Norbit (2007)
Directed by Brian Robbins
Written by Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy
Starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eddie Griffin, Marlon Wayans, Charlie Murphy
Release Date February 9th, 2007
Published February 9th, 2007
The last thing Eddie Murphy needs with Oscar ballots still uncounted is a movie like Norbit. Unfortunately, Norbit is out there and TV commercials are exposing Eddie at his most commercially bankrupt. Will Norbit cast Eddie an Oscar? It's possible. Norbit is an example of Murphy at his most bankrupt, displaying his declining comic talent for the world to see, at a time when Hollywood is close to honoring him for the best dramatic work of his career.
Oscar voters aren't likely to see Norbit, which might lessen the impact, but just the sight of his giant fat suited character on TV could be enough for a few voters to turn their attention to actors with a tad more talent and integrity.
Norbit (Eddie Murphy) was abandoned as a baby, thrown from a moving car at the doorstep of an orphanage/Chinese restaurant. There, Mr. Wong (Also Eddie Murphy) took young Norbit in and raised him as his own. Growing up in the orphanage, Norbit fell for a fellow orphan named Kate until she was adopted. With Kate gone, Norbit fell under the spell of Rasputia (Eddie, again) a giantess who protected him from bullies and years later forced him to marry her.
Trapped in an awful marriage to an awful woman, Norbit wants a way out. This is when Kate (Thandie Newton) returns and Norbit see's a different path for his life. Unfortunately, Kate has brought her fiance Deion (Cuba Gooding Jr.) with her. Can Norbit escape Rasputia and win Kate away from the scheming, jerky, Deion? These are the strands that stand in as a plot for Norbit.
Directed by Bryan Robbins, the auteur behind The Shaggy Dog and Ready To Rumble, Norbit is a terribly unfunny series of sitcomic sketches whose sole purpose is placing their star in a different funny outfit. The makeup on Eddie Murphy, done as it was in The Nutty Professor by effects master Rick Baker, is damn impressive but not nearly impressive enough to warrant a movie that is basically dedicated to the talent of the makeup department.
Norbit is pretty bad but not entirely laugh free. Comics Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams have small roles as pimps, Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy. The roles are awful stereotypes but Griffin and Williams are too talented not to deliver a couple of good laughs. In a scene near the end of Norbit, the two riff on love and steal the show for a few minutes.
Also kinda funny is Murphy's awful chinese caricature Mr. Wong. Murphy gives Mr. Wong all of the best and most shocking lines in the film and the racist banter and love of whaling are just wild enough to earn what few laughs are offered in Norbit.
As for Rasputia, Murphy's giant drag cliche, the character is a force of nature but there isn't anything there beyond the fat jokes. Unlike Tyler Perry's Madea who combines the bizarre look of a man in drag with a character that has its own level of odd integrity, Rasputia is just a walking stereotypical punchline. That Murphy infuses Rasputia with unending self confidence keeps the jokes from becoming meanspirited but the real problem is not political correctness or hurt feelings but rather that none of the jokes are funny.
Toss Norbit on the pile next to Daddy Day Care, Metro and Holy Man, yet another step in the decline of the comic talent of Eddie Murphy. Eddie's concert video Delirious hit DVD recently and is a hilarious example of how talented and gut bustingly funny Eddie Murphy once was. Why his skills have declined so badly is a mystery.
Like Adam Sandler impressing so many critics in Punch Drunk Love, Eddie Murphy's turn in Dreamgirls now looks like a flash in the pan, a moment of brilliance in a sea of declining talent. What a shame.
