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Meet Dave
20th Century Fox


5.4

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 17 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for bawdy and suggestive humor, action and some language

Starring Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms, Judah Friedlander, and Pat Kilbane

Dave Ming Chang, newly arrived in New York City, may be the ultimate fish out of water. There's something about him that's not quite right - for starters, he seems remarkably out of place and uncomfortable in his own body. And for good reason: "Dave" is not a man at all, but a ship made in the image of its miniature-sized captain. It's little Eddie in the BIG family comedy Meet Dave. (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Rob Greenberg Bill Corbett
DIRECTED BY:	Brian Robbins
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: July 11, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Ken Fox

Aside from some unnecessarily crude stereotypes, Eddie Murphy's least-painful comedy in years has a certain peculiar charm.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

this unfairly maligned sci-fi comedy testifies that Eddie Murphy still has the gift of surprise.

Variety Joe Leydon

Aimed squarely at the same family audiences that flocked to Murphy's "Doctor Dolittle" comedies, this is a lightly amusing and surprisingly sweet Fox release.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Meet Dave isn't great, but it's good enough. And it proves once again that Murphy can do anything - even a PG comedy in which he isn't a donkey.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Actually, as Eddie Murphy PG comedies go, Meet Dave isn't bad. In fact, it's kind of sweet, innocent almost – kid-friendly in the best sense.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's a good-natured if flimsy comedy that, at the very least, suggests that Murphy hasn't completely lost whatever made him funny in the first place.

LA Weekly Tim Grierson

Meet Dave feels a little too cuddly and familiar to be more than a programmatic summer kids' movie -- better than average, but not worth phoning home about.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is made-for-TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's participation into a theatrical release.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Eddie Murphy is one of the most alarmingly gifted comic actors America has ever produced but he persists in making comedies that are beneath him.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Isn't likely to win Murphy another Oscar nomination, but it allows him to do what he does best - loads of physical comedy.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The "Star Trek" gibes feel especially lazy, since the movie ought to be "Men in Black" kicky, not sketch-comedy dusty.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

More palatable than "Norbit" but equally uninspired, Murphy's benign, pedestrian Meet Dave mostly gives us "Mr. Ed," with a bit of Crazy Eddie mixed in.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Though mildly amusing, Murphy's two characters in Meet Dave -- a wee captain and a humanoid spaceship -- neither tax nor stretch him.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The heartbreaking thing about Meet Dave...is its occasional funniness amid a sea of pablum. If it were completely rank, it'd be less frustrating.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Eddie Murphy's amusingly out of this world in this otherwise tired vehicle.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

There's no real wit or cleverness to the script.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Proven comic talents like Judah Friedlander and Ed Helms make up much of Murphy's crew, but apart from speaking in contraction-free spaceman-ese, the film doesn't give them anything funny to do.

Los Angeles Times Sam Adams

Pays lip service to the joys of exploring new worlds, but it never steps off the tour bus.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Dumbfoundingly erratic, for the most part, but smart and funny from time to time.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The kind of bland, generic, high-concept midsummer comedy that drives a critic to the thesaurus in search of new ways to say "vapid."

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

The insipid gags fail to exploit Murphy's gift for physical humor, Elizabeth Banks and Gabrielle Union are merely decorative, and Ed Helms (The Office), playing a character called #2, looks appropriately constipated.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Murphy has fallen back into the comfortable rut of sloppy family comedies that are low on laughs and high on toilet jokes.

USA Today Claudia Puig

If only the movie had heeded its own advice and tried to be different from the standard formula.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

On just about every occasion in Meet Dave, Murphy appears to be on the verge of cracking himself up. This is good news. At least someone found him funny.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Murphy, teaming again with his "Norbit" director Brian Robbins, is assuming we'll all line up for lazyass toilet jokes and pay for the privilege. Prove him wrong, people, please.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

After his disastrous outing in 200X with "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," there was no direction for Murphy to head but up in terms of another space alien movie. Indeed, Meet Dave is a step up, but that's only in relation to Pluto Nash.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

EverythingIAm gave it a0:
Horrible. Save us all and just retire Mr. Murphy, your films are crap.

Chad S. gave it a4:
Most New Yorkers aren't the trusting sort. Most New York moms would be hesitant about leaving their sons home alone with a stranger they barely knew. After hitting a brother from another planet with her car, Gina Morrison(Elizabeth Banks) discerns nothing at all peculiar about his "coincidental" materialization across her apartment window, or the fact that he's injury-free, without a trace of bloody muss on his body and natty attire. "Meet Dave" is a comedy, but a comedy needs some semblance of realism in order for the farcial circumstances to provoke unstrained laughter from the audience. In Ron Howard's "Splash", the mermaid played by Daryl Hannah may act unusual, but not unusual enough to try our patience. Even when "Madison" shatters all the lobster tanks as she says her name using the aquatic parlance(right then and there, the Tom Hanks character should recognize that the girl isn't human), we permit the film some leeway, because the mermaid had seemed human enough to our satisfaction. That's why "Meet Dave" doesn't work. Dave's behavior is so erratic, the mother should either drive this odd behaving man to a hospital for a full psychiatric evaluation, or stay far, far, far away. She seems stupid. And stupid people are anathemic to comedy. An even bigger mess posited by the film's refusal to enmesh the fantastical in a lifelike milieu, are the aliens themselves, who seem suitably human before they supposedly acquire our cultural and social norms. The only flash of wit on display in "Meet Dave" is the alien's Chinese surname, in conjunction with the spoof for Nike's "I am Tiger Woods" television advert(the one where people of all colors claimed to be Eldrick). Like Dave, Woods is not completely black(he's actually 1/2 Asian, 1/4 Black, and 1/4 American Indian), even though the golfing phenom is marketed like he was a brother from another planet.

CommandoDude gave it a7:
Unlike these other 4 I'm going to give this movie a realistic review. It was a very good comedy, but it wasn't the best. It had good moments, with funny or sometimes unfunny stereotypes. And seeing Eddie Murphy, pilot Eddie Murphy as an alien unfamiliar in Earth Culture was hilarious. Towards the end, the movie they had the cliche 'Alien says good bye to humanity to leave' and the 'Two characters fall in love' which made me like it less. Deffinately worth seeing in theaters. Won't be your favorite though.

Neil J. gave it a0:
It's pretty interesting how much unfunny trash people have allowed Eddie Murphy to make in the last 20+ years. Steve Martin is one of his true rivals; he hasn't done anything that wasn't violently uncomic in a few decades either, and yet he too keeps getting leading roles in superfluous gross-out 'family' pics and other similar dreck. That people are still giving Murphy what looks like vanity projects, and that people watch it, is simply mind-blowing. I guess people really are that stupid.

Unknown Unknown gave it a10:
Good comedy by my favorite actor Eddie Murphy. I found only his acting was good, but i felt the effects could have been made better. Overall i like it.

Lis D. gave it a10:
Made me laugh.

Meet Dave 20th Century Fox

Meet Dave
20th Century Fox