Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Norbit-ing yourself

Remember how Eddie Murphy had a lot of Oscar buzz for Dreamgirls and then Norbit came out, which a lot of media types speculated ultimately cost him the Oscar? I remember reading that the studio had offered or even wanted to push back Norbit's release date, but Murphy insisted that it go out on its scheduled date. Well, that's staying true to your roots, I suppose.

This crossed my mind because I saw a commercial for Underworld 3 tonight. Having no interest in vampire films, I've never seen 1 and 2. And the first thing I thought was, "Whoa, Norbit." Not that Michael Sheen has any Oscar buzz -- perennial bridesmaid, and anyway, Frost/Nixon's not that amazing a film, I don't think, which hurts Oscar bids (cf. Being Julia) (my opinion of F/N will be forever suspect because I so worship the play). But IF he did...

Ditto for Anne Hathaway and Bride Wars. I saw the trailer for it with Australia, and it looked so bad that my friend actually grabbed my arm in horror. And then we watched Australia. Not the best money I've ever spent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ha. interesting phenomenon. When it comes Underworld, you are lucky you haven't seen them. I saw the second one and it was the worst thing I had ever seen until I saw "Wanted". The entire theater was laughing at the guy in the back who came in with a quick quip at the climax, rather than even feel a tiny bit of relief at the danger for the main character. Then again, I have been advised (only by women, strangely) that the only reason to see those movies is for the lascivious lingering on Kate Beckinsale.