Opinions
WTF: The Academy Award Nominated Norbit?
Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 23, 2008
Like most movie fans out there, I made a point to check out the Oscar nominations this Tuesday morning. And while there were a couple curve balls (like Tommy Lee Jones’ nom for his role in the exceeding awful In the Valley of Elah), most of the films on the slate were no big surprise.
Except one… Norbit.
What the fuck?
Who could have predicted that one of the worst-reviewed films of the year (with a mere 9% fresh rating from RottenTomatoes.com), a film that arguably cost Eddie Murphy the Oscar last year, would have a shot at the most prestigious award in cinema?
Sure, the nomination was for make-up, which I suppose is somewhat accurate because turning the nuptial-busting Murphy into a fat chick and an old Asian dude isn’t the easiest task. But Norbit?
To be fair, Rick Baker (who is responsible for the make-up) is one hell of an artist, and he is behind another Oscar nomination for Eddie Murphy in the opposite of black-face – Coming to America. Murphy seems to be a career boon for Baker, who was also nominated for two other Eddie Murphy films, Life in 1999 and The Nutty Professor in 1997, the latter for which he won.
But Norbit? Doesn’t good taste preclude any sort of award consideration for a movie this bad? After all, no one nominated Battlefield Earth for Best Special Effects or Showgirls for Best Costume Design.
For a second year in a row, Eddie Murphy has managed to play the biggest joke on Hollywood. And sadly, for the rest of our lives… for the rest of eternity… when someone looks up Norbit on IMDb.com, there will be a blue hyperlink in the “Awards” section, that leads you to a (hopefully) unsuccessful bid at Oscar gold.
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4 Comments
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I hope someone from the Academy looks back on this and says “What the fuck were we thinking?” I really don’t think the Academy did a good job at all. I can let American Gangster slide for best picture but Denzel should have been nominated for best actor. Cate Blanchett shouldn’t be on there for Elizabeth: The Golden Age either. And they left out a lot of films from the best documentary and foreign language film categories. “Surf’s Up” over the Simpsons movie? “300″ not nominated for visual effects? That film is a revelation in that department. All of this deserves a WTF?
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I love you, Kevin Carr.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I think you are really off the mark here. The award is for the make-up, and the relative
quality of the movie shouldn’t matter. As you point out, Baker’s work is extraordinary.
Battlefield Earth didn’t get nominated because it had poor special effects, not because those
effects were in a bad film. The costumes in Showgirls were nothing special, certainly not in
the top five of that year.
A Ferrari is still a Ferrari, even if it’s driving on a dirt road.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:19 am
That make-up was fantastic, so you clearly are talking out your ass.
American Gangster was a bore