Meet Dave

Meet Dave
Promotional poster
Directed by	Brian Robbins
Produced by	Jon Berg David T. Friendly Todd Komarnicki
Written by	Rob Greenberg Bill Corbett
Starring	Eddie Murphy Elizabeth Banks Gabrielle Union Ed Helms Scott Caan Kevin Hart
Music by	John Debney
Cinematography	J. Clark Mathis
Editing by	Ned Bastille
Studio	Regency Enterprises Tollin/Robbins Productions Friendly Films Dune Entertainment Guy Walks Into a Bar Productions
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 11, 2008 (2008-07-11)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$58 million
Box office	$50,650,079

Meet Dave is a 2008 American family comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Eddie Murphy. The film was co-written by Bill Corbett and Rob Greenberg.^[1][2] The film was released by 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises on July 11, 2008.^[1]

Plot

In a New York City apartment, a young boy named Josh Morrison (Austyn Lind Myers) watches through his telescope an approaching object coming from the sky. It is a golf ball-sized metal ball which flies through the window of his room and lands in his fishbowl, quickly draining the water. He keeps it and shows it at school in a science class presentation. Some months later, on Liberty Island, a massive fireball crash lands. The fireball is actually a spaceship resembling a human (Eddie Murphy). It is controlled by 100 humanoid aliens, each one inch tall. Its captain (also played by Murphy) pilots the spaceship along with his crew from inside its head. For people the spaceship seems fairly human, but odd and with superpowers. A superstitious cop named Officer Dooley (Scott Caan) is desperately searching for the alien.

The aliens are seeking a way to save their planet, Nil, from an energy crisis. For that they need salt, which they plan to produce by draining the Earth's oceans using the metal ball, so they have to recover it. After the spaceship is hit by the car of Josh's single mother Gina Morrison (Elizabeth Banks), the spaceship befriends Gina and Josh, telling them its name is Dave Ming Cheng, and sees the ball on a photograph. After having breakfast with Gina, Dave goes to Josh's school where he pretends to be a substitute teacher and eventually is able to talk to Josh alone. Josh tells him that the ball was taken from him by a bully. Directed to him by Josh, Dave takes the metal ball back from the bully.

The Captain spends time with Josh and Gina, and realizes that humans are more advanced than they thought, having feelings and love. He decides to cancel the plan of draining the oceans because of the damage to the Earth. The police know from the impression of Dave's face in the dirt on the crash site what he looks like, and they arrest him for investigation. After spending too much time on Earth, most of the crew began to have different "feelings". For example, Number 4, the security guard, begins to realize that he is gay. Number 2 decides that Number 1's and the rest of the crew's changing behavior is unacceptable so he aggressively takes over command and imprisons the captain. Now under the command of Number 2, Dave breaks out of the police station, and the police try to arrest him again. Number 3 (Gabrielle Union), who is secretly in love with The Captain, becomes jealous of Gina. She first cooperates in the change of command but later agrees with Number 1's views on humans. However, both are caught by Number 2, and they are expelled from the spaceship. In the meantime, one crew member, Number 17 (Kevin Hart), drunk from the alcoholic drink Dave has taken, jumps out. The Captain apologizes to Number 3 for ignoring her. He admits that he does love her and wants to be with her. Back at the police station, Dooley discovers Number 17 in his coffee and takes him to get information regarding where Dave is going.

Number 2 leads Dave to a dock where he tries to throw the metal orb into the ocean but is stopped by The Captain and Number 3, who have managed to re-enter the spaceship. They convince the rest of the crew that the real captain be in charge again. Number 1, reinstated, orders Number 2 to be stuck in the ship's "butt" forever. The metal orb meanwhile slips out of Dave's hand and rolls into the ocean. Number 1 attempts to retrieve the orb but is told that they only have enough power to retrieve the orb or return home. Number 1 decides to save Earth and the rest of the crew agrees. The ball, thrown in the ocean by Number 2, is retracted. Dave powers down while Dooley and his partner catch him and threaten him with their guns. With no power, Dave's shields are disabled, leaving the crew defenseless. Josh tries to tell the police officers that Dave is harmless but he is ignored. He grabs Dooley's taser which he uses on Dave, recharging him. Numbers 1 and 3 reveal themselves to the police officers who stand down. Number 1 says goodbye to Josh and Gina saying he now understands love. Number 17 is allowed to enter Dave. While trying to fly away, a force from the FBI comes in and traps Dave in a net. While the FBI wrestle the body down, "Dave's" crew evacuate to one of the ship's "lifeboat" shoes, activate the lifeboat's engine, detach the shoe from the rest of the ship/body and leave Earth. While in the shoe "lifeboat", The Captain asks for Number 3's hand in marriage. She accepts, and they kiss.

Cast

• Eddie Murphy as Dave Ming Cheng / The Captain
• Elizabeth Banks as Gina Morrison
• Scott Caan as Officer Dooley
• Mike O'Malley as Officer Knox
• Austyn Lind Myers as Josh Morrison
• Ed Helms as Number 2
• Gabrielle Union as Number 3
• Pat Kilbane as Number 4
• Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Number 12
• Kevin Hart as Number 17
• Adam Tomei as Number 35
• Allisyn Ashley Arm as Nerdy Girl

Production

Film set at the Statue of Liberty in June 2007.

Screenwriter Bill Corbett originally pitched the story for SciFi.com, the website for the Sci Fi Channel, which previously aired Mystery Science Theater 3000, where Corbett worked as a writer. The concept was eventually dropped and Corbett, along with other MST3K alumni, instead developed the online mini-series The Adventures of Edward the Less for the site. Corbett later revived the idea for a movie and discussed it with friend and fellow writer Rob Greenberg, who would become his screenwriting partner for the project. Although both writers acknowledged several other "little people inside big people"^[3] movies had been made in the past, Corbett thought the aspect of an entire Star Trek like crew operating a human being bore some originality.^[3]

During filming, Meet Dave was transferred from Paramount Pictures (which released many of Murphy's early films) to 20th Century Fox.^[3]

Meet Dave was written under the title Starship Dave, but studio executives insisted on a title change in part because of the poor box office performance of The Adventures of Pluto Nash, a 2002 science-fiction comedy that also starred Eddie Murphy. Corbett said the executives also wanted the title changed because they felt having any semblance of science-fiction in the title would isolate a large percentage of audiences. Corbett unsuccessfully argued against changing the title, which he described as "beyond generic" and said was repetitive of a comedy released earlier in the year called Meet Bill.^[3]

Although the project as it was originally conceived appealed to both children and slightly older audiences, the final script aimed for a much more solidly family-based audience. Corbett and Greenberg wrote the original draft and some subsequent drafts and, although they were given the sole writing credit, Corbett said other writers "have romped through the script as well,"^[3] including one unnamed writer who spent one week adding material after the final draft was submitted. A large amount of improvising and rewriting was also done on the set, and Corbett and Greenberg had little creative control during filming. Corbett said most of the people they worked with were pleasant and some of the notes from the studio were helpful, but that Meet Dave ultimately suffered from a "too-many-cooks thing."^[3]

Filming was expected to begin in March 2007. As of early June, they were filming scenes at the Statue of Liberty in New York City. There was also some filming in early 2007 at an elementary school in Pasadena, California.^{[citation needed]}

Meet Dave began receiving criticism and virulence months before it was actually released, especially by die-hard movie fans Corbett compared to the Comic Book Guy character in The Simpsons. Greenberg enjoyed reading the negative comments on the Internet Movie Database, whereas Corbett said he would "rather take an acid bath"^[3] than read them. Corbett, who did not see the final film until after it was widely released, said he did not know how the final result would come out:

Part of me is proud and wants to own this movie, promote it, generally celebrate it and look forward to all the possibilities that may emerge from the experience. And an equally real part of me wants to lock myself in a dark room for a month and pretend it never happened. Why the latter? Because the truth is that I'm stupid, and Hollywood does tend to suckify things. Often quite badly.^[3]

Soundtrack

Meet Dave: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by John Debney
Released	July 18, 2008
Genre	Soundtrack, film score
Length	42:54
Label	Varèse Sarabande

Meet Dave: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by John Debney and released by Varèse Sarabande. He recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage in February 2008.^[4]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Orb Arrives On Earth"	1:33
2.	"Dave Comes to Earth"	1:41
3.	"Gina Runs Into Dave"	2:21
4.	"Dave's System Check"	2:22
5.	"Addressing the Crew"	1:00
6.	"Drunken Man In Alley"	1:40
7.	"Whipping Eggs"	1:13
8.	"A Kiss In the Park"	0:56
9.	"Welcome to Old Navy"	1:54
10.	"Deli Robbers"	1:53
11.	"Gina's Painting"	1:24
12.	"Urban Camping With Dave"	1:32
13.	"Dave to the Rescue"	1:19
14.	"Standoff"	0:59
15.	"I'm In Charge Now"	1:18
16.	"Evil Dave Blasts Police Station"	1:22
17.	"Reinforcements Arrive"	0:48
18.	"Never Argue With a Female"	1:11
19.	"Betrayal / Mini Dave and No. 3"	2:55
20.	"Saved By the Bus / Dave's True Feelin"	1:31
21.	"Hailing a Cab"	0:44
22.	"The Battle Begins"	2:09
23.	"I Am Dave Ming Chang"	2:04
24.	"Saving Earth"	1:22
25.	"Power Shutdown"	1:23
26.	"Mini Dave Apologizes"	2:55
27.	"Blast Off and Return"	2:12

Reception

The film garnered mostly negative reviews, with web site Rotten Tomatoes showing only 18 positive reviews out of 92 tallied for a "Rotten" score of 19%.^[5]

Meet Dave opened on July 11, 2008, in 3,011 theaters in the United States and Canada and grossed an estimated $5,300,000, ranking seventh at the box office.^[6] 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston said of the flop that cost $55 million to make, "It was a tough concept to get across. It's upsetting for all of us and for Eddie. He's very funny in this. Just not enough people came."^[7]

Also, in its third weekend, it broke the record for the highest number of theater drops for a film in wide release, losing 2,523 theaters.^[8]

The film's performance became a joke for comedians, with Jay Leno saying that the movie's title was going to be changed to Meet Dave: At Blockbuster insinuating that the movie should have been a straight-to-DVD release.^{[citation needed]} In the Family Guy episode "Friends of Peter G", during the "Mr. Booze" song number, Carl mentioned that since he started drinking, he's never left his couch and has seen every movie ever made. Meet Dave is the first movie called out, and Carl mentions he's seen it.

The film grossed just $11,803,254 at the domestic box office. However, the film performed better in other parts of the world making a current overseas tally of $38,846,825 and bringing the worldwide gross to $50,650,079. However, the film still failed to gross over its budget. It was nominated for two Razzie Awards, Worst Actor (Eddie Murphy) and Worst Screen Couple (Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy).

Eddie Murphy skipped the Meet Dave premiere because he was working on a new film, the 2009 comedy A Thousand Words.^[9] Screenwriter Bill Corbett also missed the premiere, which he said was due to family plans, "not an act of protest, per se."^[3]

Bill Corbett said he would love to record a Meet Dave track on RiffTrax, a site featuring downloadable audio commentaries recorded by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum Michael J. Nelson and other regular commentators, including Corbett. However, Corbett said the track was not likely to ever be recorded since comedies rarely work as spoofs.^[3] A reference to the film was, however, included in the RiffTrax Presents commentary for Planet of the Apes recorded by Matthew J. Elliott (in which he suggested that the filmmaker's original intention had been to launch Charlton Heston's character into space inside a giant Eddie Murphy), as well as the commentary for The Day After Tomorrow recorded by Corbett and Kevin Murphy, in which Bill claims the natural phenomena hitting Los Angeles were "almost as big a Hollywood disaster as Meet Dave's box office."

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Rechtshaffen, Michael (July 11, 2008). "Eddie Murphy falls to Earth in misguided comedy". Reuters. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080711/film_nm/film_dave_dc_1. 
2. ^ "Biography of Bill Corbett". RiffTrax. http://www.rifftrax.com/riffers/bill-corbett. Retrieved 2007-05-03. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Corbett, Bill. "Meat, Dave?", RiffTrax, July 10, 2008. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.
4. ^ Dan Goldwasser (February 19, 2008). "John Debney scores Starship Dave". ScoringSessions.com. http://www.scoringsessions.com/news/126. Retrieved 2008-02-26. 
5. ^ "Meet Dave (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/meet_dave/. Retrieved 2009-04-23. 
6. ^ "Meet Dave (2008) - Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, LLC. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=meetdave.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 
7. ^ "Demon rakes in millions at box office". CNN (Turner Broadcasting System). July 13, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/13/boxoffice.ap/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-13. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/theaterdrops.htm BIGGEST THEATER DROPS - Box Office Mojo
9. ^ "Eddie Murphy Misses His Movie Premiere." People, July 9, 2008. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.

External links

• Meet Dave at the Internet Movie Database
• Meet Dave at AllRovi
• Meet Dave at Rotten Tomatoes
• Meet Dave at Box Office Mojo