Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4401 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-09
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.20:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 1.58 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Eddie Murphy stars and stars in this very broad and raucous comedy that finds the Oscar-nominated Dreamgirls actor revisiting the multiple-character shtick that worked so well for him in Coming to America and The Nutty Professor. The latter's makeup-effects artist, Rick Baker, once again transforms Murphy into a variety of grotesques and caricatures, including the hugely fat, monstrous Rasputia, the Asian Mr. Wong, and the timorous Norbit, a nervous orphan raised by Wong and married to Rasputia. The latter, a member of a construction family with a plan to turn Wong's orphanage into a strip club, is a relentlessly narcissistic shrew who puts the screws on Norbit at every turn, especially when he rediscovers his love for an old friend, Kate (Thandie Newton). Kate's wish to buy and maintain the orphanage herself is secretly compromised by her fiancé (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), who is in cahoots with Rasputia's family and using Norbit to further their agenda.

Extraordinarily silly, frequently crude and mean-spirited to an extreme, Norbit is far more sour than The Nutty Professor. But there are moments of inspiration, especially a wedding interrupted by wannabe pimps who launch a profane gospel groove, and a dog that talks to Norbit while he is semi-conscious. For the most part, though, Norbit impresses as a technical marvel utilizing careful shot design and skillful editing. Murphy participates in several remarkable, three-character scenes in which he happens to be all three characters, and those moments move so briskly it's easy to forget one is looking at a comic stunt. --Tom Keogh

Synopsis
Norbit (Eddie Murphy) is a shy fellow, raised by Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy again) in a combination orphanage/Chinese restaurant in Boiling Springs, Tennessee. As a child, Norbit comes to love Kate, a fellow orphan, but the soulmates are separated when Kate is adopted. Enter Rasputia, an aggressive, plus-sized 10-year-old who protects him from bullies and demands his romantic loyalty, much like her thuggish older brothers demand 'protection' money from all the merchants in Boiling Springs. Rasputia and Norbit eventually marry--and the peevish adult Rasputia is played to great comic effect by Eddie Murphy in a fat suit. Although Rasputia is controlling, unfaithful, hideous-looking, and always madder than a hornet, she and Norbit make a life together, albeit one based on inertia, fear, and complacency. The bubble bursts when the now-grown Kate (Thandie Newton) returns to Boiling Springs to buy Mr. Wong's orphanage. Norbit's love is rekindled, and he must find a way to end his loveless marriage, save Kate from marrying a crooked philanderer (Cuba Gooding, Jr., in a rare villainous turn), and prevent Rasputia's brothers from carrying through with a big con job that would destroy the orphanage and Kate's life. Eddie Murphy, not surprisingly, carries the show, with broad, juvenile humour, fat jokes, and pratfalls, and while he never aims very high, he manages to inject some poignancy into Norbit's and Wong's characters, even as he plays Rasputia strictly for laughs. It's not Shakespeare--it's not even BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE--but the laughs are as big as Rasputia's muumuu.

Customer Reviews

Risible comedy and a new career nadir for Murphy
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.

Is Eddie Murphy Intelligent?
Is Eddie Murphy an intelligent man? He has stayed ahead of the game while others have fallen by the wayside. He is certainly a very talented actor and if directed properly he is capable of giving inspired and authentic performances. So what happened here?

Eddie is responsible for the story and the screenplay. He also has his producer hat on.

Why, oh why, then would he produce such utter crap? I don't mind fat jokes as long as they are funny. I don't mind any sort of joke as long as it's funny. This film is not funny.
In fact it is racist, unintelligent, manipulative, shallow, contrived and infantile.

Surely Eddie Murphy must have realised that what he was making was crap? Maybe he has lost touch with reality and so his audience has to suffer his delusions.

Eddie, just a word of advice; Get it touch with real people uncluttered by Hollywood sycophancy and try to find out what made you original in the first place.

Rubbish, no other word for it
This film is unbelievably bad, i saw it with a friend who had picked it out, i knew it would not be great, but i thought that it might be quite funny, i was wrong. This is one of the worst films i have ever seen, it has no storyline at all and it is obviously supposed to rely on eddie murphy being funny, which he fails to do. i can not imagine this film appealing to anyone at all. So if you are considering buying or renting this, please think again and go find something else.