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Parents' Guide to

Meet Dave

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Not as crass as Norbit, but as forgettable.

Movie PG 2008 95 minutes
Meet Dave Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 4 parent reviews

RettendonCommon
RettendonCommon Parent of 4, 7 and 9-year-old
September 28, 2013
age 7+

A film with some good humanity and laughs

This is a good film which entertains kids with all the 'body as a spaceship' theme and adults with the love interest between Eddy Murphy and Elizabeth Banks....and also quite touching for both in the themes of how to deal with bullying and other things which shows the human race isn't that bad after all really.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Mattmchugh
Mattmchugh Parent of 7 and 10-year-old
February 14, 2011
age 10+

Neat premise, but inappropriate content for younger kids

The idea of a human-sized robot with tiny people running it from within is one almost every kid has imagined, so this movie touches a spot in the modern collective unconscious dead-on. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of wit or wisdom it how it extrapolates the premise. Even worse, along they way, there's some jokes playing off racial and sexual stereotypes that really don't belong in sub-PG-13 territory. Those may zip past littler kids, but you may find yourself having to explain to older pre-teens what's funny (or not) about an African-American bugging his eyes out at a woman's backside and yelling "Daaamn!" or a tough guy who, after watching about ten seconds of a musical, develops a lisp and a fashion obsession. Politically incorrect jokes may have a place, but probably really not in your younger kids video library.
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Eddie Murphy is the captain of a crew of miniature aliens that arrive on Earth in a ship formed exactly like a human-sized Eddie Murphy. On a mission to find a lost orb that can drain the oceans of salt, the human-like ship is accidentally struck by a single mother's (Elizabeth Banks) car. It turns out the driver's son knows who has the orb, so the alien-filled ship, now called "Dave Ming Chang," hangs out with the two humans until the rock can be retrieved. But the more the aliens are around humans, the less willing some of them are to rid Earth of its oceans.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (26 ):

DAVE's ludicrous plot doesn't really matter. What does matter is why director Brian Robbins and Murphy reunited (Norbit was their last collaboration) for another completely forgettable, formulaic movie. There's no doubt that Murphy is a gifted comedian. So it's sad to see that he apparently gives zero thought to his film choices, making any comedy that will get his face on a billboard.

The tiny-aliens idea starts somewhat originally, but the jokes quickly turn to the stupid and stereotypical: A crew member sees a minute of the Broadway show A Chorus Line and starts acting flamboyantly gay, a black alien starts rapping and staring at women's behinds, the engineer becomes obsessed with social networking. And then there's the scene in which "Dave" excretes cash in an Old Navy dressing room. Is that the best that humanity has to offer?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what humans teach the miniature aliens. How does being on Earth affect them? How do Gina and Josh change from knowing Dave? Discuss some of the stereotypical behavior in the film. Is it offensive or funny?

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