Released in theaters a little earlier this year, Eddie Murphy's movie Norbit -- in which, once again, he plays way too many different characters, somehow mistakenly thinking that this feat will make up for another not-so-funny comedy -- is already out on DVD and I watched it last night. At least, I watched as much of it as I could bear to sit through before hitting the eject button. Like other comedians and/or actors who have similarly gotten increasingly lamer onscreen over the years (think Ice Cube or Rob Schneider), Eddie Murphy has lost that certain edge that he once possessed long, long ago in his immediate post SNL years. In fact, so lame was Norbit that it forced me to go back twenty years to seek out a clip from Murhpy's 1987 Robert Townsend directed live concert film Raw -- included below.

And speaking of Ice Cube, who has morphed from homeboy in Boyz In The Hood to cuddly family-man in Are We Done Yet? over his 17 onscreen years, the former NWA member has just announced that he will be starring in the forthcoming movie Comeback, to be directed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst for Dimension Films.   Scheduled for a mid 2008 release, Comeback will begin shooting sometime in November.