Pluto Nash Movie Review:


There have been so many complaints and distrusts about this film but is the savage press's attacks worth their breath? It is hard to imagine a film being that bad.

In the new sci-fi comedy, Eddie Murphy stars as the title character, which is a reformed smuggler and successful nightclub owner on the Moon in the year 2087. Nash is living the high-life until a crazy and mysterious mobster named Rex Crater wants his club. Crater sends his thugs in to take care of business and Nash is forced to reform back to his old days to uncover the mystery of mobster. Along for the ride with Nash are an abandoned nightclub singer (Rosario Dawson) and Nash's robotic bodyguard (Randy Quaid).

Does anyone remember the Robin Williams' film "Toys" or maybe the huge box-office bomb "Howard the Duck" or even the awful John Travolta film "Battlefield: Earth". Well I would have to put "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" in the same category as those films.

What these four films all have in common is a very unique and a beleaguered attempt at trying to be utterly original. Each of these three films displayed oodles of originality but each of their individual stories couldn't hold the project afloat. Some times when film visionaries tackle original concepts they forget they need a strong story to hold an audience locked within that newly created world. If both of these concepts can live up to each other then you will have an amazing project.

I have to admire "Pluto Nash" for taking a chance with an original concept but the film needed a stronger script that needed to decide if in fact it was a full-blown sci-fi comedy like "Spaceballs" or a campy sci-fi adventure flick like maybe "Ice Pirates".

I have always said that I love films that take chances and strive to overcome the generic Hollywood model. Most films today you can often compare them to something before it but maybe with a little of another film thrown in. For example take a movie like "Signs", the film is an obvious combination of "The Sixth Sense" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" with a little dash of "War of the Worlds".

I liked the campy design of the "Moon-world" and a lot of the crazy characters that inhabit the place. I especially like Randy Quaid's robot bodyguard, Bruno and John Cleese's stuffy, spoiled and attitude-driven car. There are some interesting moments and funny parts within "Pluto Nash". It just needed a stronger script.

I just think people look at a film that has been delayed, over-budgeted (budget was close to $100 million) and a stuck-up star like Eddie Murphy as a sign of a disaster. Hiding the film from critics probably wasn't very wise either. Murphy hardly ever meets the demands of publicity for a film anyway. I have seen films that are a lot worse and they weren't hidden from the press. Pluto Nash had an upward battle just trying to get out the gate.

(2.5 of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

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