Norbit

Norbit
A large woman on top of a small man Theatrical one-sheet poster for Norbit
Directed by	Brian Robbins
Written by	Eddie Murphy Charlie Murphy Jay Scherick David Ronn (screenplay) Eddie Murphy Charlie Murphy (story)
Produced by	John Davis Mike Tollin Eddie Murphy
Starring	Eddie Murphy Thandie Newton Terry Crews Eddie Griffin Katt Williams Cuba Gooding, Jr. Clifton Powell Lester "Rasta" Speight Marlon Wayans
Cinematography	J. Clark Mathis
Edited by	Ned Bastille
Music by	David Newman
Production companies	Davis Entertainment Tollin/Robbins Productions
Distributed by	DreamWorks
Release date	February 9, 2007 (2007-02-09)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000
Box office	$159,313,561

Norbit is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Eddie Murphy and Thandie Newton. Produced by Davis Entertainment and Tollin/Robbins Productions, the film also stars Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Lester "Rasta" Speight, Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Marlon Wayans, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.. It was released by DreamWorks on February 9, 2007.

Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji received an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup, though garnering many nominations and wins at the 2007 Golden Raspberry Awards. Although it received negative reviews by critics, the movie was a commercial success.

Plot

Norbit Albert Rice (Eddie Murphy) and Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton) were the best of friends in an orphanage as children owned by their father figure, Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy), but were separated when Kate was adopted. After being bullied by twins in the orphanage, Norbit meets Rasputia Latimore (Eddie Murphy), a morbidly obese, self-centered, overbearing, vain girl who makes Norbit her boyfriend and protects him from other kids. As they both grow up, Rasputia dominates every aspect of Norbit's life and they eventually marry. Rasputia mistreats, insults, and dominates Norbit to ensure that she keeps him to herself. She even sexually dominates him. Whenever she is in the mood, she dresses in revealing costumes (sometimes relating to holidays) and runs and launches herself at Norbit on their bed, usually breaking the bed and injuring her husband in the process.

Years later, Norbit is performing a puppet show for the children at the orphanage when he sees Kate for the first time in years. Stunned by her, his affection for her returns. He is disappointed to find out that she is engaged to Deion Hughes (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a sneaky, slick-talking businessman.

Eventually Kate and Norbit fall in love with each other, resulting from Kate teaching Norbit how to finally ride a bike. Rasputia finds out about Norbit and Kate's affection for each other and tries to prevent Norbit from talking to her. Things become more complicated when Norbit uncovers a plan by the Latimore brothers (Terry Crews, Clifton Powell and Lester "Rasta" Speight), who wish to purchase Kate and Norbit's former orphanage to open up a strip club. The brothers convince Deion to become their business partner in the venture. When Kate finds out about the deal she assumes Norbit was behind it all and only used her. When she confronts him after he is locked in the basement by a resentful Rasputia. Norbit lies to Kate to save her from Rasputia (who threatened to pour acid on her if Norbit continued to see her). In a fit of rage, Kate leaves Norbit to marry Deion. Norbit escapes his confinement in the basement, and races to the church where Deion and Kate are to be married. Norbit reveals that Deion has gotten rich off of divorce settlements, and only marries women for their money; he proves this by presenting Deion's ex-wives and children in person. Deion flees, and the Latimores attack Norbit.

Just as the brothers prepare to kill Norbit, the townspeople arrive, who have all taken arms to defend Norbit and get revenge on the Latimores. Rasputia fights her way through the crowd, and just when it looks like Rasputia is unstoppable, she is harpooned in the rear by Mr. Wong. She is chased out of town with her brothers, who are chased by the mob of townspeople.

Kate and Norbit buy the orphanage and get married under the tree that they once played as children. Rasputia and her brothers move to Mexico and open up the "El Nipplopolis" with Rasputia, who has become their most popular and lucrative stripper.

Cast

• Eddie Murphy as Norbit Albert Rice, a cowardly and ugly nerd and the film's main protagonist. / Rasputia Latimore, a morbidly obese and evil woman and the primary antagonist of the film. / Mr. Wong, Norbit and Kate's adoptive father.
• Thandie Newton as Kate Thomas, Norbit's love interest and friend.
• Terry Crews as Big Black Jack Latimore, the oldest of Rasputia's brothers.
• Lester "Rasta" Speight as Blue Latimore, one of the other brothers.
• Clifton Powell as Earlington "Earl" Latimore, another one of the brothers and the baby of the group.
• Eddie Griffin as Pope Sweet Jesus, an ex-pimp.
• Katt Williams as Lord Have Mercy, Pope's sidekick and friend.
• Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Deion Hughes, Kate's former husband and the secondary antagonist.
• Marlon Wayans as Buster "Bust-A-Move" Perkin, Rasputia's ugly tap-dancer.
• Anthony Russell as Sam Giovanni, the owner of Giovanni's.
• Michael Colyar as Morris the Barber, the barber who owns his shop.
• Pat Crawford Brown as Mrs. Henderson, an elderly woman and Lloyd's owner.
• Charlie Murphy (voice) as Lloyd the Dog, Mrs. Henderson's pet dog.
• Khamani Griffin as 5 year old Norbit
• China Anderson as 5 year old Kate
• Austin Reid as 9 year old Norbit
• Lindsey Sims-Lewis as 10 year old Rasputia

Reception

Critical response

Reviews are overwhelmingly negative. Review aggregate website RottenTomatoes gave the film a score of 9%, based on 10 fresh reviews out of 116, and selected top critics giving it a combined score of only 4%. The consensus described Norbit as "a cruel, crass, stereotype-filled comedy that's more depressing than funny".

Metacritic gave the film a score of 27 based on 26 reviews which were generally unfavorable.

Box office

Despite being critically slated, the film was a success at the box office. The movie opened to $34.2 million in the United States and was Murphy's 14th #1 box office opener.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released on February 6, 2007 by Lakeshore Records.

1. "Standing in the Safety Zone" - The Fairfield Four (2:41)
2. "It's Goin' Down" - Yung Joc (4:03)
3. "You Did" - Kate Earl feat. The Designated Hitters (2:26)
4. "I Only Want to Be with You" - Dusty Springfield (2:37)
5. "Milkshake" - Kelis (3:04)
6. "Shoppin' for Clothes" - The Coasters (2:58)
7. "Walk It Out" - Unk (2:54)
8. "Looking for You" - Kirk Franklin (4:06)
9. "Sweet Honey" - Slightly Stoopid (3:52)
10. "The Hands of Time" - Perfect Circle (6:19)
11. "Young Norbit" - David Newman (3:33)
12. "Queen of Whores" - David Newman (:46)
13. "Kate Returns"/"Tuesday, Tuesday" - David Newman (3:24)
14. "Norbit Sneaks Out" - David Newman (:33)
15. "Rasputia's Fury" - David Newman (1:44)
16. "Norbit and Kate" - David Newman (:55)

"Don't Cha" performed by The Pussycat Dolls was used in the film, but does not appear on the soundtrack album.

Awards

The film was nominated for 8 Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, and won 3 awards all for Eddie Murphy as three different characters.

Golden Raspberry Awards

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director
• Worst Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Norbit)
• Worst Actor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.)
• Worst Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Mr. Wong)
• Worst Supporting Actress (Eddie Murphy; as Rasputia)
• Worst Screenplay
• Worst Screen Couple (Eddie Murphy and either Eddie Murphy or Eddie Murphy)

Academy Award

• Best Makeup (nominated)

TV Airings

The film made it's network television premiere on Saturday April 24th 2010, on ABC. However, the network edited out most of the profanity.

External links

• Official website
• Norbit at IMDb
• Norbit at AllMovie
• Norbit at Box Office Mojo
• Norbit at Metacritic
• Norbit at Rotten Tomatoes