THE NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS
US, 2000, 106 minutes, Colour.
Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson, Larry Miller.
Directed by Peter Segal.
The Nutty Professor, 1996, had a lot of laughs but it is not in the genre of elegant comedy. Over 30 years before Jerry Lewis made the original a star vehicle for himself and a means to be taken seriously as a comedian. He used his gawky screen persona but, by using the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, he updated the change so that a suave Jerry Lewis emerged - with the ominous name of Buddy Love.
Now Eddie Murphy has taken over. But, instead of having a `nerdish' professor, we have a very fat professor as the Dr Jekyll equivalent. Mr Hyde becomes Buddy Love again, but he is not suave, he is a completely egotistical variation on Eddie Murphy as we know him from his movies! Who is the real Eddie Murphy?
This Nutty Professor was especially geared, as are so many of Eddie Murphy's movies, to a Black American sensibility. It was a success at the box office and so a sequel which was well received by friends. This kind of comedy does not travel so well (as in the family dinner scenes where Murphy plays the part of other members of his family, including grandma). Audiences who don't find bodily function humour funny should also be warned.
But, as in the first film, the sympathetic way in which Murphy (and his complex makeup) portrays the professor, who is so self-conscious and awkward and whose subconscious surfaces in Buddy Love, creates a humane character and shows Murphy's skills in character acting. He is extraordinarily versatile.
The plot, science experimentation again, trying to find a potion to make creatures younger, is the framework, plus Sherman Klump’s wooing of Janet Jackson, and his conflict with his university boss, played with his usual sardonic humour by Larry Miller.
While there are a number of writers credited, including the Weitz brothers, they don’t seem to be necessary. Rather, Murphy, doing even more characters in the family, plays it like stand-up comedy routines – routines with a little plot around them.
For the next twenty years, Eddie Murphy had quite a lot of lower points in his career, but an Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls and acclaim for My Name is Dolemite.
