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Meet Dave
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 26
  3. Negative: 5 out of 26
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    Aside from some unnecessarily crude stereotypes, Eddie Murphy's least-painful comedy in years has a certain peculiar charm.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    75
    this unfairly maligned sci-fi comedy testifies that Eddie Murphy still has the gift of surprise.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    70
    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.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    63
    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.
  5. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    63
    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.
  6. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    60
    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.
  7. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tim Grierson
    60
    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.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    50
    Eddie Murphy's amusingly out of this world in this otherwise tired vehicle.
  9. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    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.
  10. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    50
    Isn't likely to win Murphy another Oscar nomination, but it allows him to do what he does best - loads of physical comedy.
  11. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    This is made-for-TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's participation into a theatrical release.
  12. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    50
    The "Star Trek" gibes feel especially lazy, since the movie ought to be "Men in Black" kicky, not sketch-comedy dusty.
  13. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    There's no real wit or cleverness to the script.
  14. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    50
    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.
  15. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    Though mildly amusing, Murphy's two characters in Meet Dave -- a wee captain and a humanoid spaceship -- neither tax nor stretch him.
  16. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    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.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    42
    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.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    40
    Pays lip service to the joys of exploring new worlds, but it never steps off the tour bus.
  19. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    40
    Dumbfoundingly erratic, for the most part, but smart and funny from time to time.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    40
    The kind of bland, generic, high-concept midsummer comedy that drives a critic to the thesaurus in search of new ways to say "vapid."
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    40
    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.
  22. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Murphy has fallen back into the comfortable rut of sloppy family comedies that are low on laughs and high on toilet jokes.
  23. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    If only the movie had heeded its own advice and tried to be different from the standard formula.
  24. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    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.
  25. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    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.
  26. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    20
    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.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 8
  3. Negative: 3 out of 8
  1. ChadS.
    4
    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.… Full Review »
  2. moviegrabbag
    5
    This movie isn't really horrible but it's not that great either. The plot is insanely predictable and not really that interesting. Most of the jokes are bland and not that funny, there are a few that caught me off guard and did make me laugh. This is just your standard fish out of water in New York story. Overall this movie isn't anything special and you aren't missing anything if you don't see it but there are far worse movies that you can watch and you wont be to disappointed if you catch it on TV or get it as a cheap rental.… Full Review »
  3. EverythingIAm
    0
    Horrible. Save us all and just retire Mr. Murphy, your films are crap.
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