If you made it all the way through this past weekend's Super Bowl (and as ugly as the game was and as disappointing as the commercials were who could blame you if you didn't) then you probably discovered along with the rest of us that the makers of the Snickers candy bar apparently think homophobia is still okay. Their obnoxious and idiotic commercial would have been insulting had it not been so stupidly inept, the tale of a pair of accidentally kissing auto mechanics roundly dismissed as being one of the very worst of the entire broadcast.

In that same vein, Oscar-nominated comedian Eddie Murphy apparently feels it is equally okay to demean and to make fun people who are overweight. At least, that's the feeling I got after watching his latest big budget effort Norbit. This supposed comedy goes beyond being just tasteless and vile, venturing instead foursquare into the realm of being blisteringly offensive and downright inexcusable. It is so bad, so unrelentingly awful, it is almost impossible to believe that the star wowed who us in Trading Places and 48hrs, was sensational in Beverly Hills Cop, broadened his range in Bowfinger and finally gained industry and critical legitimacy with Dreamgirls is the same one appearing here.

There really isn't anything to say. Norbit is about as rancid an entertainments as I've ever seen. This PG-13 monstrosity has no business being seen by anyone, let alone carrying a rating that allows impressionable children to watch it. Parents anticipating a The Nutty Professor or Dr. Dolittle type event will be sorely disappointed. The gross sexual innuendos are nearly inexcusable, while the wasting of so many talented performers (including Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams and Marlon Wayans) is blindly depressing. Worst of all is the incessant stereotyping; the stream of ethnic, religious, racial and obese humor so all-pervasive the film ends up becoming a horrifyingly obnoxious endorsement of all of the above.

This movie is just sad. So sad, in fact, I can almost guarantee that when word of mouth on this one starts to get around Murphy will end up losing the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award to either Alan Arkin or Djimon Hounsou. Pity, because his work in Dreamgirls should stand on its own separate from this picture. But it won't, at least I think it won’t, and any industry support he has for that particular performance could be annihilated in a nanosecond thanks to this unctuous and fantastically unpleasant motion picture.

In fact, now that I'm finally thinking about it I can’t bear to continue talking about the thing. It you want a plot synopsis (although why you would I can't begin to imagine) you'll need to look somewhere else, I just don't have the energy to produce one right now. Just know this comedy is the pits, a mind-boggling mess that's as offensive, disgusting and unconscionable as anything I have ever witnessed making Norbit nobody's idea of a good time.

Film Rating: 1/2ê  (out of 4)