? A meek man (Eddie Murphy) marries a bossy fat woman (Eddie Murphy) whose brothers are secretly scheming to buy the restaurant/orphanage where he grew up from its elderly Chinese owner (Eddie Murphy) and turn it into a “titty bar.” Thandie Newton plays the major character not played by Murphy, a skinny childhood sweetheart who reenters his life along with her new fiancée (Cuba Gooding Jr.).
+ The lengthy, silly prologue, set in the orphanage, sets you up for a series of lame pratfalls that, thankfully, never come. Norbit is actually a reasonably appealing character, although you wonder how he acquired the quasi-lisp Murphy’s given him, since it’s not apparent in the childhood scenes. He’s something like Forrest Gump if he were a little smarter and the movie he was in was a lot dumber. Murphy’s mimicry skills serve him well when he plays the racist yet kindly Mr. Wong, who provokes very occasional snickers.
- Who would have thought that Eddie Murphy would have looked at Martin Lawrence and gotten jealous of his fat suit? This will only be hilarious if you think Lawrence’s Big Momma movies needed more fat jokes. Momma, and Murphy’s rotund Nutty Professor, were essentially positive characters, but “Rasputia” is a pure villain, and the main figure of fun as well. Rasputia can’t fit behind the wheel of the car, Rasputia’s passionate lovemaking style breaks the bed until it’s reinforced with concrete, Rasputia’s rolls of fat hang so low you can’t see if her bikini has a bottom, etc. You’ll get the idea very quickly. Everything else is nearly worthy of a second-rate sitcom.
= *1/2 Not quite the worst movie to open in the first two months of 2007, but not funny by a long shot. Take the kids if you want them to learn to mock fat people, call women “bitches,” and think of pimps as someone to seek out as friends. Give me The Adventures of Pluto Nash (Murphy’s 2002 megaflop) any day. Seriously.
IMDB link
reviewed 2/16/07
No comments:
Post a Comment