The Nutty Professor is a 1996 science fiction-romantic comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name starring Jerry Lewis. The original music score was composed by David Newman.
Murphy plays benevolent university professor Sherman Klump who is severely obese. He invents a miracle weight loss potion and, hoping to win the girl of his dreams, tries it on himself. Social situations demand that he call himself by a different name while he is using the potion, and his slim self becomes an independent personality. Like the original film's Julius Kelp, Klump's trim and stylish, but arrogant, alter ego is also named Buddy Love. Murphy plays a total of seven characters in the film, including Sherman, most of Sherman's family (except for Sherman's nephew, Ernie "Hercules" Klump Jr. played by actor Jamal Mixon) and an over-the-top parody of Richard Simmons.
Overview
The film co-stars Jada Pinkett Smith, John Ales, James Coburn, Larry Miller and a then little-known Dave Chappelle. Singer Montell Jordan has a cameo role as himself.
This was Murphy's second film not to be released by Paramount Pictures - which, coincidentally, had produced the 1963 original (and has a joint venture with this version's distributor, Universal Pictures, for international distribution of both companies' films).
The film's theme song is Macho Man by The Village People.
Plot
Lance Perkins (Murphy) is hosting an exercise program on TV for overweight people. Professor Sherman Klump (also Murphy), a kindly, well-liked, brilliant professor of genetics gets ready for work. Meanwhile, hamsters are overrunning Wellman College and causing general chaos. It turns out that these are the school's laboratory hamsters that 400-pound Sherman accidentally released the night before. The problem contained, Sherman is given an update by his assistant Jason (Ales) about their latest project – an experimental formula that reconstructs the DNA of an obese person to make weight loss easy. It seems that their fattest hamster, Shelley, has lost 3 ounces, proving that the serum works. Jason suggests increasing the amount Shelley is fed, but the ever-kindly Sherman argues against it, saying it could be dangerous.
He then has an unpleasant meeting with Dean Richmond (Miller). The Dean tells him that the incident with the hamsters has cost the science department most of its funding. Harlan Hartley (Coburn) is the school's last remaining wealthy alumnus and is planning to award a $10 million grant to the college, and Klump is warned not to alienate him as well.
After class, Sherman meets the lovely Miss Carla Purty (Pinkett), a chemistry grad student teaching a class across the hall who is a big fan of his work, and falls instantly in love with her. Later that night, Sherman dines with his portly family (most of whom are also played by Murphy), and argues with them about obesity. Cletus, his ravenous father, starts his habit of randomly passing gas. Treating this disgraceful procedure religiously, he breaks wind to the point where he has soiled himself (6 times). Sherman is hurt by the comments his father, Cletus, makes, but Sherman's mother, Anna, tells him that he is "beautiful inside and out", prompting Sherman to attempt to ask Carla out on a date, which she accepts.
While watching Lance Perkins on TV giving one his speeches of motivation, Sherman falls asleep and dreams he is making out with Carla on a beach but she gets buried into the sand by Sherman's weight, Sherman awakes to Perkins telling the viewers to get up and tell themselves "Yes I can!", which Sherman does. Now Sherman is motivated and full of energy and is determined to lose some weight. A Rocky-style montage ensues, showing Sherman trying various methods to get fit before the big date. However, although the date begins well, with Carla showing great admiration for Sherman's work with Shelley, it turns into a disaster when Sherman falls victim to the evening's star entertainer, an insult comic called Reggie Warrington (Chappelle), who humiliates him with cruel jokes about his obesity. Back at Carla's home, with tears in his eyes, Sherman says goodbye to his date.
Later that night, alone and depressed at home, Sherman stuffs himself with junk food while watching Perkins console a fat woman who tells a sad story about how a man from a fraternity who asked her out as an excuse to make fun of her obesity. Sherman dozes off in front of the TV set, and has another nightmare in which he becomes a giant and lays waste to the city with a single fart which is lit on fire accidentally. When he wakes, he finally yields to the temptation to try his new serum on himself. It seems to work perfectly: in seconds, he loses 250 pounds and becomes slim and fit. However, with his new body, Sherman also develops a split personality as well, the high testosterone levels causing his new personality to be overly confident and assertive, as well as demonstrating a desire to resort to violence on more than one occasion.
The following day, while still slim, he starts to flirt with Carla, who comes to the lab looking for Sherman. Quickly inventing the name "Buddy Love" for his new alter ego- based on a security guard saying "Hey, buddy, what the hell happened here?", although 'Love' is his own contribution-, he invites Carla back to The Scream. However, the serum then begins to wear off, one hand bulking up and his voice returning to normal, and he ushers Carla out. Carla later tells Sherman about Buddy, and Sherman encourages her to go out with him. At The Scream, Buddy turns up very late in a brand new Dodge Viper and persuades an angry Carla (who is about to leave) to go back inside. This time, when Reggie appears, Buddy heckles him mercilessly, fires off a barrage of jokes about his mother's weight, and finally takes the stage himself as he performed a piece from Minnie Riperton's 1975 hit Lovin' You and forced Reggie to do Minnie's signature high-pitched squeal, then throwing the comedian into a piano.
Buddy returns to Carla, who is delighted with him. He gives a waiter a credit card to pay for the meal. Buddy and Carla then share a kiss. Immediately after, the serum begins to wear off and Buddy makes a quick exit, attributing it to an allergic reaction to Carla's lipstick (The 'bulking up' began with his lower lip). Jason happens to be at the bar and notes the card Buddy is using belongs to Sherman. He follows Buddy into the sports car to confront him, only to learn Sherman's secret when he discovers him in mid-transformation, culminating in Sherman having to be cut out of the car when he is too big to use the door.
The next morning, Sherman is very late for a class, and his students have all left. The Dean, however, is there, and he confronts Sherman about the sports car, which Buddy bought on Sherman's faculty account. The Dean threatens to 'strangle Sherman and cut off his air supply until he passes away' if he screws up again and asks him to meet Hartley at a hotel restaurant, called The Ritz, to describe the weight-loss serum.
Later, in the lab, Jason tells Sherman that he can't control Buddy, whose testosterone levels keep rising, using his out-of-character attitude as Buddy as an example. He warns him not to use the serum again and to focus instead on the research for Hartley. Later, Carla talks to Sherman about her date with Buddy, and Sherman takes the opportunity to ask Carla to dinner with his family, who promptly embarrass him by making various suggestive comments about their relationship and Cletus farts again. His confidence low, and after Carla mentions that she would like the opportunity to get to know the caring person she sometimes sees in Buddy's eyes, he uses the serum again. Jason tries to stop Buddy, soon Sherman tries to communicate to Jason from deep down inside Buddy and instructs Jason to go into the storage closet to get an antidote, but the muscled Don Juan regains control and locks Jason in before departing.
Buddy, who is becoming ever more aggressive, takes Carla out on a second date, this time to the hotel where Sherman was to meet Hartley. The Dean, looking for Sherman, asks Carla if she knows where Sherman is, but Carla asks Buddy if he could take Sherman's place. With the Dean desperate to get the grant, he allows Buddy to talk to Hartley, Buddy subsequently taking all the credit for the work. Hartley and the Dean are both impressed, the Dean later asking if Buddy would be willing to fill in for Sherman on a more permanent basis.
Buddy then picks up three beautiful women at the hotel, and invites Carla to participate in some "group action", only for her to dump him. Undaunted, he throws a loud party at Sherman's house that night, burning all the health food products in Sherman's fridge. Having transformed back during the night, Sherman wakes with the whole house in a humongous trashed wreck surrounded by strange women, with no memory of the night before. When he turns to see what has happened, he is stunned. Waking up in bed with the entire house in shambles around him, however, is the least of his problems.
Carla arrives shortly thereafter to tell Sherman that she has left Buddy, as well as to apologize about her encouraging Buddy to talk to Hartley. One of the women from the hotel the night before comes out of Sherman's room asking for Buddy, and Carla thinks Sherman is as unfaithful as Buddy-to the extent that the two of them actually share women. To add to Sherman's problems, as he chases after her, he finds an eviction notice taped to his front door by his unseen grouchy downstairs neighbor and landlord, Mr. Wilson, due to all the noise Buddy and the party were making the night before. Jason then enters the scene and tells Sherman that they need to head over to the lab. Trying to collect himself, Sherman tells Jason that it needs to wait until later. However, Jason stresses that there won't be a later, and a visit to the lab confirms that- Dean Richmond has fired Sherman, replaced him with Buddy, given him Sherman's ticket to the alumni ball, and in gloating promises to ruin Sherman.
At home, depressed, Sherman accidentally activates the VCR, where Buddy has left a message taunting Sherman and encouraging him to take the serum once again. This inspires Sherman to take his life back, resolved to prove that he can defeat Buddy. He and Jason start destroying all the serum samples, but when he sips a diet drink that Buddy has craftily filled with the serum, he transforms again. Buddy, who has "taken on a life of his own" with a vengeance, tells Jason that he has calculated that, if he drinks 500 mL of the serum, he will have enough cellular stability to be thin forever, thus "killing" Sherman; however, he cannot drink all of that serum at once, as it will (literally) kill Sherman and Buddy with it. Buddy, however, has a plan, to drink 250 mL of the serum while still in the lab and the other 250 at the alumni ball. He then knocks Jason out and heads to the alumni ball to carry out his plan, which will simultaneously prove the validity of Sherman's research.
Buddy arrives at the ball three hours late and starts acting rowdy to the disgrace of Dean Richmond, who scolds him for not being there on time. Buddy responds by threatening the Dean in the same way he threatened Sherman (by strangling him to death). He then begins to make his way to the stage, where his plan will be put into place.
Back at the lab, Jason regains consciousness just in time to see a warning on the lab computer that Buddy's testosterone levels are at a lethally high 60,000% and darts out of the lab to head for the ball. There, Buddy begins to demonstrate the effects of the serum to the amazed audience (which includes the Dean, Carla, Hartley, and Sherman's parents), allowing himself to briefly 'bulk up' just enough to demonstrate how one sip of the serum is effective enough to make him thin. Then, as he prepares to drink the second dose of serum to stay Buddy Love forever, Jason runs in, and tries to stop him. Buddy punches Jason, but Jason hits back.
As Buddy stands poised to return a blow, Sherman starts to "fight" him for control of his body: fat and thin body parts- beginning with his right fist and subsequently varying around the rest of his body- alternate with increasing speed while Buddy's voice shouts "You can't beat me!" and Sherman's voice replies "Yes I can!". Eventually, after a violent transformation/confrontation, Sherman wins the struggle. Still on stage, he tells the awed alumni that, while he started out wanting to help people, what he did was selfish and foolish, and that he has learned that the important thing is to accept himself as he is, rather than being unhappy about how much he weighs. He leaves, but Carla stops him and asks why did he lie. He explains that he did not believe that she would accept him and she assures him that it does not matter if he is overweight or not. Carla asks him to dance and he agrees yes, Jason subsequently arriving with a tuxedo that fits. The two subsequently dance for the rest of the night, much to the approval of Jason and Sherman's family. Harley then tells the Dean that he's decided to give Sherman the grant because he's "a brilliant scientist, and a gentleman."
Cast and characters
Production notes
- The first Tom Shadyac movie to feature outtakes over the closing credits. See also Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty.
- This film is number 70 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
- The film also features 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.[1]
- The cruel nightclub comedian "Reggie Warrington" is named after Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, brothers and directors of Murphy's previous film Boomerang.
- While the film was made with the blessing of Jerry Lewis (he was an executive producer for both this film and the 2000 sequel "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps"), he later recanted his position in an interview in the Jan.30th/Feb.6th 2009 edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He is 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. When he had to do fart jokes, he lost me."
References to Popular Culture
- Freddy Kreuger - When he sees Sherman in mid-transformation for the first time, Jason remarks, "Oh, man, this is Freddy Kreuger shit!"
- Mister Ed - Buddy states during the scene at the nightclub that because of his looks, Reggie looks like his mother is having an affair with Mister Ed.
- Earl Scheib - Buddy says to the audience of the night club, "Reggie's momma is so fat... the bitch get her toenails painted at Earl Scheib's!!!
- The Exorcist - During the transformation scene, Mr. Klump exclaims "Somebody better call an exorcist!"
Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on June 4, 1996 by Def Jam Recordings. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Reception
The Nutty Professor is ranked as "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with a 64% positive rating.
References
External links
