Norbit (2007)

A mild-mannered guy who is engaged to a monstrous woman meets the woman of his dreams, and schemes to find a way to be with her.

Director:

Brian Robbins

Writers:

Eddie Murphy (screenplay), Charles Q. Murphy (screenplay),

Stars:

Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Terry Crews

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eddie Murphy	...	Norbit / Rasputia / Mr. Wong
Thandie Newton	...	Kate Thomas
Terry Crews	...	Big Jack Latimore
Clifton Powell	...	Earl Latimore
Lester Speight	...	Blue Latimore (as Lester 'Rasta' Speight)
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Deion Hughes
Eddie Griffin	...	Pope Sweet Jesus
Katt Williams	...	Lord Have Mercy
Floyd Levine	...	Abe the Tailor
Anthony Russell	...	Giovanni
Pat Crawford Brown	...	Mrs. Henderson
Jeanette Miller	...	Mrs. Coleman
Michael Colyar	...	Morris the Barber
Marlon Wayans	...	Buster
Alexis Rhee	...	Mrs. Ling Ling Wong

Storyline

Norbit is a normal person, who after being adopted by Mr. Wong, ends up being married to the very large, Rasputia. Norbit's childhood love, Kate Thomas arrives back in town to buy the orphanage. Norbit sees this as his chance to get back together with Kate, until he discovers that she is in fact engaged to Deion Hughes. Norbit isn't going to lay this to rest, whilst he tries to survive life with Rasputia, and it looks like Deion also has something he would like to keep secret.

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Plot Keywords:

orphan | black villainess | female flatulence | sulphuric acid | obnoxious | 

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Taglines:

Have You Ever Made A Really Big Mistake?

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, some nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [es]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 February 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mad Fat Wife

Filming Locations:

Agoura, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,962,913 (UK) (9 March 2007)

Gross:

$95,323,496 (USA) (27 April 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Davis Entertainment, Tollin/Robbins Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The set used in the film is the same one that _"Gilmore Girls" (2010)_ used as Stars Hollow in their 7 season run.

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Goofs

When the twins are beating up Norbit, the first shot shows them pushing his real face into the sand. The next shot shows them punching on a overweight dummy.

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Quotes

[after Norbit ruins the wedding and their future of opening a strip joint, the Latimore Brothers come at him, staring in anger]
Big Jack: You messed up, boy.
Earl Latimore: [whispers] That's right.
Big Jack: [grabs Norbit, raising his fist] Now you gonna pay... BIG TIME!
Abe the Tailor: [furious and growling] Latimore! Keep your "fakakta" hands off him!
Big Jack: Go back to your shop, Abe! Before I kill you too!

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Connections

Referenced in Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy (2009)

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Soundtracks

"I Only Want to Be with You"
Written by Michael Hawker & Ivor Raymonde
Performed by Dusty Springfield
Courtesy of Mercury Records Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Sad

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).