CHICAGO – The longtime career of Eddie Murphy has lately taken an interesting turn.

After a meteoric career with huge box-office comedies, Murphy has steered toward more family oriented fare (“Daddy Day Care,” the “Shrek” movies, etc.) before his Oscar-nominated performance in “Dreamgirls”. After the stumble of 2007’s “Norbit,” Murphy has again returned this summer in kid-friendly mode with “Meet Dave”.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

This high-concept, science-fiction comedy involves a giant robotic spaceship that plunges to New York City and is shaped like – well, Eddie Murphy. It’s designed that way to walk among earthlings unobtrusively. It’s controlled by a tiny crew inside the body led by ship captain Eddie Murphy.

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Meet Dave” in our reviews section. View our full, high-resolution “Meet Dave” image gallery.

The mission is to retrieve a meteoric orb that their home planet, Nil, sent to Earth to suck up the oceans. As in what usually happens in the movie universe, the orb ends up mistakenly in the hand of a scrappy but sensitive boy (Austin Myers) who naturally lives with his widowed mother (Elizabeth Banks).

Meanwhile, the crew has to assimilate within the strange customs of New York City while keeping their outer space alien composure within the seductive world. They steer the “Dave” spaceship to hook up with the boy’s mother. The race is on to find the orb before the police (or at least the “X-Files” agents) can catch up with them.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Meet Dave” review.

Dave (Eddie Murphy) is shocked by some unexpected micro-boogying happening atop his shoulder in “Meet Dave”.
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

Micro-sized humanoids the Captain (Eddie Murphy) and #3 (Gabrielle Union) are pursued by a rubbery object previously unknown to them in “Meet Dave”.
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full “Meet Dave” review.