet Dave's only hope is that it finds a niche on dvd and has some good sales there. Meet Dave is a far better film than Murphy has made of late and is worth a watch. If you saw You Don't Mess With the Zohan or The Love Guru, Meet Dave is far better and is much more worth your hard-earned cash! It's short, simple, funny, and re-watchable.