io9: Meet Dave

Doctor Who and the One Woman the Doctor Can't Screw Up

Charlie Jane Anders — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:00:00 PDT

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Tonight's Doctor Who episode brought back an idea that Russell T. Davies used to play with a lot: the Doctor inevitably ruins his companions. In Davies' version, it was that the Doctor winds up turning them into weapons against ultimate evil. For Moffat, it's perhaps more complicated. More »

The Fake Criterion Collection posters for Drive Angry are Pure Artistic Gold

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:58:28 PST

What would the cover of exploitation gem Drive Angry look like if it got a special Criterion release? The Fake Criterion Collection takes on the greatest bad movies and translates them into gorgeously hilarious art pieces. Here are our favorites. More »

Did Fear Of Science Fiction Kill "Dave"?

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:20:00 PDT

You may have thought Meet Dave bombed because it's the latest in a long string of unfunny Eddie Murphy movies... but it turns out there's another reason. The movie bombed, at least in part, because Fox refused to market it as science fiction, believing that nobody likes SF, and especially not SF comedies. Whether or not you care what happens to the bland Dave, the explanation of why Fox buried it, in the L.A. Times, should concern you. More »

You're Superhuman! So How Do You Save A Kid From Bullies?

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:30:00 PDT

Won't somebody think of the bullied kids? They're everywhere, including several of this summer's biggest movies. Everywhere you look, kids are roughed up, getting robbed of their lunch money, having their car keys tossed in a sewer (in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem). Even Shia got hassled by jocks in last summer's Transformers. Luckily, there's almost always a superhuman being who befriends this poor downtrodden kid. Put yourself in the flying shoes of this alien/mutant demigod for a moment. How would you help this underdeveloped child best these bigger, meaner tormentors? More »

Eddie Murphy Does The Funky Robot

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:40:00 PDT

Plenty of movies have a weak premise but elevate it via brilliant execution. And then there's the occasional film, like Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave, that has a premise so clever that even a completely lackluster execution can't ruin it. The idea of one-inch-aliens traveling to Earth in a human-sized spaceship that looks like their captain is just so rich that no amount of dubious Hollywood talent can ruin it — and believe me, they try. And guess what? There's spoilers in this review! More »

Does Anybody Want To See Eddie Murphy's Little Man?

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:56:00 PDT

What's going on with Meet Dave, Eddie Murphy's new scifi comedy? It's coming out July 11, and there's barely been a peep about it, aside from a trailer a while ago. No buzz, no press. And it doesn't sound as though it'll be screened for critics. Update: Actually, it is being screened after all. With a script co-written by MST3K alum Bill Corbett, the story of a human-shaped spaceship, with a bunch of tiny people inside, could be a blast. So what happened? More »

Eddie Murphy Plans To Shrink Our Brains

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:09:00 PDT

We can only hope that this summer's Meet Dave — about a tiny Eddie Murphy inside a regular-sized Eddie Murphy, who's actually a spaceship — bombs worse than Pluto Nash. Maybe then the powers that be in Hollywood will decide the demand for miniature-Eddie-Murphy movies isn't quite as clamorous as they'd supposed, and they'll put the brakes on Eddie's remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man, to be directed by Brett "I ruined X-Men" Ratner. We can only hope. [ComingSoon] More »

Eddie Murphy Is The World's Lamest Spaceship

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:30:07 PDT

The basic plot idea of Eddie Murphy's next scifi movie is utterly brilliant, and has the potential to create an instant classic. But the execution, from Norbit director Brian Robbins, looks to be utterly awful. In Meet Dave (formerly known as Starship Dave), Murphy plays a starship shaped like a human, with a tiny crew inside... led by a miniature Eddie Murphy. The teeny aliens have to control their man-sized craft and learn how to interact with the natives of Earth, including such crucial activities as dancing, shaking hands and fairground games. Hilarity totally fails to ensue, sadly. More »