Tag: Eddie Murphy

Movie Round-Up: June 12th, 2009

Reviews

Imagine That:

Eddie Murphy once made his career on raunchy adult themed comedy and movies.  He has long since left that behind in favor of more family friendly fair.  That said, I have actually enjoyed a few of them.  While Norbit, the Doolittle sequels and the Nutty Professor movies left me flat, I actually enjoyed Meet Dave.  This movie looks cute, so it’ll definitely get a rental viewing, but as cute as it looks I don’t think it’s enough to earn $10 from my wallet on opening weekend.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3:

I kept meaning to Netflix the original so I could see it before this remake opened, but I never did.  The trailer looks pretty decent, and I like most of the actors.  I want to see it, but John Travolta as a bad guy is fairly hit or miss.  Hit, Broken Arrow.  Miss, The Punisher.  So, for me, I probably won’t run out and see it, but will wait for the rental.  However, it does look like a good action film, so you might want to check it out.

Away We Go:

Technically, this movie opened last week, but only on 4 screens.  This week marks the first expansion into places where average people might actually have a chance to see it.  I saw it at a screening and … I think it is a damn shame that I’ve seen some outlets compare this film to Juno.  It sets the absolute wrong expectations since Away We Go is nothing like Juno.  What Away We Go is about is a couple (I don’t want to say ‘young’ because they are 34) who are about to have a baby and had moved to be close to his parents.  But his parents have decided to move to Antwerp, so now they are looking for other family and friends to live near.  Conveniently, both of them have jobs that are not location based, so off they go in search of a new place to raise their forthcoming child.  Along the way they encounter four completely different families and learn about the things they want and the things they don’t want.  Its sweet, its funny, and its also sad in places.  Most of all, though, its worth watching.

Meet Dave

Reviews

8 out of 13 nots.
for being better than I expected it to be

Eddie Murphy was once a foul mouthed comedian.  He used to make rated R movies.  But a few years back he stumbled into a gold mine of family oriented Disney films.  Meet Dave is another one.

Honestly, I went into this movie expecting it to be a pile of crap, or at least another bland family film that I knew would make money but wouldn’t interest me at all.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.  Meet Dave was funny, genuinely funny.  Sort of a mix between Galaxy Quest and Starman, it is about aliens who travel to Earth in a giant space ship that looks like a human.  This is because they are about an inch tall, so the human shaped ship also doubles as an android allowing them to move through the population unnoticed.  They have come because they are planning to suck the oceans dry and take all the salt in order to save their own world.  Of course, on the way to destroying our planet, they learn that maybe we aren’t so bad and might just be worth saving.

Anyway, I enjoyed it… I don’t think I would ever pay $10 to see it in the theater, but I would absolutely throw it in the rental queue on Netflix.