One of my good friends said that “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” was in his top 5 of Eddie Murphy movies. I was appalled and figured he was joking. Ladies and gentlemen, HE WAS DEAD SERIOUS, so of course, I had to argue with him because WHAT?!
Let’s remind you of what “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” was all about. Pluto, formerly incarcerated, visits his friend, Anthony Frankowski (played by Jay Mohr) who own a nightclub. The nightclub is wack with Tony believing that he can be the owner and the entertainment. Tony owes men, who look like they’re with the mob, $2.5 million dollars. He borrowed money from them over four years ago and he still owes the same amount of money. I want to pause here for just a second. How did you allow this man to borrow this money for this long without making a payment? Now, you want to come into the club and kill him with battery acid? This is why I say they look like they are with the mob because the mob (if there is such a thing *wink wink*) would never. Anyway, Pluto is there to save the day. He makes a deal with these men to take Tony’s debt and take over the nightclub. Fast forward, seven years later, the club is a hit and everyone on the moon can’t wait to get in. Did I mention that this movie take place on a colony on the moon called “Little America?” They never explain when we got to the moon, but they do mention that Earth is still a planet. So, my assumption is that people can come and go between the moon and Earth as much as they like.
So, more things happen. Later, we see that a man named Rex Crater wants to buy the nightclub for $10 million dollars. Pluto has worked so hard for his club and doesn’t see the need to give it up, even if it is for $10 million dollars. So what does Rex Crater’s henchmen do? They blow up the club, and start a manhunt for Pluto. Also, Dina Lake (played by Rosario Dawson) is a singer from Salt Lake City and she’s there with Pluto. It’s important to note because she’s the love interest. That’s about it.
Before we get into what’s wrong with this movie, let’s talk about a couple things first. Randy Quaid is in this picture and plays Bruno, the older model robot bodyguard of Pluto. This movie came out in 2002. Randy Quaid saved America in 1996 (in “Independence Day” for those of you who are confused). How did we get here, Randy? While I enjoyed his relationship with Pluto and I got that Pluto wasn’t really a flashy guy. He was a true friend and businessman. He wanted to do right by his people which is why he never upgraded Bruno. However, he’s supposed to a robot, but he switches, quite often, between being human and being a robot. Actually, now that I think about it, the AI in the car does the same thing, and while it is funny and does give some color to the movie, it’s an inconsistency that bothers me. I think there is fun in him being a robot and missing the human aspect of things. For example, the robot maid is devoid of human emotions while Bruno seems to be part human, in some respect. Imagine if both were just robots and Pluto goes to the bunker with the maid with the oops loop. It would have been funnier, to me, if Pluto made a joke about the loop and expected Bruno to get where he was coming from and Bruno to produce and error or simply say, “Boss, I don’t follow” or something like that. There were ways to stay consistent, keep it funny, but amp it up.
I think Eddie Murphy is fine in the film. Would it have been better with someone else at the helm of the film? Yes, yes I do believe so. Sometimes, movies like these, don’t need big stars. Big stars ruin the expectations for the film, and I think this is what happened with Murphy in this one. Plus, and I love her, Rosario Dawson was dull. We needed someone else. I get she was probably supposed to be the straight man to Murphy but she was boring me to tears. This was my watching her in this film:
She never did anything. Honestly, I would have loved for Miguel to have gone with him instead of Dina! That would have been funnier.
Here’s a couple of other things that didn’t help this movie. I read that the budget of this movie was $100 million dollars, due in part to a large amount of reshoots. You mean to tell me that you reshot some scenes but didn’t invest in a better looking set or coordinated better fight scenes? My mom always made fun of me for watching “Power Rangers” as intently as I did because, as she says, they were just kicking over cardboard. The henchmen and Pluto could have been kicking over cardboard and it would have been better because what was happening?! If you tell me you spent $100 million dollars, I want to see $100 million dollars. What I saw was a few thousand, TOPS! And another thing, don’t you ever put Pam Grier in a movie and not use her to her full potential! For shame!
Last but not least, the ending. The twist at the end was great…until he started to explain more things and then it got convoluted. Here’s what made it worse. The goal seemed to be to get Pluto to sell his club so Rex could be one step closer to owning mostly all of Little America. When I saw them blow up a club they wanted to buy, I was like sure, but why are we still after Pluto and this random girl who just got to the moon? Fast forward to the end with the twist, and while brilliant, the setup to this was weak!
I would like to end this post by saying the man who wrote this movie is the same man who wrote “Hocus Pocus.” Let that set in. “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” is on Tubi, and while I don’t usually encourage you to go watch a movie that I deem as terrible, go watch this one. Purely because I was forced to watch it to make a point with this post.
