This gross comedy hardly seems like the best way to exploit Murphy's talents.
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02/08/07
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Norbit (2007)
9
%
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Reviews Counted:116
Fresh:10
Rotten:106
Average Rating:3.3/10
Consensus: Coming off his Oscar-nominated performance in Dreamgirls, the talented-but-inconsistent Eddie Murphy plays three roles in Norbit, a cruel, crass, stereotype-filled comedy that's more depressing than funny.
Theatrical Release:Feb 9, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $95,323,496
Synopsis: Norbit (Eddie Murphy, channeling Buckwheat and Woody Allen) is a shy, nebbishy fellow, raised by Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy again) in a combination orphanage/Chinese restaurant in Boiling Springs,... [More]
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding, Charlie Murphy
Director: Brian Robbins
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Reviews for Norbit
Top CriticEddie Murphy has taken his love for playing multiple roles, Jerry Lewis, crude humor, himself, and -- to be charitable -- his deeply conflicted feelings about women, and made a movie that is disgusting, unfunny, dull, and an appalling waste of talent.
02/08/07
Norbit isn't one of Murphy's best; it's a poor cousin to his other family comedies, and as Rasputia, whose catchphrase is a brassy "how you doin'?," he's surprisingly unfunny.
02/08/07
Top CriticMurphy's work in Norbit makes his fine performance in Dreamgirls look like he was acting with a couple of hands tied behind his back.
02/08/07
Norbit demonstrates that even when working with low-grade material, Murphy can be a superb actor.
02/08/07
This dismal comedy joins a growing pile of Murphy disasters (The Haunted Mansion, Daddy Day Care, I Spy, The Adventures of Pluto Nash), which may have made his Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls a foregone conclusion -- if not now, when?
02/08/07
Hopefully the awards and acclaim Murphy has received for his work in Dreamgirls will inspire him to think twice from now on about puerile pictures like Norbit. The combination of the two speaks to his versatility, if not his pride.
02/08/07
Top CriticIt's an astonishingly crass and vulgar film, crudely directed on a cut-rate budget by Brian Robbins, never more than almost funny or less than disturbing.
02/08/07
Usually, it takes six or so months for an actor to parlay a Best Supporting Actor nomination into a cringe-worthy career-derailing performance in an unbelievably awful picture.
02/08/07
It's a thoughtless, cancerous, viral, irresponsible pollution whose existence speaks ill of the society that produced it and of any society that would endorse or defend it.
02/08/07
It's probably impossible to enforce a complete ban on the use of fat suits in Hollywood comedies, but certainly it's time for an extended moratorium on them.
02/08/07
When Eddie (hopefully) wins an Oscar anyway for his Dreamgirls turn later this month, he should take the opportunity to publicly apologize for this.
02/07/07
In Norbit, Eddie Murphy is like a xylophone player who keeps banging away on the same two discordant notes; unfortunately, those monotonous, off-key tones are the characters he's playing.
02/07/07
Top CriticAnd while some of the laughs are certainly hilarious, they aren't as plentiful as necessary to make Norbit a consistently funny film.
02/07/07
It’s too bad that the script doesn’t serve Murphy’s multi-character talents in the way he deserves. If and when it ever does, he may actually make a comedy for the ages.
02/07/07
Absolutely adorable. Murphy plays a big black woman who is not a victim of America’s unrealistic ideal of beauty.
02/07/07
Eddie Murphy reaches into his comedic closet and pulls out a hysterical hit.
02/07/07
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