Rental Reviews: I’m a dad now, so I don’t get to see too many movies when they first come out. However, with the advent of Redbox and OnDemand, it’s getting easier for me to catch up on the ones I miss.

So, a few weeks ago, I was scrolling through my HBO on Demand and they were running Meet Dave. I wanted to watch something that my wife would not find irritating, so I put it on and it cracked me up.

Here’s the basic idea: Eddie Murphy plays a spaceship inhabited by 3 inch tall aliens. Their captain happens to be Eddie Murphy. They crash land on earth in search of a mysterious technology that has been discovered by a boy in New York City. The captain has to navigate the space ship (Dave) around the city while trying to blend in long enough to find the technology. In the process lessons are learned about the goodness of humanity and how we’re all the same and equal and stuff like that.

Now, I’ve never been an Eddie Murphy fan, but his performance as Dave is GENIUS! It reminds me of early Jim Carey, over the top, physical comedy. The fact that he adopts the name Dave Mingchang is hilarious every time they say it. The other actors are great, including the often-underrated Gabrielle Union.

I find that as I get older I’m more and more drawn to this type of film that doesn’t require a lot of investment on my part, but reaps huge returns in entertainment and fun.

It’s rated PG for bawdy and suggestive humor, action and some language, but to my recollection it really wasn’t that offensive. There was a character that came out as gay, some very mild sexuality, alcohol humor, and a little bit of bathroom humor.