Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Chad Polenz)
Date: 26 Jun 1997 15:51:07 GMT

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
                       A film review by Chad Polenz
                        Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz

**1/2 (out of 4 = OK)
1996, PG-13, 95 minutes [1 hour, 35 minutes]
[comedy]
starring: Eddie Murphy (Prof. Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, the entire Klump
family), Jada Pinkett (Clara Purty), Larry Miller (Dean Richmond), written by
David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac, Steve Odekerk, produced by
Brian Grazer, Russell Simmons, directed by Tom Shadyac.

If "The Nutty Professor" is Eddie Murphy's attempt at a "comeback" it's not
a very good one. The film starts off with cartoonish innocence to it, but
eventually it becomes a typical, raunchy Murphy flick just slightly toned
down to appeal to a wider audience. 

The story starts off in a lighthearted manner as we meet Sherman Klump
(Murphy), 400-pound chemistry professor whose obesity keeps getting him in
trouble. Klump is the typical, lonely-but-lovable fat man who can't help but
feel sorry for himself. He tries to exercise and diet, but it just doesn't
work. 

The jokes and the atmosphere revolving around such an easy target seem like
just that: easy jokes and gags that can be funny, be could be even funnier
had they some originality to them. The first such example of this is a
somewhat funny scene involving thousands of hamsters running all over the
college grounds (that escaped due to Klump's massive bulk bumping into
everything). However, this immediate cartoony humor is symbolic of how the
film works as a whole.

And what's a comedy without a beautiful woman? Jada Pinkett co-stars as
Clara Purty, a new chemistry teacher who somehow finds herself drawn to
Klump, and even agrees to go out with him. Let's see... we have a beautiful
woman with a fat man, and they go to a comedy club... the story and the jokes
essentially write themselves from here.

Klump can't take it anymore and concocts a formula that causes him to drop
250 pounds in a few seconds. But when his size changes, so does his
personality, that of the extremely vain, but smooth Buddy Love.

Unfortunately, Love's charm wears out quickly and the film starts to return
to Murphy's vulgar roots. We get sit-com-esque scenes of Love and Purty
arguing with each other even as he seduces her. Then zany scenes as Love
proceeds to become a wiseass who cracks on every person he sees, and even
gets into a fist fight (that's not funny!). I found myself somewhat laughing
at these parts, but I felt like I've seen it all before. The scenes with
Klump had an innocent charm I hadn't experienced in a while, and just as it
started to grow on me the entire film changed and became just another
screwball comedy.

At times the film can be quite gross and offensive to say the least. In
fact, isn't its entire premise a little too politically incorrect for the
times? Fat jokes are funny in passing, so having an entire film revolve
around them is not. Consider the scenes in which Murphy plays every member of
the extremely obese Klump family. All we get is a family arguing with each
other and having farting contests. I laughed at the time, but in retrospect
this type of comedy is pandering the lowest common denominator and who likes
to be pandered to?

Most of the plot of the film involves Klump's struggle to control his
personalities and not get fired and Purty in the process. The battle between
the personalities is what creates for most of the jokes, but the formula
repeats itself often. It all depends on how much of it you can take.

"The Nutty Professor" is pretty funny at times, but is just too contrived to
be taken seriously. The comedy relies a little too much on special effects
and makeup instead of zany situations and dialogue.

[Note: I highly question the PG-13 rating. There is little sex or violence
in this film but there is a great deal of profanity. Not vulgar profanity,
but just disgusting, lowbrow dialogue which proves this is really an R-rated
Murphy flick in disguise.]

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