The Adventures of Pluto Nash

OK, let me get the bad stuff out of the way first. This film holds a record. That record is "The Biggest Box Office Loss In Cinematic History."

Read that sentence again. I'll wait for you.

Done? OK, good. Oh, you need more information? Well it lost $98 million at the US box office, a loss so great it was never released in the cinema in the UK and went straight to DVD. I bought it because I had three of my "4 for £30" in HMV and needed another. You ever noticed that? You get three for a four offer (or two for a three offer) and just can't find anything you want that's in the offer and you don't already own. I suspect a conspiracy, but that's for another day.

So I took a chance. I like Eddie Murphy's films and thought: How bad could it be? I didn't know about the record it held at this point.

I have to say, I like this film. It's one of my favourites, not least because it's first on my DVD shelf.¹

Plot: In the not too distant future the moon has been colonised and has become like Vegas, since gambling is outlawed everywhere else. Naturally this means you've got gangsters, lounge singers, hustlers, heavies and club owners being pressured to sell up. In space!

The story is not original by any means, but somehow setting it in space makes it fresh and original. There's some great jokes, good action scenes and great looking sets.

There's a good (an unexpected) twist at the end, one of the best fight scenes of it's type² and the obligatory over the top bad guy death.

Production: The score is (as far as I can tell) original and the special effects are special. It sticks to the second rule of sci-fi: never break the known laws of physics. There's actually some clever ideas in there, like rill-hopping - an old smuggler's trick, and a lot of futuristic-retro like the design of the laser guns which resemble closely berettas used in the 40s Chicago films we've all seen. However it never suffers from looking "too clever for it's own good" as you might expect from a film trying to show modern style designs for futuristic gadgets.

Cast: Eddie Murphy is .....Eddie Murphy. In space! Randy Quaid steals every scene he's in as Murphy's robotic bodyguard Bruno. Not easy given his co-star's on screen magnetism. Look out for John Cleese's cameo. It's brief, but doubly funny because he's playing his stereotypically English character, and not, at the same time.

Reasons to see it: It's bloody funny. It's well made. It's got Eddie Murphy and Randy Quaid. It's got explosions, guns, robots, spacesuits and hovercars.

Don't let it's record put you off. Just because the Americans didn't like it, shouldn't put you off. We all know Americans have no taste when it comes to movies³.

Score: Hard to score really: 8.3/10

OQ: "Oh great! So I'll just sit here and blow up shall I?"

¹A prize to the first person who can tell me why it's first on the shelf.
²Which type, I can't tell you without giving the ending away.
³This is, of course a joke. I have friends and family in the US and their taste is excellent. Even if they did elect George W Bush. Twice.