The Kids Might Want to 'Meet Dave'

But Eddie Murphy Vehicle Falls Short

"Meet Dave" is the kind of bland, generic, high-concept midsummer comedy that drives a critic to the thesaurus in search of new ways to say "vapid." You know these movies: Headlined by a major star, supported by a cast of head shots with feet, working from a script by 17 writers, they're not made as much as extruded. They're product, pure and simple, the pop culture equivalent of anything stamped out at a Detroit auto plant.

And their musical scores, for some reason, generally feature the same syncopated, pizzicato string arrangement that signals to viewers that they're watching a safe, utterly disposable comedy appropriate for the entire family, as long as they're just drunk enough on Big Slurps and super-size nachos.

"Meet Dave" doesn't feature the syncopated pizzicato, which is, at least, one mark in its favor. Indeed, in the dubious firmament of like-spirited enterprises -- think "License to Wed" or "Fool's Gold" -- it doesn't qualify as the worst of the worst. And it actually features a rather clever premise, ideally suited to the gifts of its star, Eddie Murphy: physical comedy and mimicry.

Murphy plays two roles here. One, the Captain, is a two-inch-high alien in charge of a tiny crew of interstellar explorers. Dave is the name of the crew's ship -- a human-size robot modeled on the Captain -- which has just crashed into New York's Liberty Island. "Meet Dave" chronicles the exploits of Dave as he meets and tries to blend in with the locals; meanwhile, each of his "human" functions is being controlled inside his body by one of the Captain's tiny crew. Kind of hard to wrap your mind around, I know, but imagine a slightly surreal version of "Star Trek" -- or at least "Galaxy Quest" -- with more scatological humor, and you get the idea.

There are moments that make the most of Murphy's assets in "Meet Dave," but not nearly enough of them. The movie, which was written by Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett, contains shockingly long laugh-free passages, as well as gay jokes that, creaky though they may be, are sure to sail swiftly over the heads of the film's young audience. Murphy, who has so famously squandered his gifts on such dreck as "Norbit" and "Dr. Dolittle," nails a few choice scenes here, including one in which he deftly imitates the dorky hyuk-hyuk inflections of one of the first white guys he meets, but for the most part "Meet Dave" features him moving with unblinking passivity through the urban landscape, uttering things like "My colon is impacted" with robotic flatness.

That's what's supposed to pass for comedy in "Meet Dave," which co-stars Elizabeth Banks as Dave's budding love interest and Gabrielle Union as the Captain's long-suffering "cultural officer" (she does her field research via Google, prompting her boss to wonder why something so important was given such a silly name). Ed Helms plays a mutinous second-in-command and, like his character, threatens to steal the movie with his fulminations against a planet mired in war, global warming and Britney Spears.

In its critique of human beings' abuse of the Earth, "Meet Dave" joins "WALL E" and even "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" in raising questions about whether such poor stewards are worth saving. To the degree that it engages that debate, "Meet Dave" adds a gently humanistic, if predictable, voice (where "WALL E" uses "Hello, Dolly!" as its cultural touchstone, the filmmakers here choose the far more cliched "It's a Wonderful Life"). Go ahead and meet Dave (the studio surely has enough statistical widgets to prove that you will). You'll no doubt forget him within minutes, but at least he came in peace.

Meet Dave (91 minutes, at area theaters) is rated PG for bawdy and suggestive humor, action and some profanity.