Norbit
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: February 9, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
8
Negative:
17
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
If Eddie Murphy gets an Oscar for "Dreamgirls" later this month, the deciding factor with voters may be his performance in Norbit. It's much more impressive than anything he does in "Dreamgirls." Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
The fun in Norbit is watching Murphy at work – the guy has a knack for bringing the physicality of his comic characters to life. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
With his brazen gifts for mimicry, Eddie Murphy may now be the Peter Sellers of blockbuster toilet comedy movies. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Although there's no denying the threadbare nature of the script, watching Murphy riff can be a formidable entertainment on its own. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The question is not whether Murphy can do anything. He can. The question is why he would want to make a movie as squirmingly unfunny as Norbit. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Now we get a lazy Eddie in Norbit, a lackluster attempt to make a gross-out romantic comedy. When I say lazy Eddie, I mean imaginatively lazy. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Norbit might have worked if it had fully committed to being over the top or made Rasputia the lead character and found the human inside the cartoon. Instead, the movie doesn't give us anyone to care about. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Not exactly uproarious. But Mr. Murphy, going back at least to his Gumby and Buckwheat days on "Saturday Night Live," has always had the ability to turn broad caricature into something stranger and more inventive. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There are so many problems with Norbit that when you try to pin one down, another one splooges out elsewhere. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The only recommendable thing about Norbit is that he's not as bad as every other person in this movie. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Norbit is pretty much a bad-taste sinkhole. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Much of the movie -- which Murphy wrote with a small posse of collaborators -- is taken up with the torturously dull, not to mention unbelievable, romance between Norbit and Kate (a disappointingly lackluster Newton) and the tedious agenda of Cuba Gooding Jr. as a schemer-manipulator. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This dismal comedy joins a growing pile of Murphy disasters. Read full review
30
VarietyRobert Koehler
Murphy's story lacks even the basic form that held most of "The Nutty Professor" together. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Murphy speaks in a breathy lisp, as if his mouth had been partially buttoned shut, and he doesn't give himself the nerd's traditional redeeming feature of a geeky, slide-rule intellect. Norbit, all frozen gawk, is just a very dim bulb. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
It's hard to know who is the intended audience for this misguided mess. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Mean-spirited and depressing, this horror movie in comedy disguise delights in the twin spectacles of morbid obesity and domestic abuse, of which children are often the target. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
While there are some scattered laughs, the flimsy and nonsensical script - combined with the sledgehammer direction by Brian Robbins, make the similarly themed "Big Momma's House" look like Noel Coward. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's crass, cruel, and borderline offensive, but the laughs that could redeem all of that are missing. Material as bad as the tripe that comprises Norbit can be endured only if there's a payoff. In this case, the point seems to be that some actors will do anything for a buck. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterLuke Sader
Racially insensitive, politically incorrect and beyond crude. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
Murphy and his brother Charlie, who collaborated on the screenplay, seem to have drawn the wrong lesson from the latter's stint on "Chappelle's Show." Where Dave Chappelle used stereotypes to confront prejudice, the Murphys (and their co-screenwriters Jay Scherick and David Ronn) merely squeeze a few grudging drops from caricatures that were wrung dry in the age of vaudeville. Read full review
20
EmpireTony Horkins
Stereotype-based comedy from Eddie Murphy in a variety of fat suits is just not enough to make a decent film. Read full review
10
L.A. WeeklyRob Nelson
It's an astonishingly crass and vulgar film, crudely directed on a cut-rate budget by Brian Robbins, never more than almost funny or less than disturbing. Read full review
0
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's recidivist Murphy: bad-skit comedy populated by caricatures in search of a movie. Read full review
0
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
There's enough material here to add another hour to Spike Lee's "reel of shame" in "Bamboozled," but hideously offensive black stereotypes are merely the tip of the iceberg. Read full review
0
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Compared to Norbit, “Date Movie” is "Casablanca." If I thought hijacking a plane carrying prints of the film and crashing it into Murphy’s house would put a stop to it, I’d go out and buy a box cutter right now. Read full review
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