Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)

1.5 out of 4

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson, Larry Miller, Sylvester Jenkins, Jamal Mixon, Earl Boen, Chris Elliot

Director: Peter Segal

Time: 106 mins

The 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor was the film that brought comedian Eddie Murphy back from the box office wilderness. Following a string of hits in the 80s with the likes of Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and Trading Places, he hit a bit of a rut with indulgent and poorly received fare like Harlem Nights and Boomerang. While loosely based on the 1963 original starring Jerry Lewis as a timid college professor who concocts a serum that turns him into a virile, outgoing man, the 1996 version had enough caustic and toilet-based jokes to rake in the dollars. There was one scene in this remake that audiences seemed to love: a dinner with Sherman Klump's (Eddie Murphy) family (most of whom were also played by Eddie Murphy, with the help of some great make-up) where crudity knew no bounds. The filmmakers, seeing the $ signs once more, have taken this cue and made a sequel with a lot more emphasis on the Klump family. Personally, I thought the 1996 remake was fairly dull, with a funnier sequence being when Klump's creation Buddy Love rips into the stand-up comic at the nightclub, rather than the scene at the Klumps' dinner table. But who am I to argue?

Murphy plays multiple roles again, much like he did in the original remake and also in Coming to America. Not only does he play Sherman Klump, the genial but overweight science professor, he also takes on the roles of Sherman's mother, father, brother, and grandmother! There's also Buddy Love, the conniving alter ego that Sherman struggles to control, as well as a Richard Simmons (the aerobics guru) look-alike. The make-up, courtesy of Rick Baker, is, as you would expect, amazing and pretty much flawless. Baker must also be one of Eddie's best friends (or is that vice versa?), having worked on him in the two Nutty Professors, Coming to America, and last year's Life.

The story goes like this: Sherman Klump (Murphy) is still having problems with Buddy Love, the testosterone-overloaded man he created in the first film, while trying to romance fellow professor Denise Gaines (Janet Jackson) and perfecting the formula for a concoction the college's Dean Richmond (Larry Miller) labels the "fountain of youth". When a freak accident lets Buddy out into the world again, Sherman must find a way to contain him before his own brain cells go to mush. Meanwhile, his father Cletus is having relationship problems with his mother Anna, while oversexed Grandma Klump looks to "get it on" with anyone she finds to her liking, including Buddy himself!

Though subtitled The Klumps, the film is still centred on Sherman and his eternal quest to be rid of Buddy. As characters, the Klumps are fairly amusing, though the preponderance of crude jokes gets a bit thin after a while. The 1996 version had flatulence galore, and while this aspect has been trimmed (after all, the fifteenth time someone breaks wind is just not funny anymore), the ear-churning sex-speak is still prevalent. It's also hard to hear some of the lines spoken by the Klumps, a natural by-product of Eddie having to do so many different voices. The character of Buddy Love was nasty and funny in the original, which brought Eddie's talents to the fore. Here Buddy seems tamer and almost like an afterthought, as if the film needed a villain and Buddy was the best character on hand. It would probably have been better to ditch the Buddy Love storyline altogether and concentrate more on the Klumps, as the film's funny trailer had promised. But, alas, that isn't the case, and we have almost a rehash of the first movie's plot.

Eddie is making a career out of playing multiple characters (having also done so in last year's Bowfinger). He is nothing short of excellent in his many roles, but he is somewhat shortchanged by the script's insistence on tired, low-brow humour. Eddie can be hysterically funny with naughty humour (watch his stand-up performance in Delirious and you'll know what I mean), but the stuff in Nutty Professor II isn't very original or funny. Singer Janet Jackson plays the love interest, and though her smile is nice, her acting is rather awkward. Larry Miller adds a bit of fun as Dean Richmond, especially as the victim of an experiment gone horribly awry (Ouch! is all I can say). Groundhog Day alumnus Chris Elliot makes an all-too-brief cameo appearance as a restaurant worker.

There could have been a lot done with Nutty Professor II, especially with the Klump family. There are intermittent giggles to be had throughout the film, but most of the time you'll be groaning at the incessant toilet jokes. That's a shame, as Eddie is brilliant in all his roles. What he really needs is a script that allows him to be charismatic, warm, cocky, and funny at the same time.

(c) Joe Wong (16 December 2000)