With massive hits like Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy became arguably the biggest movie star of the 1980s. As his career moved into its second decade, though, he found tougher sledding.

In the 1990s, Murphy still enjoyed the occasional hit like 1996’s Nutty Professor but he dealt with a whole lot of misses as well. At least he ended the decade on a high note with 1999’s excellent Bowfinger.

Once we got to the 2000s, Murphy soldiered along mainly via more family-friendly flicks like Nutty Professor II and Daddy Day Care - along with the animated Shrek franchise, of course. Matters took a shift when Murphy got the supporting role of James “Thunder” Early in 2006’s Dreamgirls, a flick for which Murphy received lots of praise and his first Oscar nomination.

Then 2007’s Norbit happened.

In the midst of the Oscar voting, the sub-atrocious Norbit made it to screens. Murphy lost the Oscar to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine.

Many theorized that the awfulness of Norbit drove voters from Murphy to Arkin. We’ll never know the truth, but that seems like a viable theory given how abysmal Norbit was.

Rather than learn a lesson, Murphy went back to the well, as 2008’s Meet Dave reunited him with Norbit director Brian Robbins. It flopped and Murphy has yet to score another box office success since then.

A spaceship shaped like a human (Murphy) crashlands on Earth near the Statue of Liberty. The tiny crew that operates this vessel seeks a probe that made it to the planet earlier and wound up in the possession of 10-year-old Josh Morrison (Austyn Lynd Myers).

Within 48 hours, the aliens must find and utilize this orb to suck up salt from the ocean. However, various shenanigans ensue, especially when the ship – which adopts the name “Dave” – starts to embrace human society and the crew goes along with these shifts.

From the perspective of 2021, Meet reminds me of two animated hits from 2015: Inside Out and Home. The former shows the inner workings of a human, whereas the latter gives us an alien who comes to Earth and bonds with the culture.

Does this mean those later flicks used Meet as an inspiration? Unlikely, but one can clearly see the similarities.

Of course, Meet largely functions as a standard “fish out of water” tale, as well as one in which “superior beings” decide humans aren’t so bad after all. While it occasionally threatens to demonstrate creativity, it goes down too much of a lowest common denominator path to become a winning effort.

I admit Meet works better than expected, but that stems more from my exceedingly low expectations than anything else. The stench of Norbit remains strong, so the Murphy/Robbins pairing leaves us without high hopes of entertainment.

While Meet easily surpasses the horrifying Norbit, it takes too many easy paths to become an actual quality piece of entertainment. Given the nature of the material, the film comes with scads of moments ripe for comedic creativity, but it almost always opts for the cheapest humor it can find.

This means plenty of potty humor and other predictable gags. When the aliens start to show signs of humanity, they tend toward flimsy stereotypes and never more than that.

Meet does boast a solid cast, as in addition to Murphy, we get Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, Ed Helms and others. None of them break a sweat, but that’s enough talent to create the occasional moment of mirth.

A fairly sweet and good-natured film, at least Meet avoids the ugly, mean-spirited tone of Norbit. Though not very funny, Meet manages to offer a tale with a warm feel.

Still, I can’t help but wish that Meet worked harder than it does to challenge itself and the audience. This becomes a sporadically watchable effort but not one that provides consistent entertainment.

Meet Dave appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a surprisingly iffy presentation.

Sharpness usually worked fairly well, though exceptions occurred. Some of this stemmed from the use of visual effects, as those tended to come across as a bit ill-defined, but even “standard shots” could seem a bit soft.

Still, delineation usually seemed decent to good, and I witnessed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects. Some light edge haloes cropped up through the film, but I detected no print flaws.

Colors concentrated on a fairly orange/amber tone, with some teal as well. Though the hues seemed perfectly acceptable, they could feel a bit flat.

Blacks came across with reasonable depth, while shadows offered generally appealing clarity. Though the movie always remained watchable, it seemed less impressive than expected.

At least the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack worked better, as it offered an occasionally broad soundscape. Though much of the flick opted for a fairly standard “comedy mix”, it came with splotches of action that opened up the tale.

Most of these related to elements connected to the aliens, of course. From the ship’s crash to other moments connected to Dave, the film sporadically broadened its sonic horizons. These moments didn’t occur frequently but they popped up enough to add life to the movie.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music seemed lush and full as well.

Effects came across as accurate and dynamic, and they brought out strong low-end when appropriate. Nothing here dazzled, but the soundtrack worked for the story.

A smattering of extras appear, and The Making of Meet Dave runs 22 minutes, 29 seconds. It provides notes from producers Jon Berg and David Friendly, director Brian Robbins, screenwriters Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett, visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson, production designer Clay Griffith, and actors Elizabeth Banks, Ed Helms, Michael O’Malley, Scott Caan, Gabrielle Union, Austyn Myers, Pat Kilbane, and Kevin Hart.

“Making” looks at the project’s origins and development, story, characters and screenplay, cast and performances, sets and locations, and some effects. “Making” mixes happy talk – mostly about the greatness of Eddie Murphy – and insights to become a decent program.

Under Fox Movie Channel Presents, we find three featurettes: “Life After Film School” (28:58), “Making a Scene” (9:54) and “World Premiere” (4:35). With “School”, Robbins discusses the movie business with three film students. It becomes a surprisingly informative look at the subject matter, even if it leans toward promotion for Meet Dave.

“Scene” features Robbins, Friendly, Stetson, Griffith, 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Andy Gill, and actor Eddie Murphy. It looks at the segment where the tiny aliens find themselves on a New York sidewalk, and it becomes a fairly good view of the work done.

Lastly, “Premiere” takes us to the red carpet with Banks, Friendly, Robbins, Union, producer Todd Komarnicki, and actor Marc Blucas. Expect little more than happy talk.

A Gag Reel fills two minutes, 42 seconds with the usual goofs and giggles. We get some improv with Caan and O’Malley that amuses, but the rest offers little of interest.

In addition to an Alternate Ending (0:47), we find four Deleted Scenes: “Did You See That?” (1:08), “Art on the Floor and Making Out in the Elevator” (0:30), “Arrest This Traitor” (0:29) and “And Another Thing Number 4” (0:17).

“See” gives a little more exposition to the cops who try to find the alien ship, while the other three focus on Number 2’s heavy-handed command. Those three offer mild amusement but seem superfluous, while “See” just slows down the story.

As for the “Alternate Ending”, it shows Josh and family after the departure of Dave and crew. It seems unnecessary.

Finally, Crew Profiles presents an interactive feature. It allows us to click on various parts of the “Dave” spaceship and get to know the crew.

It’s a moderately fun view of the actors in character, though the interface stinks, as once you launch a segment, there appears to be no way to get out of it until it ends.

The disc opens with ads for Horton Hears a Who and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. No trailer for Meet appears here.

While “Better than Norbit” becomes the weakest possible endorsement, it remains true for Meet Dave. The latter manages to surpass that prior cinematic atrocity but it only provides the most basic comedic value, as it opts for cheap jokes and not much real creativity. The Blu-ray brings mediocre visuals as well as pretty good audio and a mix of bonus materials. This turns into forgettable family fare.