The best that can be said about Eddie Murphy’s “Meet Dave” is that it’s neither as catastrophically bad as “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” or as crass as “Norbit.”
That doesn’t mean Murphy has any right to crow. “Meet Dave” is a high concept farce aimed at the lowest common denominator. Namely, tykes who don’t mind when movies talk down to them.
Murphy plays a tiny alien who visits Earth in order to find a lost device meant to suck the salt out of the planet’s oceans. His own planet needs that salt to survive, although we’re told the salt-sucking gadget will kill all life remaining on Earth. Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?
The alien’s spaceship, which carries a team of similarly small humanoids, is a human-sized representation of Murphy’s character, the ship’s captain. That means the ship looks like … Eddie Murphy in a white suit stolen from “Saturday Night Fever’s” wardrobe dept. [click to continue...]
It’s now more than safe to call director Guillermo del Toro a visionary. Films like “Hellboy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Mimic” confirmed his knack for eye-popping visuals.
But is he a great filmmaker? The jury is still out after today’s release of “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” The sequel to his modest 2004 hit packs more action, more creatures … more everything a summer movie could want. But the film doesn’t grab the audience like it should. The franchise still has a ways to go before competing with the likes of “Spider-Man” and “Iron Man.”
My Washington Times review showcases the film’s monster gallery - as well as the film’s inability to connect one scene to another.
(Photo: Ron Perlman takes another whack at the red-skinned hero Hellboy in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”)
Pay no attention to what the main character says in the new-to-DVD dark comedy “In Bruges.” The Belgium city which gives the film its title is, in fact, quite beautiful. The film set in that city isn’t bad, either.
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as hit men sent to Bruges (pronounced -brewj) to await further instructions. They just completed a job and haven’t a clue about their next assignment.
That leaves the duo to roam the city, which drives Farrell’s character nearly insane. His mood lightens when he meets a fetching actress (Clemence Poesy), but their time together keeps getting interrupted by a little person (Jordan Prentice) with whom the actress is shooting a picture. [click to continue...]
This is not the age of the rom-com, to say the very least.
But along comes “Definitely, Maybe,” and a flicker of hope alights for the genre.
“Definitely,” just released on DVD, stars Ryan Reynolds as an exasperated dad trying to explain to his daughter (Abigail Breslin) why her mommy and daddy are no longer are married.
Instead of revealing the ugly truth, Papa Reynolds shares the tale of how he met her mother. That story, which makes up the bulk of the film, also includes two other key romances in his young life, a time when he idealistically worked for Gov. Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. But which woman ended up as his now ex-wife? That’s the mystery in this cleverly plotted yarn, one which benefits from terrific casting. Oscar winner Rachel Weisz plays a Bohemian girl who captures Reynolds’ heart. But so, too, does Elizabeth Banks as his first love and Isla Fisher as a free-spirited copy machine fixer. [click to continue...]
The best that can be said about Eddie Murphy’s “Meet Dave” is that it’s neither as catastrophically bad as “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” or as crass as “Norbit.”
