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Warner Bros.
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Rosario Dawson,
Randy Quaid and Eddie Murphy
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Director: Ron Underwood
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid,
Rosario Dawson, Pam Grier, Joe Pantoliano
Running time: 01:40
Movie web site
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Eddie Murphy, director Ron Underwood and producer Martin Bregman must
have called in a lot of favors. That's the only way to explain the
talented cast that decorates the relentlessly unfunny The Adventures of
Pluto Nash.
For example, the futuristic would-be comedy places superb character
actress Illeana Douglas in a one-scene role as an officious doctor
specializing in body alterations. Ms. Douglas has the comic bite she
displayed with better material in Ghost World and To Die For
, but the scene plays like The Worst of Saturday Night Live.
And so it goes for the rest of the movie. An air of desperation hovers
over each episode of the incoherent story line. Want to see Pam Grier as
one tough mother, Peter Boyle as a pool shark, Burt Young as a mob
enforcer, Jay Mohr as a Sinatra-like singer, Randy Quaid as a loyal but
dumb robot? You got 'em, you got 'em, you got 'em. Want to see them do
something clever? Look elsewhere.
At least Mr. Murphy manages to suggest that he's having a good time,
which says more for his good sportsmanship than his good taste. He plays
adventurous Pluto Nash, a grinning ex-con who wants to go straight and
open a hip-hop club in the Little America colony of the moon circa 2087.
Organized crime wants its share of Club Pluto and leans heavily on its
owner. Nefarious hoodlums chase Mr. Murphy to the far sides of the moon.
The movie is part-action flick, part-comedy and not much of anything.
Director Underwood first won attention with 1990's Tremors, a
clever monster movie that was a model of suggestion and economy. The
Adventures of Pluto Nash is in your face and needlessly glitzy.
Everything that Mr. Underwood did right in Tremors, he does wrong
here. He definitely needs to get back to basics.
The movie, dumped on the public without any advance screenings, was
first set for release in the summer of 2001. This rescheduling turns to
be yet another mistake. Its presentation of a future world inevitably
stirs memories of Minority Report. By comparison, The
Adventures of Pluto Nash looks like a cheesy B-movie from the '50s.
Of the vast cast, Mr. Murphy manages an occasional funny double-take,
and Rosario Dawson shows bully self-confidence as a liberated version of
a "Bond babe." The idea of casting Mr. Quaid as a future C3PO must have
looked better on paper than it plays on screen.
This Pluto has something in common with the Disney cartoon
character of the same name. They're both dogs, but only one of them is
fun to be around.
Oregon & SW Washington
for violence, sexual humor and language