July23

BMN: Meet Dave

“We see bad movies so that we can truly appreciate the good ones.”
– Someone who (obviously) thinks we’re doing ourselves a service.

Ladies and gentlemen... the great Eddie 'Edward' Murphy has returned to Bad Movie Night. And what a triumphant return it is. I think we all used to wonder how this talent had fallen to such lows. But now, amidst reports of him retiring from movies and him selling out to make the crappy ones, it was a guarantee that the Murph would end up here. This summer, Eddie has brought us the gem "Meet Dave." A movie that was practically made JUST for Eddie. And a movie that follows a majority of the Murph's movies in the ratings department. At the time of this writing, RT has "Meet Dave" hovering around a 20%. Ouch.

This was the first movie of the season that was a bit painful to watch. Granted it was a PG film and more suited for families, the jokes were awful, overly stereotypical and extremely forced. What kills me is that Bill Corbitt (of MST3K fame) was one of the writers here -- I'm guessing the movie was supposed to be PG-13 at one point. But then I remember that Brian Robbins directed it, along with the smash hit "Norbit" from last year. Now I understand.

What's nice about "Meet Dave" is that it allowed me to check the following items off of my Things I Hope To See In Bad Movies This Summer:

• Stereotypical jokes about African-Americans involving hot sauce, rap music and big booties
• Stereotypical jokes about gay men loving chorus lines and dressing up like they're in the Village People
• A fish out of water sci-fi(ish) comedy starring the Murph
• References to how Google is Earth's database, which allows characters to google certain topics (i.e., Meatloaf the food) and come up with dumb responses to questions (i.e., Meatloaf the performer)
• God-awful jokes about a character being named, "Number 2," (see "Austin Powers" for an example of how to do it the correct way)
• A chance for Elizabeth Banks to look hot in a shitty movie
• A chance for Scott Caan to work again in something that's NOT an Ocean's (insert number here) movie
• A chance for Ed Helms to make a case for supplanting Wanda Sykes as the Bad Movie Harbinger of Death

Thanks for helping me with that list, Eddie, but please stop making these movies. Stop moping when you don't win an Oscar. Stop hooking up with hookers. One day you'll realize that all of these things intertwine.

+ original post date: July 23, 2008 09:28 AM
+ categories: Bad Movie Night