Search - Norbit [HD DVD] on HD DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 11/17/2019...

ALERT - You are ordering an HD-DVD item. This format can be played only in HD-DVD players (the discs will NOT play in regular DVD or Blu-Ray players). If you do NOT have an HD-DVD player, you should not order this item.

A Disaster of the Highest Order

Scott T. Rivers | Los Angeles, CA USA | 02/17/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Viewers must be starved for comedy to endure Eddie Murphy's wretched tour-de-farce. Makeup wizard Rick Baker is the real star of "Norbit" - allowing Murphy to portray a variety of characters with diminishing results. After his standout performance in "Dreamgirls," it's appalling that Murphy (who co-wrote this fiasco) would squander his talents in such a grotesque fashion. Furthermore, he doesn't need elaborate makeup to showcase his versatility. Skip this comic nightmare and revisit Murphy's brilliant work on "Saturday Night Live.""

So Funny!!!!

MAURICE MILLIGAN | HOUSTON, TEXAS | 06/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"People who compare this role to the role Eddie played in Dreamgirls are silly, these are 2 totally different movies. Norbit is crude humor at it's best, if you are easily offended or looking for a serious drama, don't purchase or rent this movie and the nutty professor, it is not! Eddie plays multiple roles excellently as we know, the film also stars Cuba Goodin Jr.,Thandie Newton and a hilarious cameo from Marlon Wayans, not much substance as far as a plot is concerned , not a love story -just a raunchy, crude performance by Eddie Murphy but hilarious nonetheless and funny is actually and understatement."

Redefining badness

Roland E. Zwick | Valencia, Ca USA | 07/22/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"*1/2

For 102 mind-numbing minutes, "Norbit" plays like one long fat-person joke told over and over again in the vain hope that even if it wasn`t funny the first time, it will somehow improve with the repetition.

Eddie Murphy continues the shtick he started with "The Nutty Professor" of playing numerous characters in various guises buried under tons of prosthetic makeup. In "Norbit," Murphy appears as three characters: Norbit, the nerdy orphan who's never learned to stand up for himself; Rasputia, the obese shrew who ropes Norbit into marrying her; and Mr. Wong, the owner of the orphanage, who raised Norbit after he was unceremoniously dropped off there by his parents one fateful night in the late 1960`s. Norbit is all grown up now and living in a squeaky-clean, candy-colored, studio backlot small town inexplicably inhabited by both white-bread types straight out of Middle America and stripe-suited, Cadillac-driving street pimps fresh from the `hood.

There's no point in denying Murphy's skill at mimicry and impersonation, since the evidence is there in spades for all to see in "The Nutty Professor." But then "The Nutty Professor" gave Murphy an actual, honest-to-God screenplay off of which he could build his routines. In the case of "Norbit," if the studio had spent even a tenth of the time and effort on coming up with a good script as it did on designing fat suits and CGI-enhanced prosthetics, this might have been a decent comedy. As it is, it's just loud, obnoxious and offensive and wastes the talents of Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., Marlon Wayans and Eddie Griffin into the bargain. Of course, as co-writer of the screenplay, Murphy has really no one but himself to blame for his being trapped in this fiasco.

When the only source of humor is making fun of fat people, and when that one note is played over and over and over again to ever diminishing results, you know it's time to cash in your chips and move on. The problem for "Norbit" is that a bad joke remains a bad joke - no matter how many times you tell it."