Jumping back into the saddle after last year’s tragic misstep, the god awful “Norbit”, Eddie Murphy shows that he can still entertain even when the film itself is perfunctory, illogical and sloppy. With his Oscar nomination for "Dreamgirls" reminding him that folks will still embrace him, Eddie should probably start thinking of that when he picks his projects. Costing somewhere in the area of one hundred million dollars, “Meet Dave” is one of those grandiose summer films that has ‘flop’ written all of it, derived mainly from the terrible ad campaign and from the family friendly film trailers designed to play up comedic elements that simply to do not exist. Thankfully, Eddie Murphy seems up to the challenge, offering, for what it’s worth, a fairly good effort in a film that is well beneath his ability.

Tricked out in a disco era suit, and tagged with a self-applied, inapt name, Dave Ming Chang, a taut, disoriented marionette played by Eddie Murphy stiff-legs his way around the streets of New York in search of a pool ball sized device – one that would be used to drain the Earth of it’s water, thus killing it. The Geppetto-like crew aboard the human-like marionette known as Dave, is none other than an army of Lilliputians from the planet Nil, lead by Eddie Murphy. He is backed up his No. 2, a militaristic Eddie Helms, and No. 3, a sweet to the point of nauseating, Gabrielle Union, both of which bring a sort of Spock/McCoy dynamic to the table. Just as the crew begins to acclimatize to the culture, they are suddenly cold-cocked by a speeding automobile driven by widowed mother, Gina Morrison (Elizabeth Banks). It is by pure coincidence that Gina’s 11-year-old son Josh (Austyn Lind Myers), happens to be the one who has the device he’s seeking. In an effort to recapture the apparatus, Dave finds himself spending more and more time with Gina and Josh, eventually coming to a realization about their own conceits -- that the human culture, with all of its freedoms, is infectious, and maybe not as expendable as first thought. A mutiny staged by a power mad Eddie Helms in the film’s third act over a Captain he feels has gone soft, is as expected as it is tiresome, and feels like an excuse for some less than stellar special effects. The love story between Union and Murphy is only momentarily sweet but mostly falls flat as does the implausible side-story involving two stereotypical officers, Scott Caan and Mike O’Malley, hot on the trail of what they believe is an alien being in New York. Nothing about that aspect of the film works, however Scott, who looks increasingly more like his dad with each new film, offers an admirable turn.

Writer’s Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett create a narrative that relies almost entirely on situational comedy bits, most of which aren’t all that funny. It’s as if the two writers sat down at a table and said, “We’re going to have Murphy walk around as an alien in New York – fish out of water style. What kinds of gags can we work out of that?” A scene with Murphy scanning money then wandering into the change-room to immediately shit out said scanned money, including the nickels and dimes, is more silly than laugh out loud funny. In fact, most of the jokes served up here are only worthy of, at best, a snicker or two. Watching as Eddie mimics New Yorkers, shops at Old Navy and cuddle’s up with street bums, is only occasionally laugh inducing but, as I said, more often than not, the comedy hits a brick wall. At its heart, the film seems to be making a point to say that being different is not something to shun but to embrace, however, at the same time, the film seems to content to show all the usual Hollywood stereotypes, namely, with the way they portray black and overweight actors. No. 17 played by Kevin Hart, is apparently one of only black persons aboard the ship, minus the Gabrielle and Eddie, and of course, he’s relegated to being a jive talking gangsta type. The scene where he walks through the ship grooving to the rap music being pumped through the intercom, while all the other white folks recoil in horror, is silly. Yeah, I get it. White folks ain’t hip. C’mon Eddie, this is SNL humour. Also, there’s an overweight kid in the movie, Nick Berman, and as we all know, young overweight boys can only play two roles, the loser, or the bully. Berman plays the bully. There’s also Pat Kilbane who, after glimpsing a Broadway show, embraces his inner Queen, and quickly ‘flames’ out. Even though his performance is mostly cartoonish in nature, and seems to be used by the writers as a way of defining the changing atmosphere aboard the ship, it’s not entirely in good taste.

Adopting a British accent that sounds a bit like Seth MacFarlane’s Stewie Griffin, Murphy under-plays his Captain to such a degree that it’s hard to get a feel for him. He’s often quite oblivious to the more minute things going on around him, namely that his No. 3 is in love with him. The marionette Murphy has more charm, in my opinion. Gabrielle Union, an actress I’ve adored since 1999’s “H.E. Double Hockey Sticks” is cute but after awhile, she becomes grating. As with Murphy, she’s hard to get a read on. Eddie Helms as No. 2 seems to be simply adding to his insipid, intolerant “Harold And Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” character. Nil’s version of the Taliban, or at least an American Republican, Helms seems opposed to any form of cultural influence, sensing that it is eroding his people’s sensibility.

People who know me know that I absolutely fucking hate Woody Allen. I think he’s a hack of the tallest order that somehow has been coddled by artsy-fartsy film snobs who happily tout whatever cock-snot crap he calls a film, as the epitome of greatness. Fuck that! That said, I have to acknowledge the one Woody Allen film that I did like, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask” – a film, based on David Reuben’s book, that was simply superb. The final segment which runs under a half hour, titled, “What Happens During Ejaculation”, features a look inside the 'control central' during a seduction attempt – much the same as in “Meet Dave” only with a more charismatic Burt Reynolds at the helm. By stretching a half hour segment into ninety minutes, they all but kill any humour that existed in Allen’s idea. Wait for this to come out on DVD.

To find out more about this movie, check out the imdb.com and Wikipedia page. Also check out the official website. Also check out the trailer.