Film Reviews

The Adventures of Pluto Nash

• Director: Ron Underwood.
• Starring: Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Luis Guzman, James Rebhorn, Peter Boyle, John Cleese.
• Details: US / 95 / (12PG).

The American satirist, Joe Queenan, once ventured that the words 'Starring Dan Aykroyd' were the most frightening in the English language. At the rate he's churning out rubbish films, however, Eddie Murphy's name will soon be vying for the same infamy. His latest crime against the collective good taste of humanity is The Adventures of Pluto, an abysmally bad sci-fi comedy. Set in 2087, Murphy plays the eponymous title character, a night club entrepreneur who runs the hippest spot on the moon. Pluto is asked to sell his club to a gangster, Mogan (Joe Pantoliano), but when he refuses, a hit is taken out on his life. Forced to go on the run, Pluto and his pals Bruno (Quaid) and Dina (Dawson) must try and outsmart their assailants, as well as devising a plan to take Mogan out of the equation. Inexplicably awful, Pluto Nash has few redeeming features except that it only clocks in 95 minutes (94 too long, but I digress). The script is idiotic, the acting vicious and the movie has a cheap, gimmicky look and feel to it - there's nothing here to justify the alleged $100million production costs. I have seen worse films but not many.

Review by Garreth Murphy