To Be a Clown.

Eddie Murphy, who claimed Jerry Lewis's comic mantle with his remake of "The Nutty Professor," borrowed Lewis's inflections and genial-nebbish persona for the title role of "Norbit" (DreamWorks), a mild-mannered orphan, but he cuts loose as Rasputia, the abusive harridan Norbit marries. Raised by three thuggish brothers to take whatever she wants, whenever she wants, Rasputia is a demon of appetite in all its varieties, and Murphy, playing her in a grotesquely large fat suit, turns her into an uproarious villain. Under the hilarious mischief, Murphy unleashes an id-storm of feminine terror in a daring act of self-liberation--yet Brian Robbins's aimless direction gives him little more than a bare stage for it.

The sure-handed genre master John Landis directed Murphy in the 1988 comedy "Coming to America" (Paramount) as Akeem, an African prince who goes to New York disguised as a poor student in the hope of finding a wife. The film's sharp comic timing, keen attention to the story's Queens locations, and jovial devotion to people at work--whether in the fast-food restaurant where Akeem finds love or in the barbershop where he finds wisdom--suggest Landis's comic debt to Howard Hawks, to whose "A Song Is Born" he pays visual homage. Though Murphy amazes and delights in multiple roles (as does his co-star, Arsenio Hall), the effect is one of impersonal virtuosity: neither he nor Landis seemed to need each other's distinctive talents.

Jerry Lewis's antics ...