Let’s put a smile on that face?

A few days ago something rather uncommon happened to me at the movies. Usually I tend to pick early times so I get to enjoy a quieter show without a whole bunch of people around. It was a very hot day and the cinema was nearly empty. I liked it like that. It all seemed nice and peaceful.

When I was at the waiting lane first thing I noticed was this rather strange Eddie Murphy’s natural-sized cardboard promotional conspicuously standing there. It was placed right next to the public phones. Was he about to phone home or what? I laughed to myself.

I didn’t know about this flick before, but I figured out the concept thanks to the little people in the image and the title translation they’ve made for us here in Mexico as “Dave’s Crew,” but still, there was this Dave’s odd smiling face, it slightly looked like as if seen through a fish-eye photo lens effect. That visual trick truly bothered me and left me wondering if they’ve made it on purpose.

Was that a publicity trick just to make the people guess what it was all about?

While I was waiting for my movie, I just couldn’t avoid taking random glances at the promo’s weird smile. Dave kept obsessively smiling at me. Or was it me obsessively looking at Dave’s smile?

I knew for certain that image had something strangely familiar.

Suddenly, for a split second I thought I’d seen Alice in Wonderland’s Cat in that image. Yes, of course! Eddie Murphy’s promo weird smile reminded me of the strange disappearing cat.

What’s really going on?

The mystery grows

Next thing I know, I had a silent and semi-dark movie hall right in front of me. For a reason it looked suspiciously different. I started out connecting the dots in my mind. That tunnel leaded to numbered movie theater doors.

An eerie feeling went down-up all across my spine. Was I about to enter some crazy Rabbit’s hole at the cinemas?

Then I told to myself… -Nah, I’m way too rational and skeptical. I just can’t fall for something like that.

Anyhow, pretending it was just a casual thing, when no one was watching, I pulled out my movie ticket to see if it said something out of the ordinary. It only showed a big number and the movie I was about to watch.

I looked around as if trying to find anything abnormal. Of course, there wasn’t anything abnormal!

Finally, I snapped out of my little trance thanks to the clerk’s sudden interruption.

-Sir, sir! Please, you can come in now!

They took half of my ticket and I forgot the Dave’s promo for that day.

The unexpected happens

A few days later the movie concept still seemed interesting so I decided to give it a try and I announced on my Blog a review for this mysterious Meet Dave movie.

Because I really wanted to finally figure out what the smile was all about I told to myself to pay close attention to every detail in this movie.

The truth is I just couldn’t keep a straight face. Early in the movie I went through a completely unexpected burst of involuntary laughs.

The movie’s crazy situations made me laugh so often, so hard I actually had a sore face after all the continuous laughing lapses. Believe me, I really wanted to go pee after hearing what was the “most common name” situation.

Everything that followed was very funny and unexpected; doing the ketchup stuff, the fantasy Island thing, buying clothes, making money, shaking hands, kicking the cat, and a long, long etcetera.

The mystery created after the cardboard promotional was solved in safe yet funny manner and now I finally understood why the odd smile thing; it was an obvious exaggeration that probably came after the idea of Dave’s ill attempts to imitate some human friendly gestures.

By the way, the story development is very satisfactory and it’s actually difficult to find flaws of any importance. Eddie Murphy really had an excellent physical control and it was the perfect choice for this role.

No doubt, Meet Dave it’s a very well written movie, perfect for a good laugh, and a laugh that I really needed these days.

If it looks like an Orange, it is an Orange?

Meet Dave is a sci-fi comedy that also comes with other interesting possible ways for appreciation.

For example:

It reminds us about those things that despite of very convincing appearances they are not what they seem to be.

To make something that’s truly big to really work, the aid and cooperation of many people is absolutely needed.

Genuine leadership is based on following rather than subordination.

Tolerance is an ethical universal value.

The concept of hierarchy is understood all over the universe.

Appearance still determines the way people treats you, at least here on earth.

This movie also theorizes on something very interesting: Aliens are interested in some very particular earthly natural elements… I think in a not-so-distant future we’re going to need some bigger chambers of commerce, Ha, ha, ha!

Thank you for your visit!

With my best regards:

Hector Calles

Meet Dave the Movie was written by: Rob Greenberg & Bill Corbett and directed by: Brian Robbins

Tags: Hector Calles, movie critic, movie comments, H. A. Calles, Illustrated Movie Review Blog, Movie Review Blog, Movie Review, Illustrations from movies, Movie Drawings, Actor Drawings, Actress Illustration, Actor Illustrations, Hollywood, Entertainment, Horror movie drawing, Sci-fi movie drawing, fantasy movie drawing, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. Corel Draw, Corel Photo, Drawing edition, Illustration edition, pencil drawing, drawing from movies.