Norbit

  • Review Date: June 4, 2007
  • PG-13
  • Genre: Comedy
  • 2007
 Review

Common Sense Media says

Another fat suit for Murphy, another bad movie.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that kids who liked Murphy's Nutty Professor movies may very well want to see this one, too, despite the fact that it's rife with raunchy humor and stereotypes. Most of this centers on the large body of Murphy's female character, Rasputia, and includes wide-angle shots of her flesh (looking menacing and grotesque) and jokes about her appetites for sex and food. Rasputia is also cruel, which means that many jokes feature her physically abusing Norbit. Sexual allusions are swift, crude, and frequent. Violence is cartoonish and loud (bodies fall, fly through the air, and hit each other). Language is relatively mild but incessant -- primarily "damn," "hell," "ass," and "bitch."

  • Abusive, mean-spirited bullies; blatant racial stereotypes prey on Chinese and Italian characters, African-American pimps, an overbearing African-American woman, and an elderly Caucasian woman; characters cheat, lie, and commit adultery; plenty of fart jokes and "gross-out" eating jokes.
  • Repeated hard hits, falls, throws; father dumps swaddled baby from car; threat to kick teeth out; at fairground, kids are thrown through air and land hard; Rasputia hits a pug dog with her car and breaks its legs (it appears in casts later); Rasputia frequently abuses Norbit (knocking him out at one point); harpoon-throwing; aggressive slapping; hard falls off bicycle; climactic fight features many whomps and hits with implements.
  • Nonstop sexually themed jokes and innuendo. Frequent gags about Rasputia's sexual appetites and body (breasts set off car horn, cleavage is visible, bikini shows lots of skin, shots of nipples through clothes, she washes car in slow motion); pimps evaluate/disparage women and talk about "johns" and "bitches" one sexual scene shows a woman dressed as a chained slave and a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln; sexualized dance moves; sex game features "squealing like a pig" joke about adulterer's erection; sexual allusions like "tap ya" and "power tap" several references to "titties" and "strip joint"/"titty bar" (to be called "Nippolopolous"); visual bikini wax joke (violent and sexual); joke about trying to "nail" a girl; romantic kisses between Norbit and Kate.
  • Lots of name-calling ("stupid," "ugly," "gorilla," "bastard," "screwy"); many uses of words like "ass," hell," "s--t," and "damn" (and more than 20 uses of "bitch"); sexual slang ("ho," "whore," "skank"); jokes about not liking "black people" or "Jews."
  • Reference to Mentos; pimps drive Cadillac.

What's the story?

Nerdy, well-meaning Norbit (played by Eddie Murphy as an adult) grows up at an orphanage run by Mr. Wong. At age 5, Norbit's best buddy is Kate, but when she's adopted, they lose track of each another. He's soon approached by a large girl named Rasputia, who beats up the kids who pick on him and expects utter subservience and loyalty in return. Norbit agrees to her terms, going so far as to marry her when he comes of age. Their marriage is rendered in a few horrific montages and short scenes, focused mainly on how Rasputia overwhelms Norbit in bed. Her dominance is bolstered by her big brothers -- Big Jack (Terry Crews), Earl (Clifton Powell), and Blue (Mighty Rasta) -- all of whom are aggressive and menacing, not to mention greedy. When Norbit discovers that Rasputia is cheating on him with her aerobics instructor (Marlon Wayans), he finds solace with Kate (Thandie Newton), who's returned to town to take over the orphanage.


Is it any good?

 

The plot of director Brian Robbins's comedy matters little, except that it serves as an excuse for racist, misogynist, and other stereotypes. Of course, there's Rasputia. Mr. Wong (also played by Murphy) is another egregious stereotype, "Chinese" pronunciation jokes abound. Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams portray pimps, still more stereotypes to laugh at.

Norbit finally realizes he's in love with Kate and gets up enough nerve to leave his wife, despite her physical abuse. This passes for resolution and is underlined when Rasputia suffers some awful mistreatment, primarily at the hands of Mr. Wong, who inexplicably practices whale-harpooning and so gets to yell out, "Whale, ho!" as he assaults her. Bottom line? This is a pointless exercise in gross-out humor that will probably offend just about everyone.


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What families can talk about

Families can talk about the appeal of gross-out humor. Where do you draw the line between silly and offensive? Is it funny to see actors dress in drag and/or bury themselves in fat suits? Why? Rasputia is a strong, powerful woman -- but she's also cruel, self-indulgent, and constantly the butt of jokes for her voracious appetites. As a consequence, what messages does the movie send about body image and gender roles? Why do you think Eddie Murphy is drawn to make movies like this?


This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Teen, 15 years old
January 12, 2011
 
Pretty borring, but good in some parts.
Sometimes gets borring, but i liked it.

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Parent of 10 and 12 year old
June 23, 2009
 
WATCH IT OR DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE IT!!!! I RECOMEND IT FROM AGE 2-89 (IT MAY BE SCARY 2 THE ELDERLY).WATCH IT!!! O AND ITS VERY POSITIVE TWARD MARRING URSELF!!!

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Teen, 16 years old
December 27, 2008
 
Funny....But not too funny
This movie is pretty good, but you won't be craking up,it also has some problems: 1. mostly comic and slapstick violence, resputia thretens to kill people. 2. racist and sexual jokes mixed in with the language, witch includes D--n,A-s,Bi--h (that one often), and H-. 3. Norbit and reputia have sex mutiple times, resputia wheres outfits so tight you can see the outline of her nipples, resputia cheats on norbit, two pimps make many sexual refrences, it is shown that a man has been with 4 difrent wemon. This a good movie for kids 13 and up for a few laughs.

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Parent
July 22, 2011
 
NOT APPROPRIATE
Look here, this movie was way, way, way! to sexual, and plus, i had to turn it off and tell my kids they couldn't watch it, and that was under thirty minutes. This movie is OK for vulgar minded people, but not a family film.

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Parent
March 15, 2010
 
Norbit
I'm not a big Eddy Murphy fan, but this movie cracked me up from beginning to end.

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Adult
May 16, 2009
 
NO KIDS!
This movie has too much sex and rasputia says bad words in like every sentence and rasputia is such a bad role model You should be at least over 18 to see this movie . this movie should be rated R

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Kid, 12 years old
October 11, 2009
 
Awesome but haven't finished
I haven't finished watching it yet but bad language throughout the whole movie. not really nudity but nearly. STRONG SEXUAL CONTENT

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Kid, 12 years old
December 29, 2008
 
best of eddie murphy
it was great funny and innapropriate.

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Teen, 16 years old
February 6, 2011
 
Awful
Do not let your kids see this, and do not be fooled by the PG-13 rating... it is very, very inappropriate, not to mention, suckish... only one or two short moments are even relatively funny. Don't even bother watching it if you're an adult... it's a waste of time

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Teen, 16 years old
November 7, 2010
 
Spare your brain cells, you'll need them someday.
This is by far the dumbest movie I have ever watched, worse than Sharkboy & Lavagirl. The thing is that Eddie Murphy is capable of making funny movies, but for some reason he chose to scrape the bottom of the barrel with this one. Non-stop sexual jokes and situations, violence, swearing, bad acting, and dumb jokes. Don't watch unless you want a brain hemorrhage.

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Teen, 18 years old
June 17, 2009
 
Bad, only watch if really bored
This movie is horrible but if you want to watch it go ahead

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Kid, 12 years old
March 20, 2011
 
I just saw a little clip of it on TV because wipeout went off and I was too lazy to change the channel, and then I saw the lady in the pink thiings and they wer abotu to do "it" so i changed because i knew I wether have no engry than to be scarred for life! :p

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Parent of 9 and 14 year old
July 7, 2010
 
Eddie Murphy Raunch
Really shouldn't let the little ones watch this...raunchy.

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Teen, 16 years old
June 14, 2009
 
I loved this movie!! funniest thing in the world!! i saw it when i was 11, and it was fine for me to watch! ya, it has a litle bad parts but all movies do anyways!! funniest thing on earth!

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Teen, 14 years old
June 1, 2009
 
is the best movie ever!
i love it

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Parent
May 2, 2010
 

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Teen, 14 years old
November 25, 2009
 
FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER!
FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER!!!!! 11+

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Parent of 13 and 15 year old
June 30, 2010
 
PG-15, maybe, but don't waste your time in any case.
Apalling. And this is rated PG-13? There are R-rated movies that I would let my kids watch before I'd let them watch this one again (they saw it at a friends house, which brings up a whole 'nother issue...."Oh, we don't let our kids watch R movies!" Yeah, but have you seen the "PG-13" movies you're letting your 11-yr old an my daughter watch?).

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Adult
June 14, 2010
 
very funny
i love this movie its funny 13 and over for sex watch this movie

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Teen, 17 years old
December 24, 2008
 
best comedy ever
VERY APROPRITE FOR CHILDDREN MUCH RECOMENDED FOR CHILDREN 2 AN UP.

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This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Studio:DreamWorks
Director:Brian Robbins
Cast:Eddie Murphy, Terry Crews, Thandie Newton
Genre:Comedy
Theatrical release date:February 8, 2007
DVD release date:June 5, 2007
MPAA rating:PG-13
MPAA explanation:crude and sexual humor, some nudity and language.

This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
 

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ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
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