Critic Reviews
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James Berardinelli, ReelViews
This is made-for-TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's participation into a theatrical release.
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Drew Toal, Time Out New York
Watching Murphy robotically walk around the city does stir nostalgia for the brilliant SNL skit where he masqueraded as an uptight white guy, but that formidable comic actor is long gone.
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Tom Huddleston, Time Out
Even for a high-concept, lowbrow summer release Meet Dave is drab, shoddy work.
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Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Even in C-movie junk like this, Murphy manages to wring a few laughs out of the material. But the humor is so broad it barely fits onto the screen.
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Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
Meet Dave alone may not radically change the course of Eddie Murphy's drooping career. But it is, at least, a little olive branch held out to his audience. And that's better than Nil.
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Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Dumbfoundingly erratic, for the most part, but smart and funny from time to time, especially when Mr. Murphy, in the pseudo-person of the spaceship, tries to imitate earthling behavior.
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Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
I'm sure a more refined filmmaker could've squeezed the premise tighter for sophisticated laughs, but as family-angled sci-fi comedies go, Dave is actually quite agreeable. Who knew Murphy still had some fun left in him?
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William Goss, Cinematical
A comedian known for his brash wit and go-for-broke charm, Murphy used to be willing to say anything to get a laugh. Now, he's clearly willing to do anything.
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Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Failure couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
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David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...one could certainly do much worse as far as Murphy's family-friendly output goes.
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Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
Extras on the disc include a bunch of little documentary/ featurettes.
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Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
If you think Eddie Murphy lost his mojo about 20 years ago and has been lacking clear comedic judgment ever since, then you've got to see this for confirmation. Or maybe not.
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Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
There's a scene where [Eddie Murphy] poops coins out of his butt. If that's funny to you, you'll like this film.
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Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
The worst sci-fi comedy since Eddie Murphy made The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
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Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
The new film is mildly amusing family entertainment, but when discussing the career of one of our most seasoned comic actors, "mildly amusing" can only be regarded as a letdown.
Read all 15 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Meet Dave received quite a battering but I really don't think it was all that bad. If it was made in the 80's it would be a classic, you know that's true. I was expecting the worst after all the scathing reviews but I quite liked it, it was 100 times better than Norbit… More
Meet Dave received quite a battering but I really don't think it was all that bad. If it was made in the 80's it would be a classic, you know that's true. I was expecting the worst after all the scathing reviews but I quite liked it, it was 100 times better than Norbit anyway!
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If it didn't depend on dozens of cliche's I might have actually enjoyed it. There are some funny moments in Meet Dave but still it's an odball, unoriginal and kind of creepy movie. It's not… More
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If it didn't depend on dozens of cliche's I might have actually enjoyed it. There are some funny moments in Meet Dave but still it's an odball, unoriginal and kind of creepy movie. It's not terrible, it's not as bad as Daddy Day Care or Norbit but it's still highly average and a massive misfire for children's taste due to some scary moments and a considerable amount of violence.
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Very funny and endearing childrens film, pity it was only in the theaters for about 2 weeks
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A very funny Movie Far More then I expected. I laughed all through the movie. Eddie Murphy played an excellent part. Elizabeth Banks was simply beautiful. A great family movie, nothing that can be shown to any age, clean throughout. 4 1/2 stars
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Eddie murphy's movies always seem like yes there ok but you probably won't remember them in the long run! eddie murphy gives his same old predictsable effort into this, this movie is ok and watchable but dont bother going out of your way to watch it!
Its a funny little kids… More
Eddie murphy's movies always seem like yes there ok but you probably won't remember them in the long run! eddie murphy gives his same old predictsable effort into this, this movie is ok and watchable but dont bother going out of your way to watch it!
Its a funny little kids movie, that is entertaining just incredibly predictable that is a bit boring!
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You think this might be a crappy unfunny typical Murphy family film at first, but it isn't, well not much anyway. Its actually not bad, the humor is very basic, childish and predictable but it has a certain charm, a certain something that makes it enjoyable instead of… More
You think this might be a crappy unfunny typical Murphy family film at first, but it isn't, well not much anyway. Its actually not bad, the humor is very basic, childish and predictable but it has a certain charm, a certain something that makes it enjoyable instead of embarassing. Murphy is the same as most of his 'family films' to be honest, same facial expressions and same silly impressions which we saw awhile back, but he does do quite a nice job as a robot or spacecraft in human form.
The concept is ok nothing too original and its all very simple looking with some really terrible effects later on in the film. The internal scenes inside Murphy are quite good, they look good and are alittle amusing in places as the crew helm the Murphy spacecraft hehe
Very silly, very basic usual family stuff from Murphy, but it does have alittle spark of charm, genius or loveability that somehow manages to grab you, dunno how or why though haha
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Eddie Murphy continues his rich tradition of great films with Meet Dave. Yes, that means it sucks. It really sucks. I can't believe I watched this garbage, but I figured someone had to take one for the team.
The film revolves around an alien spaceship that looks like Alex Foley.… More
Eddie Murphy continues his rich tradition of great films with Meet Dave. Yes, that means it sucks. It really sucks. I can't believe I watched this garbage, but I figured someone had to take one for the team.
The film revolves around an alien spaceship that looks like Alex Foley. Inside are people about an inch and a half high with their captain also looking like Axel Foley. It starts as your typical rube in New York City story with Murphy's ship getting hit by a single mom (why Elizabeth Banks, why!?!?) and her son who also happens to be the kid that found the water sucking orb that will save their planet. The film is basically the rube story as Murphy's Captain character realizes that he can't destroy this world to save his own.
Meet Dave is ridiculous as hell. I'm not talking about the little people alien aspects of the film, I'm talking about the piss poor writing from Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett. I'm checking to see if they're in the 2nd grade- no, but Corbett worked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. What the hell did they run out of movies and needed another piece of garbage to trash? Two examples that stick out for me are the stereotypes. A black crewmember on the S.S. Murphy hears hip hop and suddenly transforms into a jive talking gangster. The second crew member sees thirty seconds of A Chorus Line and suddenly becomes a homosexual. Hopefully none of them saw this film because they would be suddenly transformed into bad film makers and actors.
Eddie Murphy plays the schtick that he's played in countless crappy family films over the last fifteen years. I heard that he was going to retire from acting and go back to stand up. I would be hilarious to see this kids growing up with Father Knows Best Eddie Murphy watching a sequel to Eddie Murphy Raw- including the jump suit! The rest of the cast are typical over actors because it's supposed to be funny. It's not funny. It's overacting you goofs.
Director Brian Robbins' career is filled with tons of mindless crap that Hollywood loves to shove down our throats. He must work cheap, especially after last years masterpiece Norbit (I'm not willing to take that one for the team).
If given a choice between Meet Dave and a colonoscopy, I would have to think about it. At least you get drugged during the colonoscopy. Or I would just watch a superior film with the same sort of story called Innerspace.
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Eddie Murphy teams up again with Brian Robbins. Their previous work was "Norbit". His performance in that film pretty much made him lose the Academy Award...
In "Norbit", Eddie Murphy has no fat suit. He plays the captain of a spaceship that looks like him. Ok,… More
Eddie Murphy teams up again with Brian Robbins. Their previous work was "Norbit". His performance in that film pretty much made him lose the Academy Award...
In "Norbit", Eddie Murphy has no fat suit. He plays the captain of a spaceship that looks like him. Ok, normally I would not watch a film with this kind of synopsis but I gave it a shot. Actually, "Meet Dave" had its moments.
The film is filled with gags. The story is thin, almost harmless with the obvious storyline of an alien race learning about the human culture etc. The gags mostly base on this. Mix in a bit of love and there you have it... "Meet Dave".
The film had me laugh out loud a couple of times. In overall, the film is a harmless, brainless, somewhat funny film, but it woun't last multiple viewings.
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Eddie Murphy redeems himself somewhat with this family friendly film
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I would like to apologize for laughing at the first half of the movie. Its horrible in every way yet I still found the first half amusing. The second was a steamy pant load.
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Nowhere as bad as it was made out to be but don't misconstrue that as an endorsement.
It's fine for a night with dad and the kids but mom or anyone else for that matter will be quite annoyed with the low brow humor and scatological jokes.
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Eddie Murphy is a strange beast. How can somebody have such a huge ego with so many box office bombs? He's played a whole family of Eddie Murphy's, Eddie Murphy has been married to Eddie Murphy and now Eddie Murphy acts inside Eddie Murphy. For a man whose biggest success is… More
Eddie Murphy is a strange beast. How can somebody have such a huge ego with so many box office bombs? He's played a whole family of Eddie Murphy's, Eddie Murphy has been married to Eddie Murphy and now Eddie Murphy acts inside Eddie Murphy. For a man whose biggest success is playing a talking Donkey in a film that nobody goes to see for him he is very deluded. Meet Dave continues in the footsteps of Norbit by being painfully unfunny. It's the same joke over and over again. An Alien has many misunderstandings about human culture and way of life. For example a human mentions Meatloaf for dinner and a quick alien search brings up footage of the popular singing sensation Meatloaf. That's the poor attempt at comedy we are dealing with here. There are a couple of chuckles in store mainly due to the delivery of lines but other than that it's a sorry experience.
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Nice little movie with eddie murphy playing a spaceship! Not the most funnist of movies but it as charm and wit and one for the kids to enjoy.
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I sat in the theater so absolutely stunned by this ridiculous, boring disjointed rot of a movie. I just could not believe that any person could have give this trip the green light. Not since The Mist has a movie been so badly written, acted and directed and I find it astonishing that… More
I sat in the theater so absolutely stunned by this ridiculous, boring disjointed rot of a movie. I just could not believe that any person could have give this trip the green light. Not since The Mist has a movie been so badly written, acted and directed and I find it astonishing that anyone liked it. One of the other commenter's stated that the people in the theater were laughing and clapping??? I don't know what theater he goes to, but it must have been filled with escaped mental patients with sever vision and hearing impairment.
It is so sad to see huge amounts of money being pumped in to create such garbage whilst people starve around the world. I feel quite perturbed that these Hollywood movie makers have such low respect for their audiences, what is wrong with them.
Just an example of the stupidity in this movie
1) Eddie and the lady are thrown from huge Dave and hit the concrete after falling like, 100 metres and were fine! 2) that extremely irritating bursting out of the closet gay alien, just moronic 3) the stereotypical black guy theme peppered throughout the movie, I would have found that very offensive if I were black 4)the tiny Eddie talking to a crowd of people form the large Eddie-spaceships tongue, i mean how could anybody hear a 1cm alien whisper talking 10 metres away!! 5)the aliens look, act, talk the same as Humans, this just showed no imagination and lack of care 6)the noises and behavior and ability of spaceship-Dave seems to go unquestioned by all the characters. Somebody who can eat 30 huge hot dogs in like 5 seconds, i am sure, would arouse suspicion.
I know I am being very critical of this movie and I am aware that the movie is meant to be a light, silly comedy. However, the movie is a perfect paradigm of everything that is wrong with Hollywood these days - ignorance and laziness.
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Went to see Meet Dave with no expectations at all.The reviews I read already told me that it was a below average movie but it was an Eddie Murphy movie, one of my favorite actors, and I give it a chance and to be honest, I had fun with it. It isn't the greatest comedy or less but… More
Went to see Meet Dave with no expectations at all.The reviews I read already told me that it was a below average movie but it was an Eddie Murphy movie, one of my favorite actors, and I give it a chance and to be honest, I had fun with it. It isn't the greatest comedy or less but it has some funny moments, the visual effects are kinda cool and the story looked interesting. The plot about a man that emerge from a fireball from outer space, turns to be a spaceship with hundreds of little people trying to save their planet was at least decent.It has nice landscapes with locations all around New York City. The cast is mainly from barely known actors with the exception of Eddie Murphy whose performance is worthy just because of all his gestures. Elizabeth Banks was okay and Pat Kilbane as a gay alien was a little overacted but hilarious. My conclusion is that if you wanna go and see this movie, go with your brain disconnected and enjoy.
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tina fey, adam sandler, mike myers, and now eddie murphy, saturday night live looks like THE way to break into the hollywood fast lane this summer. it's just too bad none of these efforts by former SNL alumni are any good. whassup with that???!!!??? does going to the lorne… More
tina fey, adam sandler, mike myers, and now eddie murphy, saturday night live looks like THE way to break into the hollywood fast lane this summer. it's just too bad none of these efforts by former SNL alumni are any good. whassup with that???!!!??? does going to the lorne michael school of high expectations doom creative output? i really don't know. this one has so-so intentions, the old "humanity can be seen as wondrous if the outsider/spectator comes from far enough away" carpet thrown out again (remember "E.T.", or "Starman"?). murphy is the big problem here. he's out of ideas. in fact for the first half hour to 45 minutes, it hurt me to watch him...it was embarrassing...maybe there's not a funny bone in his body anymore. by the end the movie finally seems to find itself, but it's far too late at that point. ms. gabrielle union and ms. elizabeth banks try to lift this into appealing territory, but they simply haven't the strength. wait for the dvd if you must.
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I normally don't rate movies unless I have seen them, but I HAVE to break the trend here. All you have to do is watch the trailer to know this is CRAP. The whole concept of the movie is complete and utter garbage! Eddie Murphy is really looking to sweep the Razzies this year… More
I normally don't rate movies unless I have seen them, but I HAVE to break the trend here. All you have to do is watch the trailer to know this is CRAP. The whole concept of the movie is complete and utter garbage! Eddie Murphy is really looking to sweep the Razzies this year AGAIN!
From what I've heard from a friend of mine, and some trusted people here on Flixster, and just from the trailer alone, this movie is 100% avoidable!
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It was funny at times and original to a certain extent but really a movie to rent. A massive fireball from space hits New York's Central Park and an ordinary man emerges unscathed. The man turns out to be a spaceship operated by 100 human-looking aliens who are one-quarter inch… More
It was funny at times and original to a certain extent but really a movie to rent. A massive fireball from space hits New York's Central Park and an ordinary man emerges unscathed. The man turns out to be a spaceship operated by 100 human-looking aliens who are one-quarter inch tall and seeking a way to save their planet; complications ensue when their captain falls in love with an Earth woman who's always picked losers for previous romances.
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Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed this movie. Yeah, it's not Eddie Murphy's best comedy ever but I thought it was all right. The concept of 'aliens beaming down to Earth and disguising themselves using a spaceship that looks like a real person' was actually… More
Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed this movie. Yeah, it's not Eddie Murphy's best comedy ever but I thought it was all right. The concept of 'aliens beaming down to Earth and disguising themselves using a spaceship that looks like a real person' was actually pretty clever. I believe that the best comedy from this film comes from the comedy between the 'aliens'. The humor between the other members of this film wasn't all that memorable.
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Not a bad idea for a family-friendly sci-fi film, but loses itself with silly, and gross comedy. While being a step up for Norbit, it's a step down for 20th Century Fox.
Read all 20 featured audience ratings
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