Norbit | |
---|---|
Directed by | Brian Robbins |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Clark Mathis |
Edited by | Ned Bastille |
Music by | David Newman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $60 million [1] [2] |
Box office | $159 million [1] |
Norbit is a 2007 American comedy film, directed by Brian Robbins, and co-written by, co-produced by, and starring Eddie Murphy. The film co-stars Thandie Newton, Terry Crews, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Marlon Wayans, and Charlie Murphy. It was released by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures on February 9, 2007. Eddie Murphy portrays multiple roles including the eponymous Norbit and his abusive obese wife Rasputia. Norbit, unhappily married, is reunited with his childhood sweetheart Kate, but must contend with Rasputia and her brothers.
The film was a box office success, grossing $159 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million. It was negatively received by critics and was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, and also received a nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Makeup.
In Boiling Springs, Tennessee, childhood friends Norbit Albert Rice and Kate Thomas live at an orphanage doubling as a Chinese restaurant called The Golden Wonton owned by Mr. Hangten Wong. They also play-marry each other with Ring Pops, but are separated after Kate is adopted two weeks later.
Five years later, a tough, overweight girl named Rasputia Latimore rescues Norbit from twin boys who were bullying him, and eventually becomes his girlfriend. Rasputia grows into an arrogant and tyrannical woman, and they marry each other as adults. She begins insulting and manipulating him, especially accusing him of adjusting her car seat when she is driving her car. Norbit is also belittled by Rasputia's three older brothers Big Black Jack, Blue, and Earl, working as a bookkeeper at their construction company. The Latimore brothers run a "security business", instilling fear in the entire community except Mr. Wong, who refuses to sell them his business and does not hesitate to use his spear and pistol to intimidate them.
After catching Rasputia cheating on him with her tap dance instructor Buster Perkin, Norbit calls her the "Queen of Whores" during their argument, which results in her chasing him through the neighborhood. Afterwards, he discards his wedding ring and vents his anger about Rasputia's infidelity at a puppet show for the orphans. He is stunned to see Kate for the first time since childhood, and his affection for her reignites as he learns she is using the money she obtained from selling her clothing business in Atlanta to purchase Mr. Wong's orphanage, but is disappointed to learn she is engaged to a man named Deion Hughes.
Aided by ex-pimp friends Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy and the other townspeople, Norbit meets Kate without Rasputia's knowledge and along the way, Kate teaches Norbit how to ride a bike. Deion attempts to leave town, having no intention to help Kate run the orphanage, but the Latimore brothers persuade him to help them turn the orphanage into a strip club named "Nipplopolis" instead and dupe Norbit into getting Kate to sign papers to renew the restaurant's liquor license in the Latimores' name. Norbit's meeting with Kate leads to helping rehearse her wedding, where a kiss between them makes her reconsider marrying Deion. Norbit returns home to find out that Rasputia witnessed their kiss and threatens violence towards Kate if he ever sees her again.
When Kate later learns about the deal from Deion, she goes to confront Norbit and sees him being imprisoned by Rasputia, who masterminded the orphanage plot, in their basement. Norbit reluctantly insults her and drives her away to protect her from Rasputia. Satisfied, Rasputia lies that Norbit tricked Kate since she came back to town. Heartbroken, Kate runs away and a guilt-ridden Norbit decides to permanently leave town, but then finds a letter from the private investigator he hired, discovering Deion has accumulated a total of $300,000 in divorce settlements from his four marriages in the last six years to four different women.
The Latimores reveal their plan to Norbit and lock him in the basement again. Norbit escapes by bike, reaching the wedding just in time to inform Kate of Deion's schemes. Though his proof of Deion's divorce settlements was destroyed after falling into a pond, Norbit reveals that he'd contacted three of Deion's ex-wives and their children while he'd been locked in the basement the night before, and Deion flees as they give chase, which results in the Latimores' plan backfiring.
The Latimores attack Norbit for sabotaging their plans, but the townspeople take up arms to protect him as his bravery has inspired them to stand up to the Latimores. Rasputia fights her way through the crowd and prepares to destroy him, but Mr. Wong harpoons her in the rear, causing her to rapidly run in pain out of town. With their sister gone, the Latimore brothers finally accept defeat and are chased out of town while Norbit and Kate reconcile, purchase the orphanage, and marry under the same tree where they played as children years ago, finally living happily ever after. Rasputia and the Latimores are never seen or heard from again, but several rumors say that they moved to Mexico and open up their strip club "El Nipplopolis", where Rasputia becomes their most popular and lucrative stripper.
After the success of Shrek , DreamWorks co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg signed up Eddie Murphy to star in a live-action followup, and they were looking for the right film. Norbit seemed like a good fit, a production in line with his tradition of playing multiple characters in a comedy as Murphy had done before with Coming to America , Dr. Dolittle and The Nutty Professor . [3] DreamWorks production president Adam Goodman brought the script to Brian Robbins and he was excited about the prospect of working with Eddie Murphy. [4] Norbit was the first of three films where director Brian Robbins and Eddie Murphy worked together; the other two would be Meet Dave and A Thousand Words . [4] Murphy wrote the story after going on the Internet to see videos "where really large women, African-American women, would beat up their tiny husbands", a concept which he found hilarious. Although Norbit was always intended to be a comedy, early drafts of the script were much darker. [5] According to Thandie Newton, during filming, the stand-ins were very convincing, and she frequently filmed scenes with them instead of Murphy. [5]
The various prosthetic makeups, bodysuits, and wigs were created by Rick Baker and his company Cinovation. Baker praised Murphy saying "He really makes the stuff come to life, and he never complains. When we did 'The Nutty Professor' [...], he spent 80-odd days in the makeup chair. As much as I love makeup, even I would have been complaining by the end, but Eddie didn't." [6]
Rick Baker wanted to work from a real life model and auditioned over a hundred extra large ladies, all with the necessary proportions. The model also needed to be able to dance. After several rounds of auditions, one lady was chosen as the life model for Rasputia and a foam latex suit was created based on her measurements. The suit's surface was painted with silicone to make it look like skin. Silicone was also used to make matching gloves. The shape of Murphy's face was changed using foam latex and pieces of silicone, which were then painted over in various tones of red, brown and yellow to create realistic looking skin tone. [7] A body double was used for some scenes, particularly the water park. Murphy with his face in makeup as Rasputia performed against green screen and his head was digitally composited onto the body double. [8]
On Rotten Tomatoes Norbit has an approval rating of 9% based on 123 reviews with an average rating of 3.6/10, with the site's consensus reading, "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." [9] Metacritic gave the movie a score of 27 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade, with under eighteens (28% of those surveyed) giving it a B+ grade. [11]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the movie a positive review, suggesting that Norbit might help Murphy's chances of winning an Oscar for his role in Dreamgirls, saying that his work playing three distinct characters in Norbit is more impressive than anything he did in Dreamgirls. [12] Others suggested it might hurt his chances. [13] [14] [15] Ultimately, Alan Arkin won the award for Best Supporting Actor.
Luke Sader of The Hollywood Reporter called it "Racially insensitive, politically incorrect and beyond crude." [16] [17] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of "F" and wrote: "It probably isn't possible for a single movie to reverse all social progress made since the civil-rights era, but Norbit, the latest broadside from Eddie Murphy, does its best to turn back the clock" and "hideously offensive black stereotypes are merely the tip of the iceberg." [18] Josh Tyler of CinemaBlend gave the movie a mostly negative review, in which he described parts of the film as "pretty despicable" and stated that "the plot relies on the idea that being fat also means you're a horrible bitch." However, he pointed out that "some of it's also kind of sweet. Eddie's really quite good as Norbit, the character is sympathetic and funny. He has a strange sort of perfect chemistry with Thandie Newton, and that's just not something I would have expected." [19]
Liz Braun of Jam! Movies described Norbit as "mostly blubber jokes about how fat Rasputia really is" but said that "the movie is not without genuine laughs. Most of those laughs are generated by the other actors." In regard to the "terrifying" character Rasputia, she went so far as to say that the film "tends to confirm one's worst suspicions about Murphy and what appears to be his general fear and loathing of women. The Rasputia gag gets a little freaky if you think about it too much. And you wouldn't want to dwell on how much Thandie Newton looks like a slender boy in her role as Norbit's true love, either. So don't." [20]
Black activists took issue with Eddie Murphy's portrayal of the character Rasputia, calling Norbit "just the latest [film built] around a black man dressing up as an unsophisticated, overweight black woman." [13] Film critic MaryAnn Johanson said it was a minstrel show and called it a "hideous stew of bigoted 'humor'". [21]
The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody praised Murphy's performances saying "playing multiple roles, Murphy unleashes, with a sense of painful revelation, a tangle of rage, cringing fear, furious power, and a sense of perpetual and unresolved outsiderness." He rated it 17th of 30 top acting performances of the 21st century. [22]
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys called Norbit his favorite movie in a 2007 interview with the Asbury Park Press . [23]
Director Brian Robbins reacted to the negative reviews claiming that "The only films that get good reviews are the ones that nobody sees. I just don't think you can make movies for critics". He also defended his star-driven, high-concept movies’ approach to filmmaking, and praised Murphy's performance, saying that "Eddie Murphy plays three amazingly different characters brilliantly. How could you not praise that? No offense to Alan Arkin, but he couldn't do what Eddie did in 'Norbit.'" [24]
Jim Emerson of RogerEbert.com agreed that filmmakers like Robbins should ignore critics, and made note of the ancient analogy about McDonald's and food critics. He suggested that Robbins' films "were neither designed for, nor marketed to, people who pay all that much attention to movie critics". Nonetheless, Emerson pointed out several of the top grossing films of 2006 got both good reviews from critics and gained wide audiences. [15]
Industry projections expected Norbit to earn about $20 million in its opening weekend, [25] [2] and Paramount was projecting earnings of $25 million. The film opened to $34.2 million in the United States, and was Eddie Murphy's 14th #1 box office opener. [26] [27] The film earned $95.7 million at the North American domestic box office, and $63.6 million in other markets, for a total of $159 million worldwide. [1] The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2007, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being overtaken by 300 . [28] [29] [30]
Norbit was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, and won three awards, all for Eddie Murphy as three different characters. [31] The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup. [32]
Award | Category | Subject | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards [33] | Best Makeup | Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji | Nominated |
Alliance of Women Film Journalists [34] | Hall of Shame | Won | |
BET Awards [35] | Best Actor | Eddie Murphy (also for Dreamgirls ) | Nominated |
Golden Raspberry Awards (2007) [31] | Worst Picture | John Davis, Mike Tollin and Eddie Murphy | Nominated |
Worst Director | Brian Robbins | Nominated | |
Worst Actor | Cuba Gooding Jr. (also for Daddy Day Camp ) | Nominated | |
Eddie Murphy (as Norbit) | Won | ||
Worst Supporting Actor | Eddie Murphy (as Mr. Wong) | Won | |
Worst Supporting Actress | Eddie Murphy (as Rasputia) | Won | |
Worst Screenplay | Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Charlie Murphy and Eddie Murphy | Nominated | |
Worst Screen Couple | Eddie Murphy (and either Eddie Murphy or Eddie Murphy) | Nominated | |
Golden Raspberry Awards (2009) | Worst Actor of the Decade | Eddie Murphy (also for The Adventures of Pluto Nash , I Spy , Imagine That , Meet Dave , and Showtime ) | Won |
Golden Schmoes Awards [ citation needed ] | Worst Movie of the Year | Nominated | |
Kids' Choice Awards [36] | Favorite Male Movie Star | Eddie Murphy | Nominated |
Women Film Critics Circle Awards [37] | Most Offensive Male Character | Eddie Murphy (as Rasputia) | Won |
Hall of Shame | Won |
The soundtrack for Norbit was released on February 6, 2007 by Lakeshore Records. [38] [39]
Several songs were used in the film which do not appear on the soundtrack album, in order of appearance:
The song "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" is sung at Norbit and Rasputia's wedding party, but likewise does not appear on the soundtrack album.
Norbit was released on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and HD DVD on June 5, 2007. [40]
Edward Regan Murphy is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He had his breakthrough as a standup comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; he is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. He has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2023.
Coming to America is a 1988 American romantic comedy film directed by John Landis, based on a story originally created by Eddie Murphy, written by David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein, and starring Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Madge Sinclair, and Shari Headley. It tells the story of Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda who travels to the United States in the hopes of finding a woman he can marry and will love him for who he is, not for his status or for having been trained to please him. The film was released in the United States on June 29, 1988.
Daddy Day Care is a 2003 American family comedy film starring Eddie Murphy in the lead role, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn, Regina King, and Anjelica Huston. Written by Geoff Rodkey and directed by Steve Carr, it marks Murphy and Carr's second collaboration after Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001). The plot follows two fathers who start a child day care out of their home after they are laid off from their corporate jobs.
Mission: Impossible 2 is a 2000 action spy film directed by John Woo, and produced by and starring Tom Cruise. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996) and the second installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film also stars Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Šerbedžija and Ving Rhames. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) teams with professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Newton) to secure a genetically modified disease, Chimera, held by rogue Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Sean Ambrose (Scott), who is Nordoff-Hall's former lover.
Melanie Thandiwe Newton, formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress. She has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity.
Twins is a 1988 American buddy comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman. The film is about unlikely fraternal twin brothers who were separated at birth. The core of the film is the contrast between the streetwise Vincent (DeVito) and the intelligent but naive Julius (Schwarzenegger).
Harlem Nights is a 1989 American crime comedy-drama film starring, written, and directed by Eddie Murphy. The film co-stars Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Michael Lerner, Della Reese, and Murphy's older brother Charlie. The film was released theatrically on November 17, 1989, by Paramount Pictures. The film tells the story of "Sugar" Ray and Vernest "Quick" Brown as a team running a nightclub in the late 1930s in Harlem while contending with gangsters and corrupt police officials.
Boomerang is a 1992 American romantic comedy film directed by Reginald Hudlin. The film stars Eddie Murphy as Marcus Graham, a hotshot advertising executive who also happens to be an insatiable womanizer and male chauvinist. When he meets his new boss, Jacqueline Broyer, Marcus discovers that she is essentially a female version of himself, and he realizes he is receiving the same treatment that he delivers to others. The film also features Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt and Chris Rock.
48 Hrs. is a 1982 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Walter Hill, from a screenplay co-written with Larry Gross, Steven E. de Souza and Roger Spottiswoode. It stars Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy as a cop and a convict, respectively, who team up to catch two hardened criminals. Titled after the amount of time the duo has to solve the crime, 48 Hrs. was Joel Silver's first title as a producer.
Holy Man is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston, Robert Loggia and Jon Cryer. The film was a commercial failure and received negative reviews from critics.
The Number 23 is a 2007 American psychological thriller film written by Fernley Phillips and directed by Joel Schumacher, his 23rd film. Jim Carrey stars as a man who becomes obsessed with the 23 enigma once he reads about it in a strange book that seemingly mirrors his own life. The film was released in the United States on February 23, 2007. This is the second film to pair Schumacher and Carrey, the first being Batman Forever. The film was a financial success, grossing $77.6 million, but received generally negative reviews from critics. Despite this, Carrey was proud of the film, saying: "I was able to explore the darker edges of my personality, which really was a blast and something different for me."
Best Defense is a 1984 American action comedy film, starring Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy. The original music score was composed by Patrick Williams. It was released by Paramount Pictures.
The Nutty Professor is a 1996 American science fiction comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Jerry Lewis, which itself was a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The film co-stars Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle, and John Ales. Filming began on May 8, 1995, and concluded on September 8, 1995. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film won Best Makeup at the 69th Academy Awards.
The Truth About Charlie is a 2002 mystery film directed, produced, and co-written by Jonathan Demme. A remake of Charade (1963), it stars Mark Wahlberg and Thandiwe Newton in the roles played by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade. The film is also an homage to François Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960) complete with the French film star Charles Aznavour, making two appearances singing his song "Quand tu m'aimes".
Meet Dave is a 2008 American science fiction comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and written by Bill Corbett and Rob Greenberg. It stars Eddie Murphy in the title role, Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms, Scott Caan and Kevin Hart. The film was released on July 11, 2008, and grossed $50 million against a $60 million budget.
No Reservations is a 2007 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Scott Hicks and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, and Abigail Breslin. The screenplay by Carol Fuchs is an adaptation of an original script by Sandra Nettelbeck, which served as the basis for the 2001 German film Mostly Martha, and revolves around a hard-edged chef whose life is turned upside down when she decides to take in her young niece following a tragic accident that killed her sister. Patricia Clarkson, Bob Balaban, and Jenny Wade co-star, with Brían F. O'Byrne, Lily Rabe, and Zoë Kravitz—appearing in her first feature film—playing supporting roles.
The 28th Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, were held on February 23, 2008, in Santa Monica, California to honor the worst films the film industry had to offer in 2007. The nominations were announced on January 21. In line with Razzies tradition, both the nominee announcements and ceremony preceded the corresponding Academy Awards functions by one day.
The Razzie Award for Worst Screen Combo is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film pairing or cast of the past year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of the awards, along with the film(s) for which they were nominated.
A Thousand Words is a 2012 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Brian Robbins from a script by Steve Koren, co-produced by Nicolas Cage, and starring Eddie Murphy. It was released in theaters on March 9, 2012, four years after it was filmed. Critics panned the film as formulaic and outdated, and for miscasting Eddie Murphy in a mostly silent role. It is currently one of a small number of films with a 0% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It was also a box office bomb, having grossed just $22 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. As of 2024, it is the last film directed by Robbins, as he would move on into a career as a media executive, ultimately leading to a role as chief executive officer of what became by then Paramount Global by 2022. It would ultimately also be Murphy's last film appearance for four years, until he appeared in the 2016 independent film Mr. Church.
the year's biggest opening so far
'Norbit' comes to HD DVD simultaneous with its debut on Blu-ray (and standard-def DVD).