Meet Dave DVD Review

By Kam Williams    

Intergalactic Eddie Murphy Vehicle Arrives on DVD

In 1984, John Sayles directed The Brother from Another Planet, a thought-provoking, sci-fi comedy about an alien who washes ashore at Ellis Island and makes his way to Manhattan where he does his best to blend in because he's being chased by a couple of bounty hunters who had followed him to Earth. Aside from being funny, what made that screen classic worthwhile was its touching on a timely theme in a thought-provoking manner.

For the film's protagonist was an escaped slave who looked exactly like a black man. However, he had been persecuted back on his planet not on account of his skin color but rather because he was born with only three toes on each foot.

Ironically, his effort to survive in New York was complicated by his having to accommodate himself to an unfamiliar form of prejudice, namely, American racism. Sayles' overall aim was to make a subtle statement about bigotry of any form by showing how silly it would be to divide people into minority groups based on the number of their toes or along the lines of any other arbitrary physical characteristics.

Here, we have Meet Dave, a sci-fi adventure which borrows Brother's basic premise, while conveniently ignoring the movie's more meaningful aspects. The dumbing-down is no surprise since it stars Eddie Murphy last seen in the equally-brainless Norbit.

The story opens with the crash near the Statue of Liberty of Dave, an Eddie Murphy-looking spacecraft being operated by 100 tiny aliens under the command of a Captain also played Mr. Murphy. At this juncture, the movie morphs into an cringe-inducing fish-out-of-water comedy, where the naïve newcomer must survive a series of ordeals on the mean streets of Manhattan.

The worst sci-fi comedy since Eddie Murphy made The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

Poor (0 stars)
Rated PG for action, suggestive humor and mild epithets.
Running time: 90 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Cast interviews.

To see a trailer of Meet Dave,