Sherman Klump is a brilliant, if grossly overweight, professor. Although accepted by his overweight family, Sherman feels that his weight has made him socially awkward. In an effort to remedy the situation he uses one of his own formulas on himself, but instead of a more socially competent Sherman, the formula transforms him into the obnoxious Buddy Love...

The Nutty Professor (1996. 1 hr, 35 min, 02 sec) is a comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac. The movie follows the plot of the original 1963 Jerry Lewis film, except that Eddie Murphy, the film’s star, also - through the wonders of prosthetics - plays his whole family.

Given his morbid obesity, much of the film's jokes are based on the size of both Klump and his family and the amount of farts that fat people can produce. No, we are not talking deep and meaningful here. Like the original film, Sherman falls in love with one of his students, Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett Smith) and it is this which forces him to try his formula. As Buddy Love, Murphy is charismatic, but with an edge, which smacks of narcissism. With both Buddy and Sherman sharing the same body the two fight for Sherman’s life and soul. Obviously, this being a light comedy, it’s no surprise that the fat man gets the girl.

Although the film does have a number of notable actors, James Coburn, Larry Miller and Dave Chappelle included, its real tour de force is the number of different characters played by Murphy. So effective was the makeup that the film won an Oscar for Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson.

The Blu-ray contains only the trailer (1 min, 47 sec) as an Extra. It’s a nice clean print with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track.

7

 

Due to the commercial and critical success of The Nutty Professor, Murphy returned to the role with Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000. 1 hr, 46 min, 47 sec). The film was directed by Peter Segal, with a script which was photocopied from the first movie. The only difference this time around is that Buddy Love is reconstituted from a strand of DNA, this being a comedy, we are expected to throw away any scientific sense we may have.

As this is a vehicle for Murphy to repeat his Klump family, the only notable member of the cast is Janet Jackson, who turns out to be quite a good actress, but basically if you have seen the first film you have already seen the best parts of this one.

The Blu-ray comes with a number of extras. There is a full length commentary by director Peter Segal. Spotlight on Location (24 min, 15 sec) is a mini documentary about the making of the movie. Makeup Application (3 min, 34 sec) has time-lapse film showing Murphy being transformed into Sherman.

Extended Scene: The Restaurant (10 min, 11 sec) has a longer cut of the scene. Deleted Scene: The House Fantasy (1 min, 23 sec) has Sherman showing his prospective new wife their new house; it adds little to the film and is pretty poor quality. Storyboards and Final Feature Comparison has four scenes: The Wedding (1 min, 32 sec), The Bachelorette Party (3 min, 03 sec), The Hamster (2 min, 13 sec) and Babby Buddy (2 min, 52 sec).

You also get Janet Jackson’s 'Doesn’t Really Matter' Music Video (4 min, 46 sec), which appears in the film and has Janet proclaiming her love for Eastenders's Ian Beale, honest listen to it here on YouTube. The disc finishes off with some Outtakes (2 min, 25 sec), basically people messing up and the theatrical trailer (2 min 33 sec).

5

 

Obviously the first film is overall the better one, I’m sure that The Klumps, by being only a minor part of the first movie, seemed funnier than they turned out to be epically when the second film showcases them more thoroughly for less of a comic result.

Charles Packer