So you take a comedy guy from TVs Frazier and a mystery/sci-fi guy from uhm TVs Mystery Science Theater, and shake 'em up together with a big dollop of Eddie Murphy and you get Ta-Da! Meet Dave.
There's no denying The Murph is talented and always has been. Too often his ego sends him OTT, but we've seen enough hints to know what he's capable of. Sadly this film doesn't begin to stretch his abilities, either comedically or as an actor.
Granted he's not as irrationally manic as he's been in the past, but neither does he do anything to make us connect with him.
To be fair it's not entirely his fault - the script, while not bad enough to be bad in either sense of the word, sits on the screen like a limp lettuce. The story itself is a rehash of a whole bunch of aliens visit earth because their planet's running out of stuff.
In this case it's their power source, salt water. So they send a space-ship - designed to mimic the body of its captain, which provides Murphy with the chance to play two parts in the film. As Big Dave he adopts his version of a machine trying to pass as a person. Meanwhile inside the ship the real aliens of let's say limited stature are loyal to their captain Little Dave, a role for which Murphy disposes of emotion to maintain control.
As a premise it's got possibilities, but the co-writers reduce the tale to a cheesy mundane plot about a boring single mom and her cute but bullied kid who blah blah blah blah - huh, what, no I'm not sleeping ... No, I am not! I'm just thinking.
Scenes are juxtaposed primarily in order to provide schtick, so there's no real chance for relationships to develop. And the ones that might have captured us - inside the ship, for example, where the delightful Gabrielle Union is totally wasted as Little Dave's potential love interest. Now why's that, I wonder? Do you think it might be because this is a "white" movie, despite its star, and to up the ante on the black relationship might jeopardize the box-office? Hmmm.
I admit there are a few cute touches along the way but they're not enough for lift-off. So the lettuce just sits getting wiltier and wiltier.
If I tell you that the credit roll lists nearly 150 contributors to the sfx you can guess where the bulk of the budget went - apart from Murphy's fee, of course.
Rumor has it Murphy cancelled his show-up to the premiere a mere hour and a half beforehand. He's apparently already aliented half of Hollywood, and that move probably swept up the rest. But then, it's a film about aliens, so maybe he was just having a hard time unwinding from the character.
