BEFORE: Variations on a theme - tonight it's Eddie Murphy as the clueless alien on Earth - though after last night's film, my expectations are not very high.
THE PLOT: A crew of miniature aliens operate a spaceship that has a human form. While trying to save their planet, the aliens encounter a new problem, as their ship becomes smitten with an Earth woman.
AFTER: Well, it is Earth Day today, and there is something of an ecological message here - Eddie Murphy's character, Number 1, leads a team of tiny aliens whose planet is in need of salt, so they journey to Earth to get it. Seems like in these movies aliens are always coming here because they need our water, or our salt, or our human flesh, but then they always get hooked on our art, and our movies, and this wacky "love" thing we've got goin' on.
Just like last night, the alien(s) learn about Earth customs by accessing their intergalactic database, which is frequently wrong. And they enjoy our old movies, this time it's the holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life". At least that's better than old Jimmy Durante movies...
And just like in last night's film, much of the humor comes from watching the alien(s) not knowing what to do in social situations - like shaking hands, or kissing, or eating food. The Eddie Murphy-shaped spaceship, who takes the name "Dave", gets entered into a hot-dog eating contest, and since he's a machine, he's got an unfair advantage. He also has a strange reaction to eating food and drinking mojitos - well, I guess they don't have alcohol on their home planet.
Something in the Earth's atmosphere makes the tiny aliens act in different ways - some become more warlike, some become more romantic, and some become flamingly gay - or does being on Earth just enable them to become who they were meant to be?
This film was slightly better than "My Stepmother Is an Alien", but it was still pretty terrible.
Also starring Elizabeth Banks, Ed Helms, Judah Friedlander, and Mike O'Malley
RATING: 3 out of 10 carnival rides
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