comment #1

christian says ...

gimme a break.

yeah the sanctity of the academy is the question after nominating a screenplay in which a man brings a bag of shit to a dinner party and testicles are dropped on his face .

but NORBIT? do not besmirch the holy oscar!

hypocrisy, thy name is hollywood.

comment #2

wayne76 says ...

yeah, good point...Norbit and Borat are totally identical in execution, intent, and context. Gimme a break.

One doesn't have to like Borat, but surely the most casual of observers can distinguish between what Sacha was aiming for in Borat vs. Eddie Murphy's tired-ass, farting-around-in-fat-suits schtick.

comment #3

MathewM says ...

Norbit looks like trash. They're clearly aiming this POS at the low-brow "African American" market. What's insulting is that Murphy should be above doing this type of film. In the end though it just shows that Murphy is nothing more than a washed up hack. Why the fuck should I care though? I dunno' maybe because he's worth a hundred million and I'll flip the channel as soon as his smug ass wins the Oscar. Flipping channels during the Oscars is becoming more and more frequent every year.

comment #4

wayne76 says ...

Oscar ceremonies + DVR = a match made in heaven

comment #5

MathewM says ...

BTW I skipped over Borat too for similiar reasons. Truth is that film critics are by and large idiots...not stupid but they are idiots.

comment #6

rocco says ...

Stop calling these take-down pieces, you are purposely spinning them that way...these people are commenting and speculating, you are campaigning...I know you are smart enough to know the difference, stop patronizing yourself.

comment #7

storymark says ...

The more I read of Jeff's lastest "take-down" crusade, the more I want Murphy to win.

comment #8

bacio says ...

didn´t wells have a Julia Roberts takedown campaign (sort of) before Erin Brockovich, The Mexican being her "Norbit". well it didn t help

comment #9

wayne76 says ...

Honestly, Murphy flat out doesn't deserve it. Who cares if he's a prick, or if he has a Norbit TRILOGY coming out, he's not the best of the five. Well, he's not the best of four (I haven't seen Blood Diamond)

he's fine in Dreamgirls, but he can't hold a candle to Wahlberg, Arkin, or Jackie Earle.

comment #10

MASON says ...

Speaking of movies that look bad, go check out the trailer for "Mr. Brooks" at quicktime.com. It appears Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, and Dane Cook (killing his movie career once and for all) have made the script Charlie Kaufman's brother wrote in Adaptation. That's right, "The Three" has finally arrived.

comment #11

The Movie Man says ...

"The Three" was released a few years ago, it was retitled "Identity" and directed by James Mangold.

comment #12

Ju-osh says ...

Murphy's camp should embrace the whimpering of the Oscar purists and make a new ad for Norbit. One that announces it is as the 'new film from Academy Award nominee Edward Murphy', uses a James Howard score snippet, slow motion cinematography and long, uncut takes.
(Oh, and send JW some flowers with a nice note attatched.)

comment #13

T. S. Idiot says ...

What's strange about all this is that Murphy had to know he had Oscar potential for DG and had to know that Norbit would have the effect it's having. Money is more important than glory? He's wonderful in 48 Hrs. and Bowfinger, and I don't care if he is an asshole. To paraphrase Redford's father in Downhill Racer, the world's full of them. I would love to see him win an Oscar but not for a piece of crap like DG, even if he's the best thing in it. Go Arkin!

comment #14

Josh Massey says ...

I thought Identity was fantastic, by the way.

comment #15

PanTheFaun says ...

Look, I know everyone knew "Norbit" was going to be a piece of shit, but having seen it last night: it's worse than you think. It's not just stupid and pandering (duh), it's borderline-imcompetent and shrill, and flat-out staggering. I was seriously blown away by this film, and can't recall a film I've seen in theaters that trumps it for badness (a hyperbolic statement I know, but I've wracked my brian and I really can't).
Adding insult to injury, I saw it in a completely fully 500-seat theater in Baltimore, and even it's target audience barely chuckled through it. The 6 year old boy sitting behind me seemed to enjoy it the most. I would think maybe this was a little bit below the Wayans brothers, but as many terrible movies Murphy has made, I could never imagine he'd do something as piss-poor as this.

*SPOILER*
The "evil because she's fat" villain Raputia, gets her comeuppance by having the chinese character (also played by Murphy) scream "Whale Ho!" and throw a harpoon at her asshole.

I hate to jump on Wells' spiteful bandwagon, especially because I think Murphy was very good in "Dreamgirls" (though nowhere near Jackie Earle Haley), but I think this more than merits him losing the Oscar.

comment #16

JD says ...

I have to agree with wayne76 that the other performances in the category are superior to Murphy's (including Djimon's). I actually preferred Jamie Foxx's creepily sleazy and subdued performance in Dreamgirls to Murphy's. But part of me thinks the message in Jeff's "take-down" crusade is slightly misguided. By giving Murphy an Oscar wouldn't they be encouraging him to make more quality films and less Norbits? That's a good thing. Then again, I do get the impression that Murphy is saying, "You Oscar people are beneath me. I got rich without you and I'll stay rich without you." Of course, there's always the chance that Jeff is irrelevant and people will just vote for the performance they like the most.

comment #17

berg says ...

I saw NORBIT (peace prize) the other night, and while it was not great it was far more amusing than Music & Lyrics and Because I Said So ... I even laughed out loud at the "Satanic Mr Potato Head" gag

comment #18

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

I just want to know which insulated-in-Hollywood-land-of-anorexia geniuses thought there was a huge market out there for (yet another) comedy making fun of fat black women. Because there's nobody like that in the target audience for an Eddie Murphy movie. Probably the same geniuses who passed on The Passion of the Christ because who'd have ever guessed that anyone in America was interested in Jesus?

comment #19

Mike Schaefer says ...

Murphy will win his Oscar for Tons O' Fun: The Martha Wash Story.

comment #20

The Movie Man says ...

Guys, Eddie Murphy is not exactly the first person to follow Oscar bait with a shitty paycheck movie, for some stars its practically tradition. This thread is sort of stupid.

comment #21

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

It's one thing when you just happen to have a paycheck job in theaters-- as Sally Field famously did when Beyond the Poseidon Adventure opened right after her Best Actress Oscars.

It's another when everyone associates you with having squandered your talent on paycheck movies-- I mean, a string of pieces-of-shit like Pluto Nash, The Haunted Mansion, Life, Metro, Holy Man, etc. is really a marvel to behold.

comment #22

christian says ...

remember, michael caine was filming JAWS 4: THE REVENGE to miss out on his best supporting oscar...

comment #23

T. S. Idiot says ...

JD: "By giving Murphy an Oscar wouldn't they be encouraging him to make more quality films and less Norbits?" Did this work for Nic Cage and Halle Berry?

comment #24

nola says ...

as a black woman I am so over all these stupid movies where a black man puts on a fat suit. why did Thandie Newton agree to be in this movie? It's a sad state of affairs.

comment #25

Terry McCarty says ...

I second Movie Man's assertion.

Re Nola's post--
Thandie Newton is in NORBIT for the same reason Cuba Gooding, Jr. is.

Is it too late for Thandie to make more movies with either John Duigan or Jonathan Demme?

comment #26

D.Z. says ...

At least Murphy will win a Razzie.

comment #27

Josh Massey says ...

Not terribly important, but I'm not sure where the writer gets off calling The Haunted Mansion a flop. It did $75 domestic and another $106 foreign. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but not a disaster either.

And Shirley MacLaine followed Terms of Endearment with The Cannonball Run II. That should be remembered.

comment #28

T. S. Idiot says ...

Cannonball Run II is art compared to the smug sentimentality of Terms of Endearment, the second worst film to win the Oscar--after F. Gump, of course.

comment #29

Josh Massey says ...

Oh, how soon we forget. The worst movie to ever win Best Picture only won about 350 days ago.