The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

The Nutty Professor
An obese man in a tweed suit and glasses, reflected in the mirror is a skinny man wearing a skintight leotard
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tom Shadyac
Produced by
Screenplay by
Based on The Nutty Professor
by Jerry Lewis
Bill Richmond
Starring
Music by David Newman
Cinematography Julio Macat
Edited by Don Zimmerman
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • June 28, 1996 (1996-06-28)
Running time
 95 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $54 million[2]
Box office $274 million[2]

The Nutty Professor is a 1996 American slapstick science-fiction comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Jerry Lewis, which itself was a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The film co-stars Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle and John Ales. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film won Best Makeup at the 69th Academy Awards. [3]

Murphy portrays a university professor, Sherman Klump, a kind-hearted man who is morbidly obese. A research scientist, academic, and lecturer, Klump develops a miraculous, but experimental, weight-loss pharmaceutical, and hoping to win the affection of the girl of his dreams, tests it upon himself. Like the original film's Julius Kelp, Klump's vigorous, charismatic, but evil alter ego takes the name "Buddy Love". Murphy plays a total of seven characters in the film, including Sherman, most of Sherman's family (except for his nephew, Ernie Klump Jr. played by child actor Jamal Mixon), and an over-the-top parody of Richard Simmons.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios.

Plot

At Wellman College, thousands of hamsters overrun the campus after being accidentally released by Sherman Klump, an obese, loving, and kind-hearted professor. Meanwhile, Sherman has created an experimental formula that reconstructs the DNA of an obese person in a way that allows them to lose weight more easily.

After his lecture, Sherman meets and instantly falls in love with Carla Purty, a chemistry graduate who is a big fan of his work. After dinner with his impolite family, Sherman asks Carla out on a date, which she accepts, much to Sherman's surprise. The date begins well with Carla showing admiration for Sherman's work, but the club's obnoxious guest comedian, Reggie Warrington, publicly mocks him about his weight. Sherman becomes depressed and has a nightmare in which hospital surgeons try to operate Sherman from a virus that mutates him into a rampaging giant and wrecks the city with a single fart that is ignited to cause an explosion. He tests his serum on himself and loses 250 pounds within seconds. Overwhelmed by his immediate weight loss, he goes out and buys copious amounts of normal-sized clothing to celebrate, and a $47,000 Dodge Viper RT/10 sports car on his faculty expense account. However, Sherman discovers that the effects of the serum are only temporary.

Concealing his true identity, Sherman adopts a false identity, "Buddy Love", and invites Carla out on a date at the same club again. Reggie is present again, and Buddy takes revenge by heckling him mercilessly. Sherman's "Buddy" persona starts to develop an independent personality due to the heightened testosterone levels of the transformation, gradually changing from his regular good-natured self to perverted and super-confident. Klump's assistant Jason spots Buddy fleeing the scene after he is identified as the person who left Klump's credit card at the bar. Jason follows Buddy and witnesses his transformation back into Sherman Klump.

The next morning, Dean Richmond has set up a meeting with Sherman and wealthy businessman Harlan Hartley at The Ritz to explain the serum in the hopes of gaining Hartley's $10,000,000 donation to the science department. However, Sherman arrives at The Ritz as Buddy with Carla. When Richmond spots him, Carla asks Buddy if he will take Sherman's place; he does, taking all the credit of Sherman's work. Hartley and Richmond are very impressed, and Richmond invites him to the Alumni Ball the next night. Meanwhile, Buddy picks up three beautiful women, much to Carla's anger, who dumps him and walks out. He invites the women and many other people back to his place for the night to throw a party and has sex with the three women.

Richmond not only fires Sherman, but gleefully tells him that Buddy will be taking his place at the Alumni Ball. Sherman sees a taunting videotape from his alter ego and decides he has had enough of Buddy, taking the decision to destroy all of the serum samples, which he does with Jason's help. Sherman plans to set things right with Carla and get the grant from Hartley. Unfortunately, Buddy planned for this by hiding a sample of the serum in one of Sherman's diet shake cans, which Sherman drinks, causing him to transform into Buddy again. Jason tries to stop him from going to the ball, but Buddy knocks him out with a single blow to the face and departs.

At the ball, Buddy demonstrates the effects of the serum to the audience, but Jason arrives in time, as he has found out that Buddy's testosterone levels are at a lethally high 60,000%. Buddy plans to drink a large sum of the potion to get rid of Sherman for good; Jason knows that if he drinks it, it will kill Sherman and possibly Buddy. The two of them get into a brief fistfight, but Sherman begins to fight Buddy from within. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self and admits his misdeeds to the shocked audience, including his parents; he says that Buddy was who he thought he and everybody else wanted him to be, and that he should accept himself for who he is. As he leaves, Carla stops him and asks why he lied; he says he did not believe that she would accept him. While they don't initiate a romantic relationship, Sherman and Carla remain friends and share a dance together. Richmond rehires Sherman and Hartley gives the donation to Sherman because he is "a brilliant scientist and a gentleman."

Cast

Production

The Nutty Professor was the first Tom Shadyac film to feature outtakes over the closing credits. The film also has a series of scenes with Murphy and comedian Dave Chappelle who plays insult comic, Reggie Warrington. Much of their dialogue was improvised. Murphy was one of Chappelle's biggest comedic influences.[4] Reggie Warrington is named after Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, brothers, and directors of one of Murphy's previous films, Boomerang.[5]

While the film was made with the help of Jerry Lewis (he was an executive producer for both this film and the 2000 sequel The Klumps), he later recanted his position in an interview in the January 30/February 6, 2009 edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He was quoted as saying, "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."[5][6]

Reception

Critical response

The Nutty Professor has received generally positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 64% based on reviews from 55 critics.[7] Metacritic gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4, calling it "a movie that's like a thumb to the nose for everyone who said [Murphy had] lost it. He's very good. And the movie succeeds in two different ways: it's sweet and good-hearted, and then again it's raucous slapstick and bathroom humor. I liked both parts."[9] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, writing "You can feel Murphy rediscovering his joy as a performer. He rediscovers it, too, as Sherman Klump, a fellow who, much like Murphy, is on the bottom rung, desperate to reinvent himself, and — at long last — does."[10]

Box office

The Nutty Professor was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 overseas, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.

Awards

Soundtrack

Year Title Chart positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
U.S. U.S. R&B
1996 The Nutty Professor
  • Released: June 4, 1996
  • Label: Def Jam
 8 1
  • US: Platinum

Sequel

A sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps was released on July 28, 2000.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (12)". British Board of Film Classification. July 9, 1996. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "The Nutty Professor (1996) (1996) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com.
  3. ↑ "The 69th Academy Awards (1997) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Dave Chappelle". Inside the Actors Studio. Season 12. Episode 10. 2006-02-12. Bravo.
  5. 1 2 "15 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'The Nutty Professor'". Mental Floss. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Why 'The Nutty Professor' is still a classic after 51 years". New York Post. June 7, 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Nutty Professor". rottentomatoes.com. 28 June 1996.
  8. ↑ "The Nutty Professor". Metacritic.
  9. ↑ Roger Ebert (28 June 1996). "The Nutty Professor". suntimes.com.
  10. ↑ Barry Blaustein; Jerry Lewis; Steve Oedekerk; Bill Richmond; Tom Shadyac; David Sheffield. "The Nutty Professor - EW.com". Entertainment Weekly's EW.com.
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