| 75 |
TV Guide
Aside from some unnecessarily crude stereotypes, Eddie Murphy's least-painful comedy in years has a certain peculiar charm.
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| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
this unfairly maligned sci-fi comedy testifies that Eddie Murphy still has the gift of surprise.
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| 70 |
Variety
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.
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| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
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.
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| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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.
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| 60 |
Salon.com
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.
|
| 60 |
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.
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| 50 |
ReelViews
This is made-for-TV material dressed up by Eddie Murphy's participation into a theatrical release.
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| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
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.
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| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Isn't likely to win Murphy another Oscar nomination, but it allows him to do what he does best - loads of physical comedy.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
The "Star Trek" gibes feel especially lazy, since the movie ought to be "Men in Black" kicky, not sketch-comedy dusty.
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| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
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.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
Though mildly amusing, Murphy's two characters in Meet Dave -- a wee captain and a humanoid spaceship -- neither tax nor stretch him.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
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.
|
| 50 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Eddie Murphy's amusingly out of this world in this otherwise tired vehicle.
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| 50 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
There's no real wit or cleverness to the script.
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| 42 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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.
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| 40 |
Los Angeles Times
Sam Adams
Pays lip service to the joys of exploring new worlds, but it never steps off the tour bus.
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| 40 |
Wall Street Journal
Dumbfoundingly erratic, for the most part, but smart and funny from time to time.
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| 40 |
Washington Post
The kind of bland, generic, high-concept midsummer comedy that drives a critic to the thesaurus in search of new ways to say "vapid."
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| 40 |
Chicago Reader
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.
|
| 38 |
New York Post
Murphy has fallen back into the comfortable rut of sloppy family comedies that are low on laughs and high on toilet jokes.
|
| 38 |
USA Today
If only the movie had heeded its own advice and tried to be different from the standard formula.
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| 25 |
Boston Globe
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.
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| 25 |
Rolling Stone
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.
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| 20 |
Austin Chronicle
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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