Touching The Void (2003)

I don't know why I waited to watch Touching The Void. I guess I felt there was no sense of urgency to watch it; maybe I felt like I knew how it would play and that it would be predictable thereby rendering it unnecessary. But when I noticed it was coming on tv, i was keen to watch- maybe out of residual bonhomie from 127 Hours - ideal double-bill partners.
Not that they're especially similar the main difference that tragic accident in that movie means the guy is completely stuck- in this movie, the unfortunate climber has to keep moving or he will DIE. The other main difference is that this movie is told in interview and narration by the real people involved, with actors reconstructing the events.
Which brings me to one of my original preconceptions - if these guys are being interviewed, then by proxy- we know they've survived and if we know that where does the dramatic tension come from? Well to highlight my naivety, as with 127 Hours, The question becomes not did they survive but how did they escape their desperate situation? And in the broad sense, what does it feel like to be in that situation and an extra dimension not in 127 Hours, what is it like leave your best friend to save yourself?
It's at these points where Touching The Void shines with Simon Yates and Joe Simpson's intense honesty about their thought processes in these life-or-death situations like Simon admitting to thinking about coming up with a different story to explain what happened to Joe to explain why he didn't make it back so he wouldn't have to say, he cut his rope loose to save himself. It's moments like this that make the drama all the more accessible because... In that situation, you know in your heart-of-hearts, you'd be thinking the exact same thoughts and there's an unspoken agreement there between them because Joe would have done the exact same thing and says as much. But then besides the gallows-mindset, when Joe had to pull himself together to stay alive; he develops this fully understandable, petty system to make himself work harder and improve his time descending the mountain, in the way, any of us would in the way we work at work everyday.
It's an admirable debut from Kevin MacDonald and certainly better than recent effort, The Eagle. MacDonald was a producer on Senna and he's certainly better with the documentary/true story stuff like Last King of Scotland . I'm not writing the guy off just yet but Kev- Stay in the yard of the last century, yeah?

I watched Touching The Void (2003) on FilmFour.
My 2011 in Movies will return with CopOut (2010)...

Brazil (1985)

Maybe it’s just indicative of my ‘ornry’ personality but the most interesting, engaging thing about Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is the ‘custody battle’ that surrounded its American release.
Now none of even it’s most ardent supporters/fans would suggest that this film was a commercial motherlode and even in pre-production it would have been clearly far-out and an ‘acquired taste’; I use that term specifically- I don’t think there’s anything about the film that’s beyond the average person’s conception or imagination BUT it’s very arch, exceedingly bleak in places, phantasmagorical and emotional yet illogical. But then, that goes for most Terry Gilliam films.
The obvious point being that this was not something a studio like Universal should have touched with barge-pole. Studio head- Sid Sheinberg, to many the literal godfather of the ‘blockbuster‘ and Steven Spielberg (metaphorically), saw what Universal probably chipped in half the budget for (5-7mill), and saw something they would struggle to sell. (So would I… There’s a completely tenuous reason for the film to be called Brazil for starters. Don’t ask me what I’d call it… ‘The Steampunk Bureaucracy’…’‘1985’?!).
Something pertinent (I feel) that gets left out of the discussion of that mild skirmish is that in 1985, there was no studio-‘art-house’ labels like Focus Pictures or Fox Searchlight, that would underwrite this sort of kooky, medium-scale film for your overseas markets and Western pseudo-intellectuals like me.
If you can’t already tell, I’m not the greatest fan of Terry Gilliam movies; I always feel like I should like them more then I do. I think he’s a great visionary stylist and he made a significant contribution to comedy with Python, which gave birth to more DIY dark animated comedy, and he’s a massively charismatic public figure but I have trouble dialling into his movies and Brazil is no different.
But I have to give the man credit for landing this purposely convoluted with a lot of different messages like homeland security and surveillance, bureaucratic superstructures and the day-job and as well as this, the film is set in this world of 30’s/40’s style with 80’s technology. It’s not for me but he created a British fantasy epic.
The delicious irony in the American battle for control of Brazil, that this film about getting lost on the industrial ladder and fighting against it, managed to break free from its creatively corrupt overseers and blossom due to grass roots support for it…

I watched Brazil (1985) on BBC2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Touching The Void (2003)...

Ip Man (2008)

As much as i want to like and/or love kung fu movies, they never resonate with me as well as I would hope. I really like Enter The Dragon and Kill Bill Vol. 1 but secretly stuff like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Iron Monkey sends me to sleep. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive to look at and i love all the wire work but the stories are DULL. But I keep coming back, which leads us to Ip Man. I must have seen Donnie Yen be alright to middling in about 10films but i couldn't tell what they were or if he was actually in them; Ip Man is my eyes and probably others is where he begins to make a lasting impression.
It's the true(?) story of Martial Artist Master Ip and his journey through the last years of the second World War 2. At the start, he has a nice house and surroundings for his wife and child and has a lord of the manor respect around a town famous and full of martial arts masters and schools. His life and temprement are modest and he is happy to practice his art with friends and colleagues. By the 2nd act of the film, his family are homeless and destitute, due to the invasion of China by the Japanese; and yet, he remains strong is spirit; not resting on his laurels to provide for his family by finding manual labour but his trouble really begins when a narcissistic Jap General decides to organise fighting tournaments between the Chinese and Japanese...
In this film, Yen gets to play a character, just short of an Asian 'Superman', he is modest, honest and true. When he hears that people are being beaten and killed, he's desperate to help and when the town are being subjected to bullying by a gang of thugs, he teach them all how to fight his style of 'Wing Chun'. He inspires his town to rise up and defend themselves and they in turn, inspire him to continue fighting and rebelling against their oppressors. Yen, obviously good at the tough stuff is surprisingly effective at the dramatic and emotional 'actory' parts, playing not the hardman hero with the one-liners but a thoughtful and obstensively peaceful man fighting to save lives.
If you couldn't tell, what engaged me about this film over other similar movies was the story and this career defining role by Donnie Yen. I'm looking forward to Ip Man 2, which is already available and i understand that Ip Man 3 is on it's way too....

I watched Ip Man (2008) on FilmFour on 9th June.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cinema Paradiso (1988)...

Citizen Ruth (1996)

First of all, Citizen Ruth reminded me about solvent abuse.
God... No one does that anymore do they? Used to be a major thing. And I remembered that and i don't know why that is something inordinately funny about huffing glue to me. I guess compared to other drugs, it doesn't look so severe. You just look like you're having a panic attack.
Anyway, this film is about a women who's addicted to doing this (as well as anything else she could get her hands on) and finds her self pregnant. Due the continuous habit of Ruth (played by Laura Dern) getting getting caught and having her 4th or 5th child at this point, she's advised by a judge to have an abortion. This begins a battle between the hard left and hard right to decide the future of this fetus.
I first found out about this film while reading Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures. It's an incredibly rich idea or concept and the idea has always stuck with me. It seemed impossible to me that that could ever make a comedy out of it and land it as well. But surprisingly, it can have it's cake and eat it!
By some act of movie miracle, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor manage with their debut film to make a generally even-handed movie about Abortion and have it be thoroughly hilarious as well as sensitive and affecting. First off the script is solid and it's perfectly paced with a strong sense of story. They also wrote a great character in Ruth and it's the best thing I've ever seen Laura Dern ever do. Ruth is an incredibly stupid person, who unfortunately also has a bad addictive personality. She's selfish and childish and i guess that takes the sting out of the tail of all the A-word talk because she's so unaware of herself, she doesn't understand the severity of her choices and Dern hits the nail on the head perfectly, not by portraying her as a junkie but as a wholly lazy woman.
Other notable cast members include Swoosie Kurtz and Mary Kay Place playing right wing protesters and everyone's favorite American bureaucrat prick, Kurtwood Smith as their leader. They're all playing roles that they've all done before several times but it works for the film to make for a realistic environment for when things get more incredulous.

I watched Citizen Ruth (1995) on BBC 2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Bridesmaids (2011)...

Mary and Max (2009)

Today's entry grows weirder by the description. An Australian animated film (I don't recall Australia ever making any animation...) about the pen-friendship between a little Aussie girl and a middle aged fat New York.
Both are desperately lonely in their world and struggle to get along and make sense of it. Together, they become co-conspirators and find solace in the others letters.
Writer and director, Adam Elliot likes skirting very close to very uncomfortable comedy; like every 2mins something almost heartbreaking almost happens but he reigns it in before it does and that's his skill. Mary and Max is consistently on the verge of something tragic happening but it continues to be warm and funny. As well as Elliot writing, this film has life breathed into it by narration by Barry Humphries and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, playing Max. Hoffman Max is caught perfectly between Moe the Bartender and James Gandolfini.

The Boys From Brazil (1978)

A bit of late 70's bio-thriller today, courtesy of Lew Grade. Grade was the man at popularising commercial television in this country, with his ITC but he just couldn't replicate that success into the movies. Sure, he had mid-level successes with On Golden Pond, Sophie's Choice and this film, The Boys From Brazil but they always just made their money back despite general positive critical feedback.
And to be fair, there's nothing particularly tv-movie about the film; it's filmed in many different countries, it's directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, who directed lots of blockbusters in the 60's and 70's like Planet of the Apes, Papillion and Patton and it stars the likes of stars like Larry Olivier, Jimmy Mason and Greg Peck. It also features briefly Steve Guttenberg and Prunella Scales but still Olivier and Gregory Peck and the latter playing Josef Mengele. He ain't Atticus Finch no more!
Also no slouch is the fact it was based on the novel by Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives.
For those of you who don't know, the story is that Mengele comes out of hiding to with a plot to reinvigorate the Aryan race, administered by a secret Nazi organisation and an old Nazi hunter (played by Olivier) has to find out the plot and stop them before it too late.
What I love about this film apart from watching Peck, gleefully ham it up as a baddie after decades and decades of being true-blue on-screen, is how it gradually disseminates information to the audience and the gallows dark humour and pulpyness of it all.
Like obviously, we're talking about ethnic cleaning and the most evil men of the last 100years, who's atrocities still haunt us today but this film is kinda like weird  Bond movie, where the bad guy is diabolical and James Bond is a 80yo doddering Jewish guy. It's definitely kinda funky but that's why it's fun to watch like any exploitation movie. It's like a Dan Brown novel adapted for the screen by Rob Zombie. It's just well made pulpy adult entertainment and a lot of fun to watch. Exciting, well written, great acting. I mean it's totally lurid and ludicrous in its psudo-science but you don't care. Because Gregory Peck is wearing a moustache and talking in a weird stupid German accent and that means he's an evil prick. Yeah...

I watched The Boys From Brazil (1978) on BBC2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Hangover: Part 2 (2011)...

Black Narcissus (1947)

This is going to be a strange one. Right off the bat, i must be said - this is another brilliant film from Powell and Pressburger and might be unique in the sense, it might be equally remembered or more so by its cinematographer, Jack Cardiff than the writer/directors themselves - Cardiff was truly an artist in the broad sense.
But all the way through Black Narcissus, i strangely felt like it would make for a great high-school play.
It's all about love-unrequited and requited, isolation, chastity and devotion. There's fun parts to play, it's theatrical and colourful. I was no drama-kid but that would have been interesting and ambitious... especially in Welsh.
It's about a group of nuns who travel from Calcutta to the Himalayas, to set up a place of education and worship; as i say that, it seems like colonialism but their actions seem more education-based and less in based in Christian-teaching. As they get there, they find their local guide to be the strapping Mr Dean and their building to be a former harem.
They're lead by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), a relatively young, devout servant of God with her own issues of pain and regret and as you might imagine she finds this Mr Dean, quite boorish if charming. But her problems include a young general wanting to study in this place of women and children as well as an troubled earthy young woman called Kanchi, played by Jean Simmons. Later on, she will have to fight with Sister Ruth, who herself is troubled by the trappings of her vocation.
I may be naive but I'd like to think teenage girls would be all about this sort of thing and it's certainly a great feminist story, where they are strong and complex; who earn their own respect and most them don't have their self-respect dictated by men.
You fall in love with these characters like Clodagh and Kanchi, especially Sister Ruth.
Clodagh is, like a lot of strong women, struggling with little support as gracefully as she can while dealing with inner and outer turmoil and trying to make her sisterhood a success; Kanchi is the definition of a nubile young woman- she's affectionate and mischievous, sensual yet naive. She's just a delight to watch and not over played, something you might worry about since she's played by white woman Simmons. But most of all, I love the character of Sister Ruth, played gleefully arch by Kathleen Byron. If there's a villain of the piece, she's closest as she becomes this demonic unbeliever but you can completely understand her struggle with her vows and unrequited love for this Mr Dean. Maybe I just have a soft spot for the crazy ones...
But as i said at the start, the real star of this film is the superlative work of Jack Cardiff and this film is masterclass of colour and light on film. I mean, this was 3years after WW2, so you know there's no way they went to the Himalayas to shoot this film but there are moments you forget and the film has not aged at all...

I watched Black Narcissus (1947), on tv on FilmFour.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Blitz (2011)...

Tooth Fairy (2010)

No, Thomas Harris hasn't written a barrel-scrapping origin story of another of his human-recycling serial killers, the only one scrapping barrels is me. And The Rock. And Steve Merchant. And Julie-look everyone involved was probably well-recompensated except me.
What horrified me most was that it wasn't as offensive as i thought it would be...
I don't know why action stars do this sort of family-movie type tut. They're ostrisizing the exact people that made them -males, 18-30. I guess they might insinuate that, they're trying to broaden their acting 'range' but if that was the case, do tv. It'll be a pay cut but at least it'll be well written. Don't get me wrong, I like Dwayne Johnson; i think he's a great comedy actor with a strong sense of self-awareness but why Rock, why!?  That peaked my curiosity as well as the inclusion of Stephen Merchant. They must have offered him so much money he had to accept or enough money to think it had to be worth going for. Same with Julie Andrews.
The story is identikit to most of its predecessors; grumpy dink has to change his ways via a silly fantasy macguffin or he'll lose his family and he learns life lessons along the way and right at the end, he has to make a choice between money and running to a school to see some cute kid do something pertaining to aforementioned cuteness.
BUT as i say amazing this film wasn't the disproportionate abortionate confection I suspected it might be. It's no Citizen Kane but no Martin Lawrence movie either. The Rock is good at some of the comedy stuff, not so hot on the mandatory melancholic /heart-warming moments though his part is wholly forgettable, which is serves both him and the audience. Merchant is obviously solid on the comedy and equally good at acting the melancholic moments, which is an unexpected surprise and he and Johnson make for a good double act. But Julie Andrews should know better. It's seriously disconcerting to see someone of her stature peeing her credibility away but then she's Julie freakin Andrews- she's got more credibility stored then she could ever spend. Billy Crystal pops in for a few also. I didn't realise Billy Crystal was the sort of comedic elder statesman who could just walk in and out of films willie-nillie like he was Steve Martin or Cleese. Billy Crystal, i respect you but what have you done for me lately? Ashley Judd comes thru to play 'age-appropriate love interest'. There was a time (late 90's), where she was neo-Con totty, like an M&S by which i mean, S&M Sandra Bullock but now she looks pregnant constipated all the time. She looks like she stumbled on the wrong set from a NCIS guest spot, in a Milupa stupor.
I shouldn't be doing movies like this on the blog but i haven't watched a movie just to pick on for ages and it's fun!
This movie is the equivalent of bad white wine- I'll politely drink and then be bemoaning it cos I'm drunk but wasn't that the point in the first place?

I watched Tooth Fairy (2010) on the missus's swanky Sky Movies Premiere.
My 2011 in Movies will return with On Tour (2010)...

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

It's been a while since we've watched some Polanski on the blog, but today we're watching his most infamous film, Rosemary's Baby. Maybe it's so infamous becuase it was released the year before Polanski's own bride- Sharon Tate and their child were murdered by the cultish Manson Family, a bitter case of life imitating art but Rosemary's Baby's appeal has never seen it wane as an iconic horror classic.
Last of the old school moguls, Robert Evans- brought Polanski over to direct this from a bestselling novel, and it marked the first time Polanski had directed in America and the first wrote on his own, although he'd always had a hand in the writing and this would be his 5th film.
Maybe it's the subtext that the film is caught between these 2worlds at the end of 60's - the young embracing the emergence of European astetics and the old who could remember wartime America. The young couple are bleeding cool with her super-short, super-iconic Vidal Sassoon haircut and his professional acting career- ideals that would have been strange even 10years before vs. the old pushy old guard that 'know better' and nosey and yearn for simpler times.
Yet there's the delicious irony being that this couple generally do want to conform to having a nice house and for the wife to stay home with the home and family, while their elderly neighbours are Satanic witches who are always trying to drug you so they can live forever!!! 
Mia Farrow in her most famous role (FFFFFFF YOU WOODY.) plays the mother to be and i'm tempted to say, she's not very good at acting at this point if you couldn't pass it off as admissible naivety in this part. She's either shy and blank or out of her gore with paranoia. I'd like to level the same accusation to John Cassavetes, who playing her husband, and actor. I suppose playing a successful stage and screen actor as yeoman-like workaday shipbuilding is an original take but i'm not convinced. Need to watch some Cassavetes movies, he reminded me to add his work on the old LoveFilm list. The really great stuff in this movie are the old people; actors like Ruth Gordon- nosey and omnipresent, Patsy Kelly-she doesn't feature heavily but makes a strong impression as would-be Satanic nanny and Ralph Bellamy, who i've been certain was the Devil since I saw him famously, casually use the 'n' word in Trading Places.
But I think Rosemary's Baby's appeal continues because Polanski weighs the paranoia perfectly; i was poo-pooing Rosemary's perceptions as pre-natal depression and then anxiety isn't afraid to be over-the-top and 'arch', in film's concluding scene.
I think as a horror thriller, it quite old fashioned and genteel but then I've never been pregnant with son of Satan. I have had kidney-stones, if that counts...

I watched Rosemary's Baby (1968) on FilmFour
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Cars That Are Paris (1974)...

Appaloosa (2008)

I guess it would seem like I watch a lot of Westerns if i didn't keep saying that I don't watch a lot of Westerns, based on my viewing choices so far.
But I am completely falling for a genre that I've basically dismissed before this year. I guess what I respect about the Western is the simplicity of the storytelling, that there are clearly defined goodies and smelly evil baddies. Maybe that seems to simple for today's standards; I'd say there was a look more 'grey' in characters of the fare of present day but Appaloosa is just simple story told well.
It's basically the story of 2 GOOD bad-asses who are trying to save a town from BAD bad-asses with extreme prejudice. And how they did gleefully murderate anyone who dared mistake their word as anything but the law!
It might not seem like the most exciting cast but Appaloosa makes a great ensemble of actors doing solid work. Ed Harris (also director and co-writer) and Viggo Mortenson play the Sheriff and Deputy until the wheels fall off. You just love these guys all the way. Harris is the old hand straight-shooter with less than perfect vocabulary and social skills and Mortenson is younger-ish loyal erodite sidekick. Sometimes it seems like Mortenson is playing his devotion to his boss and best friend on the knife-edge of homosexuality but it never crosses it. The cast is rounded out with Renee Zellweger as the love interest and Jeremy Irons as the bad guy. To be fair, Zellweger comes across exceptionally well as a frail woman who yearns to be protected by any means necessary; it's the best part for a woman i've seen in a western and Irons? Well he's a bit out of place in this but he's such a great panto villain, it cancels that out. More out of place is Timothy Spall, who I like to think was invited out on a free holiday to South Texas all-in by Ed for a few days work but there's no reason for him to be in the film. Honorable mention to Lance Henrickson for getting a part in something not 'a piece a shot movie'. I know he's been in good films but the ratio is so low that it bares mentioning. Your cat-on-a-washing-line 'Hang In Here' poster is on the way..
Coming back to the classic plotting of a western, there's almost something comforting about the fact you know the heroes, at some point are going to jail the bad guy and there will be a siege on the sheriff's office to have him freed. When it keeps it simple, Appaloosa is entirely effective; the 1st half of the film is really quite brilliant but the 2nd half starts to run out of steam when it tries to force more story in then is necessary but the actor Ed Harris is completely legitimate writer and director and it's a heads above most actor's side-directorial projects...

I watched Appaloosa (2008) on tv - FilmFour, 21st March 9pm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Tournament (2010)...

Teenage Paparazzi (2010)

And so this is the inaugural documentary of the blog. 
I love documentary and I love that documentary is more mainstream and theatrical then ever. Two of the best loved films of last year were Exit Through the Gift Shop and Catfish. But i wanted to define where the line between TV doc. and feature film doc. was- so while i saw Teenage Paparazzo on TV, i decided since it was included at Sundance... I think it counts.


You have to at least admit, it's a direct unmistakable title. The paparazzo is Austin and he's 13. I appreciate that Grenier comes to the conclusion early that we live in a world consumed by celebrity interest, especially by teens and this is LA. Since it only takes a few hours after school, it's practically the Californian equivalent of a paper-round.
Okay, not quite but the film really succeeds in selling one of the most scummy occupations around-it's fast and dangerous, you get to see famous people and get paid stupid money.

What Grenier and his crew brilliantly capture is how equally exciting and terrifying being a pap can be-chasing Austin around as he's chasing Lindsey or be acausted by winos on the late night streets of LA.
By this point you wonder how this situation has got this far? How has Austin survived running with the bloodthirsty LA paparazzi but you seen how much equal respect there is for Austin from the hacks-they protect him in scenes similar to when maggie gets adopted by grizzly bears in the woods on The Simpsons.
But the film also highlights Austin's double standard- he can get great photos cos he's small and he can get people attention cos he's so young.
Austin's mother (his main guardian) comes off pretty well too, as an astute woman, who treats Austin's part-time job like an after school sport and doesn't seem like a 'stagemother' at all. That said, for all her assertions that 'at least he's not on drugs'- considering the aforementioned money and excitement, you could understand how a young mind might become warped by that. Which arrives perfectly on time for the 2nd act development- the teenage paparazzo becomes the focus of worldwide interest... And almost right up until the end, the film doesn't fall into the perpetual mirror-echo of cameras filming cameras.
In it's curiousity about the relationship between the public and celebrity and the weight that fame carries, it's reminiscent of Chris Atkins' Starsuckers except this is more a story than academic indictment.
The paps (and wierdly Lewis Black) argue that celebrities enter the public eye in the hope of attention and that they shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them but i think 'celebs' are prepared to publicise their work as you or i would network for our living but being obstructed and stalked can't be acceptable, can it? I mean Lewis Black is a road Comedian and might work 252days/year but i don't expect he's required to be funny at, say, the dentist and if he is... he probably doesn't feel like it.


I watched Teenage Paparazzo on Channel4. (Unfortunately unavailable on demand...)
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Green Hornet (2011)...

Norbit (2007)

via Etch A Sketchist

I know Norbit is going to be crap.
My expectations are low but here's the reason I want to give it a chance. I was reading an interview with Jon Lovitz on the effervescent AV Club, and he made this argument about Eddie Murphy-

"I was like, “What do you have to do?” He’s playing seven different characters, and he’s funny and dramatic. He’s playing men, women, old people, young people, fat people—everything he’s not.  Now how could he not win the Oscar for that? It’s because they go, “Well, he’s just being silly.” No. It’s so hard you have no idea. They’re jealous."

Um... Okay Jon, I'll meet you halfway but lets not throw around the 'O' word. Eddie Murphy is definitely not sleepwalking through these films- you can't be, if you're playing 6 people and they're all in the same scene. And then, I notice Norbit is on so i thought maybe it's time for me to revaluate what Eddie Murphy does.


I've always wondered what happened to Eddie Murphy. He used to make the great films like Trading Places and Coming to America and he was this great stand-up, i only have to think about 'the phone-call with Bill Cosby' bit and i'm smiling- i always thought he just must have been tired with playing the loud, foul-mouthed witty asshole. I mean the best thing, he'd done in the last 15years was the Buddy Love bits (with Dave Chappelle) in The Nutty Professor and that was just battle of the Assholes. 
But then i realised he has been playing assholes- they were just family-friendly assholes, where he learns a lesson in the end. Well, I call bullshit on that- I'd like to see to see Eddie strutting around a stage talking about Mel B. and telling me how she thought, her shit didn't stink but that she was wrong and her shit did and so on and so forth.

Okay, Norbit is no return to form but I'm gonna stick up for it. I had hardened myself for an onslaught of shit and vomit and obesity gags but I was pleased there were no vomit gags, 1 fart joke and... and well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad. The film become really enjoyable when (and stay with me on this) Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams turn up as former pimps because they get to deliver gems like:-

"Poor Norbit. Man. Back when I was in the game, used to tell my hos, "Hos, ain't no man gonna pay for the cow if he can get the milk for free." You ain't gonna worry about this brother buying the milk, 'cause he just bought the whole damn cow."
"That's a special cow, too. That must be where butter milk come from."

So as i've said Norbit's no return to form but i feel like it's Eddie swimming back to the shore. He helped to write it and he's only playing 3 different characters (Norbit, his repugnant wife Rasputia and the racist ass/benevolent softy Mr Wong) and it feels like (to me) Eddie is beginning to wind down. For example, there's the role of a greazy fitness trainer that in previous films, Eddie would have played like a shot but here he hands it off to Marlon Wayans and admittedly, the film would probably be better if he wasn't there (it does however highlight, the 'level' in this film, where he tells someone to 'make like the Bible and turn the other cheek' only to physically turnaround and be buttnaked- That's the level here, folks. Probably not for you.) BUT compared to The Klumps or the cultural anthrax that Friedberg & Seltzer produce like Meet The Spartans, it seems like high subtlety.


(For clarity, i lost this review trying to edit it and did a rush rewrite.. it's only half as good as i remember it.)


I watched Norbit on Sunday 2 Jan on BBC1-lllllate-night.
My 2011 in Movies with return with Owning Mahonwy (2003)