The Adventures of Pluto Nash

PLOT:

In the decade of 2080, on a lunar colony called Little America a retired smuggler called Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) visits an old friend, club owner Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr). Nash tells Frankowski to rename himself and change his singing style and Frankowski decides to rebrand himself Tony Francis. A few minutes later Nash is leaving the toilets when he finds Frankowski’s creditors Gino (Burt Young) and Larry (Lillo Brancato) trying to kill Frankowski by forcing him to ingest battery acid. Nash knows one of the assailants and suggests he should buy the club himself. Nash also reveals that being a nightclub owner has been a longtime wish of his.

Seven years later, “Club Pluto” has become a successful business, frequented by many socialites. Its staff consists of Nash himself, a Hispanic assistant, and an android robot named Bruno, an obsolete model 63 deluxe (Randy Quaid). His obsolete status is a constant gag. Meanwhile, Frankowski has become a stage performer, under the name of Tony Francis, and has become interplanetary famous despite his inability to sing.

One night, Nash is approached by a young woman called Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), who has become stranded on the Moon and desires to earn money by which to pay for transport to Earth. Because her father “Nicky Sticks” was a friend of Nash’s she seeks help from him by offering her skills as a singer. Nash instead gives her a job waiting on tables at his club and allows her to remain after its nightly closure to the public. During the same night Nash is visited by messengers of a mysterious entrepreneur called Rex Crater who wishes to buy Club Pluto. Nash refuses, and Rex Crater’s minions set off a bomb in the club. Nash, Dina, and Bruno escape and begin to investigate Rex Crater of whom no-one seems to know anything. Nash learns, from Rowland (Peter Boyle) a retired policeman who is a friend of his mother’s, that Rex Crater is never seen outside of a penthouse in the city of Moon Beach and that he was in contact with a geneticist, called Runa Pendankin, who specialized in cloning before her death. Her skills were renowned after she created an entire basketball team using Michael Jordan’s DNA, called the Air Jordans, before human cloning was declared illegal when she left earth and set up on the moon

Nash and Dina visit Doctor Runa Pendankin’s ex apprentice, Mona Zimmer (Illeana Douglas), who operates a cosmetic surgery station. They pose as a married couple attempting to revitalize their attraction for one another by having their figures altered. After viewing and adapting several examples of Zimmer’s bodily shapes and contour styles they pretend to be the police when Zimmer accepts a bribe to do the work without a police permit. Nash reveals that they have come for information regarding Doctor Pendankin’s dealings during her last days. Zimmer, being intimidated by Nash’s bluffs, reveals that shortly prior to her death Doctor Pendankin had worked for or with a Terrestrial criminal who had the initials WZW inscribed on his briefcase.

Nash and Dina return to the hotel and meet Nash’s mother Flura Nash (Pam Grier). They are attacked by Rex Crater’s assassins, who have tracked them to the hotel. After hijacking a limo with a holographic chauffer named James (John Cleese) Nash takes Dina and Bruno to an abandoned mine working which he used as his smuggler’s refuge.

At the hideout, Nash mounts an Internet-based search for any Terrestrial criminal with the initials “WZW”. When this yields nothing, Dina suggests that the initials are in fact MZM, having been seen upside-down by Mona Zimmer. Nash searches for MZM and discovers a criminal called Michael Zoroaster Marucci. Nash suspects that Michael Marucci and Rex Crater are one and the same. He is contacted by his mother who tells him that Rowland has been murdered and that he needs to leave the moon but shortly after the hideout is attacked by Rex Crater’s agents. A chase ensues and the heroes escape using Nash’s patented Rail-hopping technique jumping across a canyon. Their car is damaged and soon after they leave the area it explodes causing them to be presumed dead.

They are eventually rescued and taken to Moon Beach by Felix Laranga (Luis Guzmán) a smuggler who idolizes Pluto Nash. They infiltrate Rex Crater’s casino/hotel. Bruno ends up running foul of a robot slot machine whose lever he breaks off to stop it bothering him. When Bruno is taken away by security Nash sends Dina to get Bruno out and pay for the damages to the robot slot machine. Nash meets with Francis the former owner of Club Pluto who attempts to help them. Nash asks Tony if there was a way up to Rex Crater’s penthouse. While Francis is talking in an elevator he tells Nash that the only way up is to jump onto the top of Crater’s private elevator to the penthouse. Nash asks Tony if there’s a Plan B. When they leave the elevator Rex’s assistant Belcher (James Rebhorn) and some men tell them surrender is Plan B. Nash is stunned by an appliance similar to a Tazer as is Francis. Meanwhile, Dina approaches the security at the place where the robots are locked up. When the guard tells Dina that the repairs on the robot slot machine aren’t done yet. Bruno manages to talk to the guard knocks him out. Just then Dina and Bruno are captured by Rex Crater’s agents and taken to him.

Once woken by Belcher Nash accuses Rex Crater of being Michael Marucci (played by Alec Baldwin). Rex Crater reveals himself to be a clone of Nash, created by Runa Pendankin from Nash’s removed appendix, to act as public face of Michael Marucci’s illegal activities. Crater admits he killed Marucci and Pendankin. When his henchmen arrive and see both Rex and Nash, Rex kills his two henchmen for being “incompetent jackasses” and has their bodies removed. He and Nash fight while the others are uncertain which is which. Nash shoots Bruno leading Belcher (who assumes that Nash would not damage his own robot) to shoot Rex. Nash orders Crater’s men to leave and reveals his identity to Dina by speaking of her employment to him and punches Belcher unconscious. Bruno was wearing a bulletproof shirt and as Crater has Nash’s memories he awakens as he also was wearing a bulletproof shirt. He attempts to garotte Nash, but is thrown through a window and dies.

The movie ends with the heroes celebrating in the rebuilt Club Pluto

REVIEW:

So, everyone the consensus seems to be that The Adventures of Pluto Nash is one of the worst films ever made. I have to say that after watching it this afternoon, I cannot agree.

This film is a tale of ex-con Pluto Nash, who lives in the future on a colonized moon where he runs a nightclub that a wealthy tycoon wants so that he can bring gambling to that part of the moon. Simple plot,right? Then you throw in the singer, fresh off the bus…or shuttle, in this case, who wants/needs a job and because of certain circumstances, has latched onto Pluto, if for no other reason than to make sure she stays alive.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think if you’re going to have a film set on the moon, then you should take advantage of the sci-fi aspect and have some fantastical cratures…androids don’t count. I mean, if you look at something like Total Recall, they have humans, aliens, martins, and everything in-between on that base on Mars. Would it really have been that hard to do the same on Mars?

As an action comedy, this isn’t too bad, though, I think it suffers from trying to be too much in the vein of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. I don’t blame them for going there, though. Murphy hasn’t has a decent hit since the second of those films.

There could have been more comedy here, for my taste. It seems as if Murphy was too busy trying to play the straight man and Randy Quaid was supposed to be the comic relief. That formula just didn’t gel.

Eddie Murphy is still a funny guy, but this was not the picture to showcase his comedic talents. However, he is still an over the top performer and can handle the action roles.

Rosario Dawson is drop dad gorgeous here, which apparently is all they cast her for, since she didn’t really have any meat to her part, except for being fresh off the shuttle and needing a job.

Randy Quiad and Luis Guzman are great as comic relief.

There are good and bad parts to any film. I don’t see why everyone is so down on this one. I actually liked it. Granted, it wasn’t the best comedy I’ve seen and chances are that if given the chance of watching this or something else, I’d pick the other. However, it was still not a waste of time and worth watching if for nothing else than to prove it isn’t as bad as everyone says it is, because it really isn’t. So, why not give it a try. You may hate it and you may love it.

3 out of 5 stars