Have any of you been brave enough to check this one out? Is it really as bad as all the reviews are making it out to be? For anyone who hasn't heard the reviews, here's one from the NY Post.
August 16, 2002 -- THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH
Zero stars
Who let this dog out?
Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, sexually suggestive language). At the E-Walk, the Chelsea West, the Union Square, others.
THE Adventures of Pluto Nash" - the Eddie Murphy outer-space comedy Warner Bros. has finally unleashed without advance critics' screenings after two years on the shelf - is so unremittingly awful that labeling it a dog probably constitutes cruelty to canines.
It isn't even bad in a way that could be remotely construed as entertaining, unless your idea of fun is counting lapses in continuity and scenes where the actors' lip movements don't match the dialogue.
Watching it is like watching 90 minutes of outtakes - deleted scenes randomly assembled by a drunken night watchman at the studio.
The script, attributed to Neil Cuthbert ("Mystery Man"), is beyond stupid - so underdeveloped it feels as if they'd shot the first draft by mistake.
Not that there's anything that would justify doing a second.
Murphy plays the title character, a former smuggler who runs a popular nightclub on the moon in the year 2087 until the mob decides to muscle their way in.
So much for the story.
There are several dull, badly directed chases and fight scenes (blame Ron Underwood, who once helmed "City Slickers"), cheesy special effects, ugly sets - and mirthless matchups between Murphy and what seems like half the membership of the Screen Actors Guild.
The A-list talent in this Z-grade flick includes Randy Quaid (as Pluto's robot bodyguard), Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Luis Guzman, James Rebhorn, Peter Boyle, Burt Young, Miguez A. Nunez, John Cleese - and even poor Pam Grier, who is given absolutely nothing to work with as Pluto's mother.
Let's hope they weren't paid in AOL Time Warner stock. With $90 million reportedly squandered on this dead-on-arrival fiasco, this may be the worst news for the beleaguered conglomerate's stockholders since the last earnings statement - even if "Pluto Nash" synergistically predicts America Online and CNN will still be in business 85 years from now.
There is, in fact, exactly one funny scene - and it probably tells you everything you need to know that it's a 30-second cameo by Alec Baldwin as a blustering gangster.
This is a movie whose big joke - repeated several times, like most of the other lame gags - is that Hillary Clinton's face will adorn the $10,000 bill in a few decades.
The goateed Murphy, who also plays a second role late in the proceedings, occasionally mugs his way through with hysterical desperation. Mostly he seems mired in bored resignation, as if he were waiting for someone to finish the script for "Nutty Professor III."
He has no chemistry whatsoever with leading lady Rosario Dawson (of "Men in Black II," who deserves much better), as a singer who follows him around for reasons that seem to have been left on the cutting-room floor. Too bad they didn't leave this whole movie there - or didn't just ship what was salvaged to the remainder bin at Blockbuster.
The ads for "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" rather desperately promise that "In space, everyone can hear you laugh."
If the opening day audience at the E-Walk yesterday is any indication, that definitely won't be the case in movie theaters on Earth.
Llumenick@nypost.com
August 16, 2002 -- THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH
Zero stars
Who let this dog out?
Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, sexually suggestive language). At the E-Walk, the Chelsea West, the Union Square, others.
THE Adventures of Pluto Nash" - the Eddie Murphy outer-space comedy Warner Bros. has finally unleashed without advance critics' screenings after two years on the shelf - is so unremittingly awful that labeling it a dog probably constitutes cruelty to canines.
It isn't even bad in a way that could be remotely construed as entertaining, unless your idea of fun is counting lapses in continuity and scenes where the actors' lip movements don't match the dialogue.
Watching it is like watching 90 minutes of outtakes - deleted scenes randomly assembled by a drunken night watchman at the studio.
The script, attributed to Neil Cuthbert ("Mystery Man"), is beyond stupid - so underdeveloped it feels as if they'd shot the first draft by mistake.
Not that there's anything that would justify doing a second.
Murphy plays the title character, a former smuggler who runs a popular nightclub on the moon in the year 2087 until the mob decides to muscle their way in.
So much for the story.
There are several dull, badly directed chases and fight scenes (blame Ron Underwood, who once helmed "City Slickers"), cheesy special effects, ugly sets - and mirthless matchups between Murphy and what seems like half the membership of the Screen Actors Guild.
The A-list talent in this Z-grade flick includes Randy Quaid (as Pluto's robot bodyguard), Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Luis Guzman, James Rebhorn, Peter Boyle, Burt Young, Miguez A. Nunez, John Cleese - and even poor Pam Grier, who is given absolutely nothing to work with as Pluto's mother.
Let's hope they weren't paid in AOL Time Warner stock. With $90 million reportedly squandered on this dead-on-arrival fiasco, this may be the worst news for the beleaguered conglomerate's stockholders since the last earnings statement - even if "Pluto Nash" synergistically predicts America Online and CNN will still be in business 85 years from now.
There is, in fact, exactly one funny scene - and it probably tells you everything you need to know that it's a 30-second cameo by Alec Baldwin as a blustering gangster.
This is a movie whose big joke - repeated several times, like most of the other lame gags - is that Hillary Clinton's face will adorn the $10,000 bill in a few decades.
The goateed Murphy, who also plays a second role late in the proceedings, occasionally mugs his way through with hysterical desperation. Mostly he seems mired in bored resignation, as if he were waiting for someone to finish the script for "Nutty Professor III."
He has no chemistry whatsoever with leading lady Rosario Dawson (of "Men in Black II," who deserves much better), as a singer who follows him around for reasons that seem to have been left on the cutting-room floor. Too bad they didn't leave this whole movie there - or didn't just ship what was salvaged to the remainder bin at Blockbuster.
The ads for "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" rather desperately promise that "In space, everyone can hear you laugh."
If the opening day audience at the E-Walk yesterday is any indication, that definitely won't be the case in movie theaters on Earth.
Llumenick@nypost.com
