Norbit

If you liked the humor in The Nutty Professor, you'll laugh yourself silly while watching Norbit. Nowadays, it's not acceptable to make fun of unattractive, overweight women, but back in 2007 it was still alright to make ugly, fat jokes. And it was still alright for Eddie Murphy to dress up as a woman and make the audience laugh. I thought this movie was hilarious, but I'm including a little disclaimer for the modern feminists out there.

Those of you who still like to laugh at politically incorrect jokes will want to rent Norbit after a hard week at work. It's very silly and pure escapism. Eddie Murphy plays three parts: the nerdy, meek title character, his adoptive Chinese father, and his overweight, overbearing wife. The entire movie of just the unhappily married couple would have been funny enough, but adding in a love triangle amps up the motivation of Norbit's wife to get even more aggressive - which in turn, becomes even funnier! Thandiwe Newton plays Norbit's childhood sweetheart, but good luck getting a divorce! Can two sweet souls find happiness, or is there bound to be a large, obnoxious, hilarious fly in the ointment? Rent Norbit for a very silly and fun evening.

First let me say ... I am an Eddie Murphy fan. I think he's a comic genius. And that's why I was so surprised to see him star in and even write such a low level and offensive comedy.

The first few minutes of the film started out with a little promise, but it didn't take long for the film to fall to such a low level that I cringed from early in until the movie was over. And even though I watched to nearly the end, I demanded my money back. It's only the second time I've ever done that, and I'm an avid film goer.

What was so offensive? I don't know where to begin. Most obviously, every "fat" gag in the book was used. Eddie Murphy plays an overweight woman who is ugly and evil, and every nasty thing you can think to say about her is said. To make it worse, the leading lady is Thandie Newton who is extremely thin, which only goes to further emphasize the other extreme.

Maybe Eddie Murphy thought he could get away with this because he shows, in The Nutty Professor, how an overweight man can "get the girl". But, really, that just shows the extreme double standard that remains when it comes to overweight men versus women.

Now, I'm a realist, and I know that the double standard is not Eddie Murphy's fault. Still, he plays on it here in such a nasty way that it offended me, an open minded, in-shape male. And for those who argue that it's the character's attitude and not her weight that made her "the bad guy", then why make her fat in the first place. And why have so many nasty fat jokes.

The movie was offensive on other levels too. The racial humor wasn't funny. There are some lines with attempts at humor that really go too far. Many of you who have seen it will understand what I mean. And those who haven't, I hope you don't support this film out of curiosity. Please, wait for cable. There is nothing in this that you can't wait to see.

I heard that it was Eddie Murphy's brother who came up with this idea. If EM did this as a favor to his brother, he could have done his brother, and himself a bigger favor by bringing Charlie in on a better project and tossing this script.

On the one positive note: Eddie Murphy does put his all into these characters as always. His job as Norbit gets lost in the low class, low level "comedy". Even though I just saw the film, I had to really remember that his performance as Norbit was decent. All I can think about is how offended I was, and how thoroughly depressed an overweight woman sitting at the end of my row looked throughout most of the film (she left before I did).

I get some people just like this type of humor and that's fine. But if you're into crude humor this movie is absolutely hilarious. Yeah some jokes aged worse than others but still funny.

The story is typical guy falls in love but something is in the way of it. The movie doesn't try more than what it is and makes work of what it could.

Also there Eddie Murphy, Terry Crews, and Cat Williams. Who else do u need?

This is NOT meant to be a serious movie. Those who created Norbit did not set out to make a witty, comical masterpiece that made the viewers think and contemplate...this is a comedy. No one seems to understand it, be the long, winding and rather dull critical remarks on the movie bringing 'a new meaning to distasteful' or something equally as yawn-worthy, what needs to be realized is that this is riddled with clichés and fun, comical satire. This is not meant to make one think, it exists because it must have been entertaining to make and it is funny. This is no Little Miss Sunshine, and it serves its purpose, I spent one hour and forty-two minutes without a decent thought in my head. Those humorless people who continue to bore us with their in depth reasoning for 'why this movie isn't good' need to stop for a second and look at the plot and concept...this is not meant to be taken seriously.

I went to see this film on my birthday with my friend Paul. There were low expectations from both of us and we came out pleasantly surprised. We were laughing throughout the movie and it turned out to be a good birthday for me.

The other two people in the cinema were not as impressed but there's no accounting for taste.

I honestly cannot understand why this film has been critically mauled. It doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It's a film aimed for laughs and it does exactly what it delivers.

To fully appreciate and understand this film you need an enlightened and intelligent sense of humour to comprehend the genius film that is Norbit. People like Paul and I are just very rare.