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The Adventures of Pluto Nash

Rosario Dawson, Randy Quaid and Eddie Murphy star in 'The Adventures of Pluto Nash,' an action comedy set on the moon in the future.

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Weak, "Casablanca"-like premise of a nightclub owner who must deal with threats from intruders or lose his business, is married to the clever depiction of a lunar colony, circa 2080, with a hip urban America feel that's realized with lots of digital help. Still, it's a world that would have looked much fresher if it had appeared, as was originally intended, prior to "A.I." Comedy should be the coin of this lunar realm, but opening scene doesn't deliver; Murphy, as ex-con and ace smuggler Pluto Nash, sits through a bad set of "Scottish crooning" by buddy Tony (Jay Mohr). When Pluto discovers mobster Gino (Burt Young) is torturing Tony over an old debt, Pluto offers to pay it, but wants Tony's club in return. Seven years later, Club Pluto is the hottest thing in the bustling lunar burg of Little America, attracting both guys, like henchman Mogan (Joe Pantoliano), who tells Pluto that his boss, a reclusive but powerful gambling kingpin, wants to buy the club to turn it into a casino -- and dolls, like beautiful out-of-work singer Dina (Rosario Dawson), who wants a gig but gets only a waitress job out of Pluto. Adding a surreal touch is Pluto's robot bodyguard Bruno (Randy Quaid) whose presence eventually proves grating.

This light tone is rudely interrupted by Mogan's albino henchman Kelp (Victor Varnado) who leads a bombing of Club Pluto and a laser-gun shootout that miraculously leaves Pluto, Bruno and the helpful Dina unscathed. Further detective work, with help from ex-cop Rowland (Peter Boyle), puts Pluto and Dina on the scent of Mogan's boss, but not without some action involving Pluto's mom (Pam Grier, doing a futuristic riff on her Coffy persona), more shootouts and chases, and more shtick that doesn't stick.

One senses production designer Bill Brzeski and his large crew of artists had a whole lot more fun making their future world than did Murphy and the cast -- who go through their paces with barely a chance for genuinely inventive comedy -- had acting in it. Even John Cleese, on board as the live-action face of the computer in a souped-up car stolen by Pluto, simply does a riff on a British butler of the sort he could do in his sleep.

Murphy's perf is such an obvious replay of his many comic cop roles that it screams for a variation that never comes -- and that includes a climactic tussle with himself, as an evil clone. Mohr cooks up a respectable Sinatra act, and having Pantoliano as the thuggish bad guy, Young as a Mafioso and Luis Guzman as a cocky Puerto Rican illustrates the project's tendency to typecast good talent. Alec Baldwin has fun in a brief cameo as a nasty, East Coast mobster.

Dawson is pic's most refreshing element, yet another case of this utterly charming and pleasant actress asked to play the grace notes in an inert comedy.

While an obvious amount of money and time went into the extensive effects, director Ron Underwood doesn't realize the visual potential of the deliberate anachronism of placing Earth-like things on the moon. Oliver Wood's lensing adheres to the standard Hollywood comedy principle of the more light the better, but in this context, it doesn't work.

Camera (Technicolor color and prints), Oliver Wood; editors, Paul Hirsch, Alan Heim; music, John Powell; production designer, Bill Brzeski; supervising art director, Shepherd Frankel; art directors, Gilles Aird, Jason Weil; set designers, Lev Bereznycky, Joseph Lang Browns, Felix Charron-Lariviere, John Dexter, Todd Holland, Michele Laliberte, Celine Lampron, Russell Moore, Colin De Rouen, Charlotte Rouleau, Dianne Wager; set decorator, Brana Michelle Rosenfeld; costume designer, Ha Nguyen; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Patrick Rousseau; supervising sound editors, Tom Bellfort, Harry Cohen; visual effects, Mill Film Co., Cinema Production Services Inc., Cinesite (Europe), the Computer Film Co., Riot Pictures; visual effects supervisor, Nick Davis; additional visual effects, the Moving Picture Co., Flash Film Works; special effects coordinator, Garry Elmendorf; makeup, Jocelyne Bellemare; associate producer, Cami Bourquin; assistant director, Frank Capra III; second unit camera, Dean Semler; casting, Mary Colquhoun. Reviewed at Todd AO West screening room, Santa Monica, Aug. 16, 2002. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 95 MIN.