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Avg. Critic Score: 27 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 13+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

75

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick 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

Philadelphia Inquirer | Carrie 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
40

The New York Times | A.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
38

Boston Globe | Wesley Morris
The only recommendable thing about Norbit is that he's not as bad as every other person in this movie. Read full review
30

Washington Post | Desson 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

Variety | Robert Koehler
Murphy's story lacks even the basic form that held most of "The Nutty Professor" together. Read full review
25

New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman
It's hard to know who is the intended audience for this misguided mess. Read full review
25

Entertainment Weekly | Owen 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
20

The Hollywood Reporter | Luke Sader
Racially insensitive, politically incorrect and beyond crude. Read full review
20

Los Angeles Times |
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

Metacritic link View more reviews for Norbit on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Another fat suit for Murphy, another bad movie.

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."

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?

The good stuff

Positive messages: 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.

What to watch for

Violence: 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.
Sex: 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.
Language: 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."
Consumerism: Reference to Mentos; pimps drive Cadillac.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Beer and wine.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.