The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Here’s a theory for you. It’s August 2002. A new movie hits theaters called The Adventures of Pluto Nash. It stars Eddie Murphy, hot off being Eddie Murphy. It features Rosario Dawson, hot off starring in Josie and the Pussycats. It features Randy Quaid, hot off… Was he ever hot off anything? It’s a sci-fi action flick involving clubs and casinos. And it bombs. It bombs worse than most movies bomb. It cost 100 million dollars to make and only earned 7 million dollars in the box office. It’s a failure among failures.

Skip ahead four years. It’s August 2006. There are some major changes in our solar system. As all the 90s kids know from watching The Magic School Bus during their childhood, there are nine planets. That’s about to change. Pluto is losing its status as a full-on planet. It’s being demoted. There will now only be eight planets circling the sun and Pluto will become one of the many dwarf planets that also circle. Pluto is no longer the Pluto that we grew up loving.

Are these two things connected? Could the failure of The Adventures of Pluto Nash have led to people calling for the demotion of the planet? The four-year gap would most definitely give enough time for the debates to go on, the paperwork to go through, and the studies to go to completion. It would give enough time for scientists to come to a consensus that would see a planet become a dwarf planet. I doubt they’re related though. If they were, we probably would have seen Mars get demoted after the failure of Mars Needs Moms and Jupiter get demoted after the lackluster release of Jupiter Ascending. It’s fun to think about, though. It’s fun to wonder if the poor performance of a movie could have that drastic an effect on something else.

If you couldn’t tell from that ridiculous introduction, this week’s movie is The Adventures of Pluto Nash. I know, that’s not surprising at all. Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) was a career criminal, fresh out of jail after being caught smuggling things to The Moon. He saved his friend Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr) from some loan sharks demanding their money back, bought out his club, and told Anthony to change his name to Tony Francis. Soon after, Club Pluto became the most successful nightclub on The Moon. Until it was blown up by Rex Crater, a man wanting to buy out all property on The Moon and turn the whole place into a giant casino. Pluto fought back to keep his club.

The Adventures of Pluto Nash aspired to great heights but never reached them. Part of that was the visual aesthetics of the movie. It was set in a future where the inhabitants of Earth built colonies on the moon. It allowed for a mid-90s style of design for exterior shots in the colonies. The seedy hotel area, the bunker, and even the district in which Pluto had his club felt like they were ripped from the aesthetics of other, earlier movies. Think back to things like Judge Dredd, Super Mario Bros., and the science fiction movies of Paul Verhoeven, except with slight variations based on the function of the sets.

That visual style of The Adventures of Pluto Nash made sense since the movie was shelved for two years before it was released. That meant it was likely filmed in 1999 and completed in 2000. It was a 90s film that would have fit in among those 90s films. The problem was that it was turn of the century 90s, which meant that the filmmakers were more confident in using computer effects that weren’t quite up to the task. Certain exterior shots, mostly involving vehicles, were presented through CGI. Though the people behind The Adventures of Pluto Nash were confident enough to use the effects, they didn’t have the resources to pull them off successfully. It led to some unconvincing vehicles moving across the screen that took you right out of the action.

The other downfall of The Adventures of Pluto Nash was the story, itself. Much like other movies that studios thought were too long, several scenes were removed simply to save time. Combine that with on-set improvisations that led to story rewrites during shooting, and there was a mess of consistent story threads. People came in and out of the movie at seemingly random times. Twists that made no sense drove the movie to its conclusion. Certain scenes didn’t give the characters time to breathe because they quickly had to move things to the next scene. The story was a mess.

The easiest place to see the mess was in the characters. Anthony Frankowski was introduced in the first scene as Pluto’s buddy who owned a bar. Pluto bought the bar and the movie flashed forward seven years to Club Pluto being the hottest spot on The Moon. Anthony, now going by the name Tony Francis wasn’t seen again until Pluto broke into a casino near the end of the movie. He was referenced a bunch as the original owner of the club but wasn’t seen until Pluto needed a way to get to the penthouse of the casino. Tony tried to help him, they got caught, and Tony wasn’t seen again. He was in the opening scene, came back for about three minutes, and disappeared again.

Then there was Pluto’s mother, Flura (Pam Grier). She was in two scenes of the movie. She found Pluto at a seedy hotel and told him to leave The Moon to stay safe. She helped Pluto escape when the bad guys showed up and then was out of the movie. Well, she showed up later for about five seconds. She was on a phone screen to tell Pluto that someone was murdered. She wasn’t heard from again. Characters like these were clearly designed to play major parts in the movie but had been reduced to roles that clearly felt like they were cut down to almost nothing.

Oh, there’s also Miguel (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.), Pluto’s partner in the club business. He’s a semi-familiar face who worked with Pluto at Club Pluto until the club was blown up by Rex Crater’s men. He got two scenes to set the character up. One involved an interaction with Pluto where he talked about how well the club was doing then walked away because he saw an ass he liked. The other was when he asked Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson) to take some drinks up to Pluto’s office. The character was killed offscreen during the explosion of Club Pluto and nobody even took a minute to mourn. They quickly moved on with their lives as they tried to get to the bottom of Rex Crater.

The problems with The Adventures of Pluto Nash wouldn’t be complete without bringing up the big twist. THERE ARE SPOILERS COMING UP. The entire movie was Pluto Nash fighting back against Rex Crater because Rex’s men destroyed Club Pluto in an attempt to take control of the location and build a casino. Pluto went on a crazy journey to confront Rex Crater, only to find out that Rex Crater was him. Or a clone of him. Or he was a clone of Rex Crater. I’ve seen this movie multiple times and I’m not clear on that. Let me look it up, quick. Rex was the evil clone. Got it. Anyway, it was something that couldn’t really have been suspected. Clones had been brought up in the movie through Tony Francis, who had a wife so good he made a duplicate of her. But there was nothing that ever hinted at Pluto even possibly having a clone. It was a dun dun DUNNNNNNNNN moment that didn’t land because it wasn’t twisting anything or anyone you previously knew. It was adding something completely new. That’s not a great thing to do when you’re pushing into your climax.

All that said, The Adventures of Pluto Nash had some good things to counter-balance the bad. It wasn’t all bad writing and bad effects. There was more to the movie than those two negative things. For starters, the performances were all relatively good. The actors gave the best they could to make the movie entertaining. For the most part, it worked. Secondly, there were some great jokes scattered throughout the movie. The comedy worked where the rest of the writing didn’t. Those two things combined helped to make The Adventures of Pluto Nash a fun film, even if it was lacking in other areas.

Eddie Murphy was the driving force behind the movie. People might consider The Adventures of Pluto Nash the start of his decline in terms of quality, but he still seemed to be trying. He brought the bravado that the character needed. Pluto Nash felt confident in every choice he made, which was necessary to the success of the character. People wouldn’t like him if he wasn’t confident and likable. Without Eddie Murphy in the role, that may not have happened. Rosario Dawson’s character was the straight-man role to Pluto Nash’s bravado and eccentricities. She filled the role well, though it would have been nice for her character to exist outside of being a reaction to Pluto’s antics.

The standouts, however, were the supporting players. There was a wide array of supports that helped bring The Adventures of Pluto Nash to life. Bruno (Randy Quaid) was Pluto’s trusty sidekick, an old model android bodyguard. He was the muscle of the heroic group, able to take down amounts of people that Pluto and Dina couldn’t. The fun twist to the character was that Pluto gave him a happiness chip. Even when he was angry, he was programmed to have a forced smile. It added to the comedy, while the character’s action chops helped propel the action scenes forward.

Two of Rex Crater’s henchmen were played by Joe Pantoliano and Victor Varnado. They were those bumbling type of action-comedy henchmen who seem like they should be capable at their jobs, based on their position, but fumble almost every attempt to take down the villain. They blew up Club Pluto and tricked Pluto into a trap where he was surrounded by bad guys. He managed to get away. They tracked him down to his hideout and attacked. He got away. They chased him across the open landscape of the moon and watched his vehicle explode. He got away. Everything they did just wasn’t enough. One highlight that comes to mind from everything they did is a moment where Victor Varnado’s character had a rocket launcher and stormed out of their vehicle, ready to shoot Pluto’s hideout with it. He held it at a wrong angle, though, which caused the rocket to drop on the floor in front of him. Their bumbling nature had a lot to do with quick visual gags that showed them fumbling their duties.

The final two supporting players I want to mention are two quick characters that there’s not too much to say about, though they bring some fun energy to everything. I already mentioned Tony Francis a few times. Jay Mohr truly embodied the casino crooner character. He seemed to have good intentions, aside from the wife clone thing, but wasn’t smart enough to pan those intentions out without help. He was a fun pairing with Pluto for the two scenes he was with Pluto. The other character was a smuggler played by Luis Guzmán who found Pluto, Dina, and Bruno after their car exploded. He idolized Pluto and was happy to help however he could. It was pure fanboy energy brought into The Adventures of Pluto Nash, giving the movie a final kick toward the finish line. The way he sang while driving around the moon, the way he played craps in the casino, the way he nearly ruined Pluto’s plan to get up to the casino penthouse. Luis Guzman is always great, and that was no different here.

As much as I can see where people get the idea that The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a bad movie, I don’t quite agree with it. It had some major faults. The effects were of that early 2000s era  that weren’t realistic enough to feel a part of the world and weren’t cartoonish enough to feel like a real stylistic choice. There were characters coming in and out of the movie at random times, feeling like they almost shouldn’t even be there. And there seemed to be chunks of story missing that would bring everything together in a wholly cohesive way.

With all those bad things, it would seem like a bad movie. The thing was it was fun. The performances and jokes more than made up for the shortcomings. The Adventures of Pluto Nash was by no means a great piece of filmic art. To call it that would be a lie, and it would also make you look like a pompous ass to talk in that way. However, it was an entertaining movie that justified its run time by simply being entertaining. It’s nothing special, but it’s a decent enough hour and a half of science fiction action-comedy fun.

My theory that the failure of The Adventures of Pluto Nash led to the demotion of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet is nothing but a theory. There is no basis in reality of that being a fact. How could a movie like this affect science in that way? What I can tell you for sure is that there was only a four-year difference between the two. The Adventures of Pluto Nash came out and floundered in the summer of 2002. In the summer of 2006, our solar system became an eight-planet solar system instead of the nine-planet solar system we were accustomed to. Coincidence? I think so.

And here are a few notes:

• Super Mario Bros. (week 248) was mentioned in this post.
• The director of The Adventures of Pluto Nash was Ron Underwood, the director of Tremors (week 360).
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash was the fourth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for Mark Camacho, who was in How the Toys Saved Christmas (week 158), Nine Lives (week 228), and Snake Eater III: His Law (week 320).
• The only other four-timer was the great Miguel A. Núñez Jr. He was previously seen in Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning (week 46), Street Fighter (week 280), and Leprechaun 4: In Space (week 359).
• Luis Guzmán has now appeared in three Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Beverly Hills Chihuahua (week 70), Sandy Wexler (week 231), and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Randy Quaid also made his third appearance in The Adventures of Pluto Nash after appearing in Freaked (week 131) and The Wraith (week 355).
• Two actors from The Adventures of Pluto Nash were in 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (week 10). They were Alissa Kramer and Heidi Kramer.
• Steve Barry and Serge Houde were both in Nine Lives (week 228) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Battlefield Earth and The Adventures of Pluto Nash both featured John Topor and Russell Yuen.
• Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster (week 320) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash were both movies with Johnny Goar and Eric Hoziel.
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash wasn’t the first time Joe Pantoliano was in Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was seen in Baby’s Day Out (week 5).
• Burt Young returned from Going Overboard (week 67) to be featured in The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash featured John Cleese of Die Another Day (week 153) fame.
• Michael Rudder was in both How the Toys Saved Christmas (week 158) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Jay Mohr had roles in both The Adventures of Pluto Nash and 200 Cigarettes (week 161).
• With Pam Grier’s appearance in The Adventures of Pluto Nash, she has now been in two Sunday “Bad” Movies. The other one was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (week 224).
• Eddie Murphy was the star of both Norbit (week 227) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Illeana Douglas showed up in The Adventures of Pluto Nash. She was in Mega Shark vs. Kolossus (week 300).
• Finally, Audrey Wasilewski was in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups (week 420) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Have you seen The Adventures of Pluto Nash? What did you think of it? Did you like it or not? Let me know what you thought in the comments or on Twitter.
• Twitter is a good place to contact me if you have suggestions for what movies I should be checking out for Sunday “Bad” Movies. You could also put the suggestions in the comments.
• Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram, continuing the bad movie fun all week long.
• To close things out, I’ve got a little preview of next week. I’ll be heading back to the world of Tyler Perry for the movie. It’s a newer one, from last year. I’ll be checking out Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace. Come on back in a week to read what I have to say about it. I’ll see you then.

Don Peyote (2014) and Conspiracy Theories

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that conspiracy theories have become much more common and mainstream. There’s no doubt that they’ve always been around, as people frequently come to their own conclusions on anything and everything imaginable. But there has been a recent increase in the number of people believing conspiracy theories. It is probably connected to the internet. The rise of the internet and, especially, social media have made it much easier to spread conspiracy theories and find people who share the same conspiratorial leanings.

The modern era has been filled with conspiracy theories. There’s the theory that the John F. Kennedy assassination wasn’t performed by Lee Harvey Oswald. There’s a conspiracy that Paul McCartney died while The Beatles were still together and was replaced by an altogether different person. Of course, there are also the Nazis on the moon, lizard people, and Hollow Earth theories that were touched upon in the post for Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race.

The internet, however, has allowed the spread of conspiracy theories and doomsday theories to rise exponentially. There was the Y2K fear, where people were worried that computers would stop working as soon as we hit the year 2000 because they wouldn’t be able to handle shifting the date from 99 to 00. Another fear was that the end of the world would come in 2012 thanks to the Mayan calendar ending. The Paul McCartney style of conspiracy theory came back with Avril Lavigne in the mid-2000s. People thought she died and was replaced by a lookalike. There are more modern ones as well, like Pizzagate, the Jeffrey Epstein suicide, and people believing the current Covid vaccine is more dangerous than Covid.

For the most part, these conspiracy theories become nothing more than theories. There’s little to no proof that they are true. Sure, every once in a while, a conspiracy turns out to be a real thing. Usually, however, they’re just a fabrication meant to spin things into an alternate reality to try and give some other meaning to something happening. The John F. Kennedy theories only exist because people don’t want to believe that one man could simply kill the president like that. The Avril Lavigne theory exists because people want an explanation for her changes in style and music between her second and third albums. Most theories are ways to justify the strange, random events of the world.

You might be wondering right now what all this has to do with this week’s movie. Don Peyote was a 2014 movie that dealt with conspiracy theories to a high degree. It began in early 2012. Warren (Dan Fogler) believed that the world was going to end in a catastrophic event on December 21, 2012. His obsession with that potential event led him into a downward spiral that would jeopardize his relationship with his fiancée, Karen (Kelly Hutchinson).

The main conspiracy in Don Peyote was the 2012 cataclysmic event theory. Warren believed that the world was not necessarily going to end on December 21, 2012, but he believed that there was going to be some sort of apocalypse that began on that date. He decided to make a documentary about it, interviewing various people who believed that same theory. The documentary thread lasted through the first two thirds of the movie as Warren went deeper and deeper down the conspiracy rabbit hole, which included September 11^th being an inside job and the Illuminati.

Warren’s descent into conspiracy madness was fueled by recreational drug use. It began with marijuana and ended with harder drugs that caused him mass hallucinations, blackouts, and a stint in a mental institution. There were dreams of tidal waves swallowing New York City and two out of nowhere musical numbers. It was the fever dream that conspiracy paranoia stereotypically ends in. Warren went down the rabbit hole to a dark, dark place. We, as viewers, were along for the ride.

The conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios entered Warren’s life through a chance encounter. A homeless man harassed him with doomsday theories while he was high. It continued when he was assaulted by the Dream Agent (Anne Hathaway), who told him a bunch of world secrets that the audience wasn’t privy to. That may have been in his mind, pushing him further into his paranoia. A drug dealer played by Jay Baruchel would later back many of the thoughts Warren was tossing around in his own head. There was his time in an institution, and then his time hanging out with a couple drifters played by Josh Duhamel and Elisabeth Harnois. Each of those experiences toppled a domino in Warren’s mind, eventually leading to his full turn into the Don Peyote persona.

Don Peyote was a mess of a movie that tackled as many conspiracy theories as it possibly could while not really focusing on unravelling them. That was because it wasn’t about the conspiracy theories. It was about how diving into conspiracy theories and obsessing over them could affect a person. The movie examined a character whose life and personality changed as he became a full-time conspiracy theorist. And, on that level, it worked. As entertainment, it did not.

As a comment on society, Don Peyote foreshadowed what would become a huge issue only two years after it was released. Warren was a character who was influenced by the crazy, unfounded ideas he heard. They changed him. He fell down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and it ultimately changed him as a person. It was something seen on a major scale during the Trump era of the United States.

Starting in 2015, but coming to prominence in 2016, the effects of conspiracy theories, similar to the effects in Don Peyote, became a regular thing. During the run-up to voting day in the United States, things like Pizzagate became common to hear about. People started to believe that many Democrats in the federal government were connected to a human trafficking ring run out of the basement of a pizza joint. Theories like this, as well as disinformation being spread through video sharing sites and social media, would radicalize people. It would change people. Families would fall apart because of the way this sort of stuff affected loved ones. Friendships would end.

The peak came as the 2020 election date approached and there were claims that voting had been tampered with. Theories flew around about why the Democrats won the presidency. Some theories claimed that mail in voting was rigged in a way that it wasn’t. There were theories about vote counters falsifying results. People voting for dead people, fake ballot boxes, and trucks full of fake ballots arriving at counting stations were only a few other theories thrown around. People got obsessed with these theories. Trump supporters took them as facts that the government was colluding against them, leading to many of them storming the capitol building on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to threaten the electoral college votes and many of the politicians within the building. Conspiracy theories bred an insurrection.

That’s not the only way in which conspiracy theories are threatening lives right now. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to just as much disinformation being spread around and as many people being influenced by the conspiracy theories that abound. The commonly reported origin is that it was a mutated disease found in a bat that ended up spreading to humans through a wet market. There are theories being thrown around about it coming from a laboratory, instead. There’s disinformation about vaccinations, spread by people who disagree with the doctors who say the vaccines are safe. Some people are fighting against the government, claiming that the pandemic is a way to lock people down and create a single world government. The entire pandemic has become a series of conspiracy theories.

The big problem with conspiracy theories is that most of them turn out to be false. They are typically founded in some sort of truth. The vaccines being unsafe theory is a result of people thinking they came out too fast. The stolen election theory is a result of the mail-in ballots being majority Democratic while the in-person ballots were majority Republican. The Avril Lavigne replacement theory came from people justifying why her style seemed to change after her second album. Even the Nazis on the moon theory had some basis to it, which was the advanced technology that Nazi scientists had leading to the future American aeronautics. If there is some sort of basis that people can place their own theoretical story over, they will. Other people will find it and agree with it. Others yet will perpetuate it, which in turn will lead to more theories.

In the past few years, conspiracy theories have become a much more mainstream thing. The internet has made it easier for people to find information about any modicum of subjects, but it has also made it easier for people to find false information. It has led to some conspiracy theories getting out of hand. Another thing that didn’t help was the media giving attention to Donald Trump, who would toss out conspiracy theories left and right, like he was Oprah Winfrey giving people cars. We live in a world where we’re one conspiracy theory away from people attempting to overthrow the government. We’re one conspiracy theory away from people endangering others by destroying vaccines. We are a world of conspiracy theories and that’s not going to stop. We are living in a world of Don Peyotes.

With that, notes:

• Iron Sky (week 440) and Iron Sky: The Coming Race (week 440) were brought up in this post.
• Don Peyote saw Wallace Shawn return for his sixth Sunday “Bad” Movie. The other five were Furry Vengeance (week 162), Mom and Dad Save the World (week 186), Air Buddies (week 270), Cop and a Half: New Recruit (week 340), and Southland Tales (week 428).
• Dan Fogler was one of the writers and directors of Don Peyote. He was also the star. He was featured in Free Birds (week 209) and Balls of Fury (week 349) already.
• Josh Duhamel has been in three Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in New Year’s Eve (week 57), Movie 43 (week 243), and Don Peyote.
• Martin Pfefferkorn was in Sharknado 2: The Second One (week 190), Movie 43 (week 243), and Don Peyote.
• Finishing off the three-timers is Topher Grace. He played Dan Fogler’s agent in Don Peyote. He was previously in Valentine’s Day (week 168) and American Ultra (week 261).
• Anne Hathaway also appeared in Valentine’s Day (week 168) and Don Peyote.
• Steve Randazzo made his return to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Don Peyote. He was previously in Money Train (week 109).
• Don Peyote was the second Sunday “Bad” Movie for Annabella Sciorra, who was in Chasing Liberty (week 155).
• Steve Nuke showed up in both 54 (week 266) and Don Peyote.
• Finally, there was Dean Winters. He played a gun dealer in Don Peyote. He was also in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (week 310).
• Have you seen Don Peyote? What did you think of it? How do you feel about the way disinformation and conspiracies have run rampant over the past few years? Let me see what you have to say on Twitter or in the comments.
• Another reason to use the comments or contact me on Twitter would be to tell me about any movies you think would be a good fit for Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m always looking for suggestions about what I should be watching.
• Over on Instagram, you can check out Sunday “Bad” Movies to keep the fun going all week long.
• It’s now that time in every post where I look forward to what I’ll be checking out for the next week. I’ll be tackling a movie that might be a little more famous than Don Peyote. It was one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, costing about 100 million dollars and making about 7 million dollars. The Adventures of Pluto Nash is the next movie I’ll be covering, and I hope to see you back here in a week to read all about it. Have a good one!