Movies That Should be Comics #19- Meet Dave

For reasons i'm still at a loss to explain, I watched the sci-fi comedy Meet Dave starring Eddie Murphy (48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming To America, Boomerang, Dreamgirls) on television the other day. I'm a big fan of Eddie's old movies and stand-up, and while I did enjoy the first Daddy Day Care (there was a kid who spent the ENTIRE FILM dressed as the Flash... I'm sorry, that's funny!), I am extremely perplexed by Eddie's family comedies. Eddie is still a phenomenal talent. He's funny, good looking, and has super star charm. he's just waiting to work with a great director, in a great film...

Meet Dave is not that film.  Eddie Murphy plays the captain of a space ship staffed by tiny aliens who arrive on Earth to retrieve a device that can save their world from destruction, but will unfortunately kill the human race in the process. Because they are so small, their ship is disguised as a human who looks just like Murphy (of course..?). As Dave (the starship's alias) interacts with a pretty human chick played by Elizabeth Banks (Zack and Miri Make A Porno, Role Models, 40 Year Old Virgin, W ), Murphy discovers that he might not want to kill the whole human race after all. Meanwhile (for some reason) being on earth has adverse emotional effects on Murphy's crew, and y'know, hyjinx ensue.

i found the film to be a lot more tolerable (even entertaining) than i thought it would be. there are some good concepts and comedic moments, but it was just not well-done overall. The actors (even actors who were great in other films) were mostly flat. the special effects, as Butthead would say "were not that special" and the child actors were a hot mess. The chemistry was great between Dave and the love interests played by Banks and Gabrielle Union (Deliver Us From Eva, Bad Boys 2, Bring It On, Something the Lord Made), but there was little room to make the interactions ring true. At the end when Dave's 2nd in command takes over the ship and uses its weapons to go on a super-powered rampage, I saw the movie this could have been. Director Brian Robbins (Norbit, The Shaggy Dog) was totally out of his breadth, but anyone who saw the trailer for Meet Dave and still paid to see it deserved what they got.

I'm only writing about Meet Dave for one reason: I came up with a similar idea many years ago, but it wasn't a comedy, it was dead serious. I honestly think that in many ways, the concept was conceived better in this film. Adding a little comedy helps the absurd ideas work. That said, I think Meet Dave would work MUCH better as a comic! there are so many scenes in this movie (especially the part where the white-suited Murphy goes berzerk on the cops with hand-mounted laser cannons) that even a decent comicbook artist would have a BLAST with! I know I'd love to draw a comic based on this premise... the movie, bad as it was, revealed a lot of potential for gags and visuals that were just beyond this director's capabilities.

[EDIT: In a moment of pure procrastination, I drew the image seen here, to play with the idea of what this movie could be in comics form. If you know the person who owns the rights, tell them I'd happily adapt it for comics for a reasonable fee...]
holla!
-samax