Norbit Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Ridiculous... But Funny !

Saw this after a particularly grim day at work and thought nothing would bring me round... this did !! Ok it is daft, it is slapstick and it is patently ridiculous in the extreme... but it is also funny, in fact very funny in parts.

There are a few verbal jokes that are very close to the edge for a 12A rated film, if your kids laugh, you know they know too much !!!

I can see that the voice and some of the slapstick might be groaners for some viewers of this, and is it worth a 4 star, well it perked me up, and I definately would rate it as one for the rental list - go on, you know you want to !

Not Very Good

i would not watch this. it not very funny at all. i don't know what Eddie was thinking about when he got asked to do this as i can't think of any other Eddie Murphy movie as bad as this.

Worst film of the year

Oh, Eddie. Oh, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. What have you done? What were you thinking? Were you even thinking at all? After seeing this crap, all I wanted to do was get hold of Eddie Murphy and sit him down and show him some of his old films — you know, films like 48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming To America. Just to remind him that he was once a very funny man. Because now it seems that the only time Eddie Murphy is funny on screen is when he's being an ass.

Norbit is just a mess of a movie. It's nasty, misogynistic, racist, cruel and just not funny. I think I laughed just once through the whole film, and that was at a talking dog (talking dogs are always funny, no matter what anybody else tells you). As a romantic comedy, it lacks any originality. The characters are either stereotyped cliches (Mr Wong, the racist Chinese orphanage owner; Rasputia's dumb-as-a-stump, bully-boy brothers; the fast-talking pimps), deadly dull (Norbit himself) or irredeemably awful — Rasputia. What can I say about her, apart from the fact that she is probably the most evil, vile character to appear on screen since George W Bush gave his last State of The Union address.

Eddie Murphy should have learned his lesson from the Martin Lawrence abomination, Big Momma's House — the days when you can make fun of fat women, and especially fat black women, are long gone. It's no surprise he didn't win an Oscar for Dreamgirls; the Academy voters must have seen Norbit and immediately burned his name from their minds. The only person who walks away from this wreck with their dignity intact is makeup supremo Rick Baker, who did the prosthetics for Mr Wong and Rasputia. Baker — who has won 6 Oscars and worked on such films as Star Wars, An American Werewolf In London, Coming To America, Men In Black and Hellboy — can hold his head high. His work, as always, is outstanding. Everybody else (yes, including you, Thandie Newton) should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Have a good laugh with Eddie

Just took the kids to see this movie at the pictures and it was hilarious!!!

Eddie Murphy at his best, funny, sincere, charming and a laugh a minute.

A film for the whole family to enjoy. Would definately recommend!

Not as Bad as Jonathan Ross Says It Is!!

I saw Jonathan Ross's review of this and thought--'Oh yeah--I have GOT to see this movie!!' J.R. was deeply offended and huffy and puffy and ranted and raved and said that Eddie Murphy lost the Oscar for Dreamgirls because of Norbit, etc.etc..blah blah blah...Anyway, I put on my raincoat, dark glasses, and hat and slunk off to see this supposedly shameful debacle. Surprise! Some of it was pretty funny. I saw it in a large city centre cinema with an audience of a whole variety of people--white, black and oriental. No one seemed as bent out of shape about it as J.R.--they enjoyed it, and there was a lot of laughter. I didn't find the movie disgusting and racially offensive as Ross did--all I can say is lighten up dear boy--you seem to have had the politically correct standard rammed right up your derriere!

Seen the Preview?

Seen the preview = seen the film - don't bother

[Highly rated reviewer]

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.

Terrible, dont waste your time!

This film was just terrible, it went on and on and all the 'funny' bits were shown in the advert. Dont waste your time.

not what it should have been

Now i love eddie murphy but not this time.Just watch the trailers and thats all thats funny.Save yourself some time.Better luck next time eddie.

[Highly rated reviewer]

eddie murphy back to his best

for those of you who have been waiting ages for eddie murphy to make a decent film, well the wait is over. this is mr murphy at his best. a totally hillarious film from beginning to end. well worth a look.