Meet Dave (PG)

In the family comedy Meet Dave, he plays the noble leader of a race of one-and-three-quarter inch high aliens on a mercy mission to save their dying planet.

The funnyman also plays the extra-terrestrials' spaceship, called "Dave", which has been designed to look like a human being so the otherworldly visitors can pass among us unnoticed.

Skilled crew members take control of each part of the ship's anatomy, resulting in disastrous first efforts to walk in a straight line or put on a sweater in a seemly fashion.

Neither role plays to Murphy's diminished strengths, and Rob Greenberg and Bill Corbett's script almost drowns in its own sickly sentiment as the aliens realise mankind isn't so bad after all.

They would undoubtedly revise their opinion if they had to sit through Brian Robbins' film.

A meteorite falls to Earth and smashes into a goldfish bowl belonging to Josh (Myers), who lives in New York City with his artist mother Gina (Banks).

Three months later, a tiny alien Captain (Murphy) and his crew crash-land in the shadow of The Statue Of Liberty in their human-sized craft, which they name Dave Ming Chang: supposedly the most common name on our planet.

They seek the meteorite, the key to saving their doomed home world.

By a stroke of luck, careless driver Gina knocks down Dave and invites him into her apartment, hoping to avoid a law suit.

The Captain and cultural officer No 3 (Union) are fascinated by Gina's concern for Dave.

They allow themselves to be distracted from the mission, enraging second in command No 2 (Helms), whose sole concern is his planet's survival, even if that means destroying Earth and every living creature on it.

Meanwhile, a sci-fi obsessed cop (Caan) stumbles upon the crash site on Ellis Island and begins to form a fantastical theory about alien visitors that isn't far removed from the truth.

Murphy is charmless in both parts while a tepid romantic subplot between the Captain and No 3 consigns the luminous Union to a thankless supporting role.