Risible comedy

Eddie Murphy is capable of being a very funny guy. Anyone who has seen him do live stand -up knows that ,and he’s done films that have showcased his comedic talents. But that was quite along time ago now, though admittedly he is superb as Donkey in the Shrek films. I got a preview DVD of this , and watched it against my better judgement as I was aware of it’s dreadful reputation. How I wish I’d done what I originally intended that afternoon and pressure washed that dog excrement off my front path since I ended up staring at a big pile of poo anyway.

Norbit is the latest in a line of Murphy led absolute A-grade stinkers , that makes the cardinal sin of not only not being funny ….in the slightest ,but of having a reprehensible worldview as well. You can have a bigoted view of the world if you can be funny with it, then it’s forgivable ,but to do what Murphy and director Brian Robbins ( Another whose CV is so ropey it could be used as a guide for budding film makers on how not to do it)have done with Norbit is to produce a film so poisonously misogynistic , that women -especially women of a larger size should sue or beat them to death with handbags.

The premise for Norbit is the title character played by Murphy is a gentle nerd bullied into marrying the obese dictatorial Rasputin , played again by Murphy-yes we are back in “Nutty Professor “ territory- whose brutish brothers terrorise the small town they live in. Murphy also plays Mr Wong , the benevolent Chinese man who runs the orphanage Norbit grew up in and seems to be integral to the plot only so Murphy can add casual racism to the films deficiencies . Things look up for Norbit when he bumps into childhood girlfriend Kate (Thankfully not Eddie Murphy but thin gorgeous Thandie Newton, it was too much to ask that she be fat and pretty or fat and good hearted thus exacerbating the films assertion that fat =bad & thin =good)who is engaged to Deion( Cuba Gooding Jr -another whose career is littered with more turkeys than Norfolk) who is a bit of a scoundrel .This of course , and I don’t think I’m guilty of a major spoiler here, makes it easier for Kate to dump him for Norbit.

The supporting characters are barely realised , so one dimensional and flimsy they may as well be made of tissue paper but the real crime is that the script gives Rasputia no character arc, or back-story to explain her behaviour .She is just a fat loathsome individual and in a plot contrivance so ludicrous it verges on high fantasy she is also unfaithful , so Norbit has a moral get out when he hooks up with Kate .This is writing so lazy it’s positively negligent , in fact the only person who comes out of this shambles with any credit at all(Which means they are still in deficit mind) is special effects supervisor Rick Baker whose does a splendid job with the various technical scenes involving Murphy.

So yet again we have Murphy - a very funny guy - in an appallingly unfunny film. Plus if the rumours are true that his part in this travesty cost him an Oscar (For his role In “Dreamgirls”) then it’s maybe one of the few occasions that Hollywood and the academy have got something absolutely right. In fact if there were any justice everyone involved in this monstrosity would be banned from making movies for a year , so they could go away and think about what they’ve done (Sort of a movie sin binning). But this turd made over $30 million on it’s opening weekend so fat chance of that …..no pun intended of course.