The Adventures of Pluto Nash

The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ron Underwood
Produced by	Martin Bregman Michael Scott Bregman Louis A. Stroller
Written by	Neil Cuthbert
Starring	Eddie Murphy Randy Quaid Rosario Dawson Joe Pantoliano Jay Mohr Luis Guzmán James Rebhorn Peter Boyle Pam Grier John Cleese
Music by	John Powell
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Editing by	Alan Heim Paul Hirsch
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	August 16, 2002 (2002-08-16)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States Australia
Language	English
Budget	$100 million[1]
Box office	$7.1 million

The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 science fiction comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy as the titular protagonist. The film is considered one of the worst box office flops,^[2] grossing only around $7.1 million on its reported $100 million budget.

Plot

On the lunar colony Little America, retired smuggler Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) purchases a singing-club to prevent the murder of its owner Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr) by his creditors Gino (Burt Young) and Larry (Lillo Brancato) for his terrible polka singing and club's unpopularity.

Seven years later, "Club Pluto" is operated by Nash, his Hispanic assistant, and Bruno (Randy Quaid), old android model 63 plus. Frankowski, under the alias "Tony Francis", has become an interplanetary musical star despite his inability to sing. Nash is approached in the club by Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), a young woman stranded on the Moon, who offers to sing in his club in exchange for her passage to Earth, because she can't afford the ticket, but receives instead a position of server. Meanwhile, Nash is visited by messengers of the mysterious entrepreneur Rex Crater, who offers to buy Club Pluto. When Nash refuses, Crater's minions destroy the whole club, but Nash, Dina and Bruno evade them, with Bruno shooting them. In escape, Nash reunites and learns from Rowland (Peter Boyle) a retired policeman, that Rex Crater never leaves his penthouse in Moon Beach; but had worked with the late Dr. Runa Pendankin, a geneticist who specialized in cloning. Later on, Rowland is shot dead by one of Carter's assailants.

Nash and Dina visit Dr. Pendankin's apprentice, Mona Zimmer (Illeana Douglas), who operates a cosmetic surgery station. Zimmer, intimidated by Nash, states that Dr. Pendankin was working with a Terrestrial criminal initialed "WZW" on his suitcase. Nash and Dina return to their hotel, where they are attacked by Crater's assassins and whence Nash steals a car with a modifited computer named James (John Cleese), and takes Dina and Bruno to his old smuggler's hideout outside of the colony. There, Nash searches the internet for any Terrestrial criminal having the initials "WZW". When he finds nothing, Dina suggests that the initials were an inverted "MZM"; and by this criterion, Nash discovers "Michael Zoroaster Marucci" (Alec Baldwin), whom he suspects of being Rex Crater.

Shortly afterward the hideout is attacked by Crater's agents, whom they escape by raising their car across a canyon. Their car is damaged and explodes, causing them to be presumed dead. Nash and Dina start walking to find the nearest colony, but they ran out of air and faint. Bruno carries them, but his battery runs out. They are eventually rescued by Felix Laranga (Luis Guzmán) a smuggler who idolizes Pluto Nash as his role-model. Felix takes them to Moon Beach.

In the Moon Beach, Nash asks Tony Francis for a means of entering Crater's penthouse; but they, and later Bruno and Dina, are captured by Crater's agents. In the penthouse, Nash accuses Rex Crater of being Michael Marucci, whereupon Rex reveals himself to be a clone of Nash himself, created by Dr. Pendankin to appear as public face of Michael Marucci's illegal activities, but later the murderer of both. Crater and Nash later fight for possession of a gun; and when Nash, as a ruse, fires on Bruno, Crater's men fire on their employer by mistake. Nash then orders Crater's men to leave and reveals his identity to Dina; and Bruno, upon hearing this, reveals himself unharmed by reason of a bulletproof shirt hidden under his clothes. Crater, also wearing a bulletproof shirt, attempts to garotte Nash, but dies thrown through a window onto a card table below where Felix is gambling. The story then ends with the heroes celebrating in the rebuilt Club Pluto, with Nash as the owner, Dina as the lead singer, and Bruno as the new manager of the club. Nash looks at Dina, singing, lights a cigar, and smiles.

Cast

• Eddie Murphy as Pluto Nash/Rex Crater
• Randy Quaid as Bruno
• Rosario Dawson as Dina Lake
• Joe Pantoliano as Mogan
• Jay Mohr as Tony Francis
• Luis Guzmán as Felix Laranga
• James Rebhorn as Belcher
• Peter Boyle as Rowland
• Pam Grier as Flura Nash
• John Cleese as James
• Burt Young as Gino
• Victor Varnado as Kelp
• Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Miguel
• Illeana Douglas as Dr. Mona Zimmer
• Richard Raybourne as Bartender Phil
• Alec Baldwin (uncredited) as a mob boss^[3]

Production history

The film originated in the mid-1980s. The script went through numerous revisions and, upon completion of filming, sat on the shelf for two years, finally being released in August 2002.

Production began in April 2000, and wrapped up in September 2000. At one point, Jennifer Lopez was cast for the role of Dina in this film, but eventually turned it down. Rosario Dawson was cast in her place.

Reception

The Adventures of Pluto Nash was universally panned by critics and moviegoers alike. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 79th in the 100 worst 2000's decade movies list, with a rating of 6% on the Tomatometer^[4] and was also unsuccessful financially. Its budget was estimated at $100 million, with marketing costs of $20 million and domestic box office $4,420,080 and $2,683,893 overseas. It had a total worldwide gross of $7,103,973, making the film a very huge box office bomb -- in fact, one of the worst of all time.^[5]

The majority of critics lambasted the movie for its acting, dialogue, lack of humor and crude special effects. Pluto Nash was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards in 2003, including Worst Picture, and was later nominated for Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years at the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards.

Eddie Murphy poked fun at himself in an interview with Barbara Walters, saying: "I know the two or three people that liked this movie."

The film performed better on DVD, with US DVD rental gross of $24,983,000.^[6]

The Adult Swim series Robot Chicken also parodied Pluto Nash's failure by showing different people at the studio committing suicide and killing each other three days after the film's release. The United States Congress then declares August 16 (the film's release date) as Pluto Nash Day to memorialize the "tragedy"; yet Robot Chicken incorrectly identifies 20th Century Fox as the studio that released the film. Time Warner actually released the film, and also owns Adult Swim^[7].

References

External links

• The Adventures of Pluto Nash at the Internet Movie Database
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash at AllRovi
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash at Box Office Mojo
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash at Rotten Tomatoes