Norbit

It's really hard of me to be overly critical of an Eddie Murphy movie, since I'm a big fan of his work. This, coming from someone who absolutely loved Pluto Nash, a film that made the biggest financial loss in cinematic history (yes, even bigger than The Core). Being harsh on his work, for me, is like kicking a sickly puppy. This pre-amble is just to emphasise how hard it is for me to write this review.

Having said that, this film is not good. It's formulaic, dull and not that funny really.

This romantic comedy revolves around an orphan Norbit (Murphy), who is adopted by Mr Wang (also Murphy) then loses the love of his life as a child, is bullied into marrying Rasputia (Murphy again) and then finds out his childhood sweetheart is moving back to town. If you have a checklist of everything you'd expect in a typical rom-com, Norbit checks all the boxes, often in red ink and pressing down extra hard.

Cuba Gooding Jr is completely wasted in this movie, as is Thandie Newton, and since it's mostly them and Eddie Murphy on screen for the majority of the time, this is a real annoyance. The reviews I read after seeing it all asked the same question: Why did Norbit marry Rasputia since she's so repellant? I would ask why she married Norbit as he has no redeeming qualities. He's portrayed as a wimpy nerd, which the begs the question: why would Kate (Thandie Newton) like him?

Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams play pimps, which I am told is about as original a casting for them as having Kevin Saxon play Kevin Saxon in 'The Kevin Saxon Story' (coming December 2007).

Other Reviews

This film was (according to reviews) butchered to move it from a R rating to a PG-13 (like moving a 15 to a 12A). I get the impression that the 15 version would have been a lot funnier, as the editing is really slap shod. Continuity errors abound, especially Rasputia's hair style. It goes from straight cut black dyed with highlights to browny grey afro and back again for no readily explainable reason. People disappear completely in reverse shots, or shift position.

There was one review on IMDB that summed up the film far better than I ever could.

"The entire film is based on repeating the same joke over and over and over. And it wasn't funny to start with."

I know what you're thinking (especially you Jackie. Put James Spader down and step away from the maple syrup and dairy whip) ; why didn't I read reviews before going to see the film. Well there are three reasons why I never read reviews before seeing a film.

1. I want to make my own mind up about a film, not base my opinion on someone else's opinion.
2. Most reviews contain spoilers for the plot.
3. If I did, I'd never watch any movies, because there's always someone who says "This was utter tosh."

Fat Flack

This film has also taken a lot of flack for being in the "anti fat camp". Now I don't know what the anti-fat camp looks like, but I don't think there's any overtures of that in the movie. The Nutty Professor was, if anything, pro-fat. Here, Rasputia is not unpleasant because she's fat. She's fat because she's unpleasant, if that makes sense.

The fat suit technology has come on bounds, and a great deal of care has been taken to make sure that the child actor playing Norbit and Eddie Murphy both look very similar. However, this was a completely wasted effort, since the child actor playing Kate looks nothing like Thandie Newton.

There's also some people saying that Eddie Murphy is a racist (no really, there are) because he always portrays darker skinned african american as the bad guys and lighter skinned african american as the good guys. Personally I think that's the biggest pile of twaddle I've ever heard.

Summary

A rather disappointing Eddie Murphy film that looked so much better in the trailer. The water slide sequence is great, but not enough to save it.

OQ: "How YOU doin'?" Repeated ad nauseam.

Score: D- Any lower and it would have to have been scored on the Catwoman scale.