Review: Meet Dave
Meet Dave
Eddie Murphy plays the dual role of “this generations greatest captain” and “the ship itself” in this Sci-Fi comedy about a crew of 3 inch tall aliens in persuit of a secret weapon designed to steal all of the Salt Water on earth.
Much has been made of how bad “Meet Dave” is, and like “Norbit” before it, most of the problems people have with it can be traced to the easy familiarity of the movie and not to any other quantitive problem. It’s trite and lazy; the plot is obvious and cookie-cutter easy. Aliens come to Earth and take on the attributes of humans, some get into rap, some go crazy and the ostensibly toughest guy on board is a flaming stereotype. Sigh, yawn, seen it before. There are no surprises here. The guy with a stick up his butt goes crazy, takes over the ship an alienates the “kid”. Yawn.
My rating: stars
The fish out of water story has been done to death, even by Eddie Murphy himself. This movie might even be best described as a family-friendly “Coming to America” with Arsenio Hall replaced with Gabrielle Union. It’s pretty much the same movie. Eddie Murphy’s character tries to blend in with the Humans, fails, falls for a local girl and finds love. It’s the same basic movie, without James Earl Jones and Sexual Chocolate.
Once again, we have a long-time movie comedian going back to the well for more of the same, hoping to win over his core audience, only to find out that his core audience has grown tired of his work and moved on to dirtier pastures. When Eddie Murphy tried to go back to dirtier roots (Norbit) they weren’t interested in that either. Which is a shame, because like Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru”, “Meet Dave” isn’t a bad comedy. I laughed at the predictable jokes and liked the ending. Yes, I saw it all coming when I saw the poster, but it didn’t make the ride any worse.
Audiences will go on the same Roller Coaster over and over again, hit the same drops and loops over and over and keep going back, why don’t they do the same for movies by established celebreties? They see the same stories over and over, the same themes. It’s not to say that “Meet Dave” is great, but it wasn’t as bad as one would have imagined. Eddie Murphy was funny, the relationship with the kid was “hearwarming” and the plot was straightforward. What more can one say about a family-friendly movie?
Defending Eddie Murphy
“Coming from ‘Saturday Night Live’ and doing stand-up, I’ve always done multiple characters,” he tells Thea. “I’ve always mixed it up at the movies; it’s kind of what I do.”
“I really like it when you don’t know who it is,” he beams. “Like if I do something and you watch the movie, and afterwards you’re like, ‘Hey, you know that old lady was him’ — and they’re like, ‘What?!!!’”
Eddie says the new movie, also starring Gabrielle Union and Elizabeth Banks, is very “sweet and funny” and kid-friendly.
–Eddie Murphy: Inside the head of ‘Meet Dave’
That last quote contains the death knell that tolled for Eddie Murphy “Kid-friendly“ now, that death-knell sounded out its dull “Bong” years ago. It was heard right in the middle of “Doctor Dolittle 2″ for me, it may have been around the time “Beverly Hills Cop 3″ came out I’m not sure. Yes, “Pluto Nash” was crap on film. Let me say that again, “Pluto Nash” was so bad it might have actually killed Randy Quaids career altogether. That movie was a horrible pox on the movie industry. “Norbit” was better than “Pluto Nash” do you know why? Eddie Murphy could curse in it.
I can sum up what makes Eddie Murphy funny by quoting Eddie Murphy in “The Absent Minded Professor”: “#@$% Locks!”
The whole Dave Chappelle sequence was AWESOME! Larry miller coming down on him in outrageous terms was great!
Eddie Murphy is failing the exact opposite reason Mike Myers if failing. Mike Myers is being bounced because he is still falling back on his punny, schticky humor and Eddie Murphy is failing because he stopped being filthy and started being startlingly kid focused. Even “Norbit” was all about kids, in a way.
In a word of advice to Mr. Murphy, no one under the age of 30 really remebers “Raw” or “Delirious”. If you don’t get out there and remind us of the filthy but genius Eddie Murphy we loved, you are going to be box office poison from now on.
I laughed so very hard at this complaint
Complaint #211
“Finish this list for me, Dan Brown: Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, and _______. Don’t think your fans have forgotten that you owe us a third book. We’re waiting.â€
-Whine by Toby Glenn
You can almost hear the prissy voice behind this one saying “get to work MISTER BROWN, I don’t have enough religious intrigue in my life right now!”
Former disgruntled Alter Server?
Seminary student gone bad?
Middle aged and bored with all the high-end prose on the Oprah book club list?
We may never know.
Ed Kruk Loves America Like Hong Kong Loves tibet
My name is Ed Kuck and I am the web master of this website that has received so much attention in recent days. I am 70 years old and a veteran with more than 20 years of service in the United States Air Force. I have been married to my lovely wife, Rumpa, for 35 years. Rumpa was born and raised in Thailand and became a United States citizen after we were married. Together we have two bi-racial children of which we are very proud. One is honorably serving our country while our youngest is still in high school.
Hey Ed, from my count, you married Rumpa when you were 35. From age 18-35 you had ever opportunity to marry an American Woman! What was wrong with America then? Huh? 35 years ago, A Thai woman? Probably met during that long forgotten conflict in Asia? Why were you in Thailand? And why did she leave when democracy came to Thailand? Don’t you love Democracy? Ed? Do you REALLY love America, or do you just live there for tax purposes?
According you Ed, this isn’t Racist: “Obama loves America like O.J. loved Nicole”
When I put up the controversial slogan on my website, it didn’t even dawn on me that the comment could be perceived as racist. When I first saw the slogan, the thought that immediately came to mind was that this was a statement about love and hate. I found that icon during a time when I was watching Reverend “God Damn America†Wright on television. I was angry that a Presidential candidate who professes his love for America had been sitting through 20 years of sermons by a man who said, “the United States brought on the 9-11 attacks with its own terrorism,†“America’s chickens have come home to roost,†and “the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.†How could you love America and sit through that garbage? I love America, and darn it, I would have stood up and walked out! Obama refused to denounce his Pastor until his polling numbers started to take a nose-dive.
So, something some Pastor said justifies your attack on Obama, not anything Obama said or did. Just something his Pastor said. I imagine that your friends in the Republicans should be expected to expel you from the group now? I mean, you said bad stuff and married a foreigner, clearly they should publicly denounce you!
I have always had a diverse group of friends over the years and have never looked at them as black, white, red, yellow, green or any color of the rainbow. I have a good friend named Tom Inge. Tom is an African-American and a Pemberton Twp. Republican Councilman. Tom can’t get his restaurant open in our town because the Democratic Planning Board members are prejudiced against him. I don’t know whether it is because of his race or because he is a Republican, but I do know that he is both, and he is being screwed. Why doesn’t the press cover this story? Probably because he is a Republican.
Ah, the good old, “I have a black friend” defense. The corollary to “I’m friends with lots of black people” as if any of that proves that you are no racist. Why not be honest and sa:
“I thought it was funny, they are both black and I don’t like either of them and I wanted to associate Obama with a murderer in the sense that I think he would murder america”
Instead we’re treated to this shameful song and dance where you use your kids, your wife and your friend Tom as a kind of shield from criticism. You Coward. You weak 70-year-old coward. You weren’t even infantry, you killed people from the sky. Now you’re old and weak and looking for an out when you are caught making a shameful joke on behalf of your organization. Man up and admit to what you intended.
So while I do apologize for offending anyone by the icon, I am more sorry that my family and friends had to endure such a traumatic experience because the PC police assumed that I was a racist. This is why I thought it was best to call my Municipal Chairwoman yesterday and resign my post as a committee-member. I think too much of the good people in the GOP to let the Democrats smear them because of my mistake.
This website always was and will continue to remain my own personal website, and I will put on it whatever I please!
If you don’t think your family and friends can take the heat, don’t make inflammatory statements on their behalf. On that note, let me state that I am sure that I speak only for myself and not anyone else on this Blog. Unless otherwise noted, I’m the person in charge of the keyboard.
Who knows if this will remain up, but if it does here is the link to the Eds website:
Review: Love Guru
At the time of this writing “The Love Guru” is running at 15% at Rotten Tomatoes. I’ve written about how this movie is being held up as an example of Mike Myers’ descent into mediocrity. I don’t need to rehash any of what I said there about the man himself, but what to say about the movie?
In short, I laughed at it. It’s juvenile, it’s facile, but it’s funny. The Character “Guru Pitka” is juvenile, it’s what he does. He uses low-brow humor to put the people around him at ease. It’s the depth of this character that the critics are missing, they are trying to find a tortured clown in there and missing the joyful clown that the character is. One can only admire a character who is so unbound by the world that they can punch a little person with no obvious regret or misgivings. Would that we would all feel so free, especially in the way the two forgave each other immediatley.
Yes, it was improbable and often insulting, but it was Comedy! Real comedy. One Liners, penis jokes, fart jokes, Elephants Making Love in the Air Canada Centre! Why are people down on this movie? It’s a great “straight” comedy. No need for subtext or veneer, just obvious puns and slapstick, it’s acceptable when “new” comedians do it, right?
Perhaps that is why this movie has failed at the box office, it isn’t new. It’s familiar like an old shoe and perhaps old shoes aren’t what people want.
LifeStream
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Full Day over, stumped by a copy/paste error in the afternoon
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: For Rememberance Sake and SSH in the Future http://tinyurl.com/6g2zbm
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
HTOP is the Shizz, that is all.
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: Racist of the Week: Sad Bastard BNP Member http://tinyurl.com/5kcsdt
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
I had to use a MAN page to resolve a question and consult Kernel notes to verify something, truly this is a golden nerdy age.
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Good Morning, took ages to get going today, hopefully the flywheel is up to speed now.
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
On the phone praying to the Insurance Gods and listening to the same 4 songs over and over again...and again
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
On the phone praying to the Insurane Gods and listening to the same 4 songs over and over again...
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
My Question is: Will Jello Biafra be okay with Obama "Not" walking to his inauguration? The constant threats hove got to considered.
-
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Tragic and Entertaining - Tradgetaining http://tinyurl.com/5l75gl
