UNLIMITED STREAMING
WITH PRIME VIDEO
TRY 30-DAY TRIAL
Home > Fantasy >

The Nutty Professor

The Nutty Professor (1996)

June. 28,1996
|
5.7
|
PG-13
| Fantasy Comedy Science Fiction Romance

When beautiful Carla Purty joins the university faculty, genetic professor Dr. Sherman Klump grows desperate to whittle his 400-pound frame down to size and win her heart. So, with one swig of his experimental fat-reducing serum, Sherman becomes 'Buddy Love', a fast-talking, pumped-up, plumped down Don Juan.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

FrogGlace
1996/06/28

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

More
Dirtylogy
1996/06/29

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

More
Ogosmith
1996/06/30

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

More
Francene Odetta
1996/07/01

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

More
Wuchak
1996/07/02

Released in 1996 and directed by Tom Shadyac, "The Nutty Professor" is a dramedy starring Eddie Murphy as grossly overweight yet good-hearted professor Sherman Klump. In his experiments he develops a potion that turns him into the slim, charismatic Buddy Love who's also, unfortunately obnoxious. While Buddy helps Sherman take down his nemeses (Dave Chappelle), he also messes up his budding relationship with Carla (Jada Pinkett Smith). Larry Miller and James Coburn are also on hand. Murphy actually has multiple roles, playing the Richard Simmons-like Lance Perkins, as well as Sherman's mother, father, grandmother and brother in the dinner sequences. While I found the Lance Perkins scenes amusing, the dinner scenes largely fall flat, but they do showcase Murphy's talents. I also didn't care for the flatulence jokes, but I was able to overlook them – and crude jokes in general – and laughed at the many genuinely amusing parts. The movie works because Murphy expertly makes Sherman a sympathetic character. The scene where he shyly asks Carla out is genius; and the scene where their date is destroyed by the standup comic (Chappelle) is honestly saddening. It may not be as good as "Coming to America" (1988), but it's better than "Trading Places" (1983). The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in the Los Angeles area. GRADE: B+

More
Predrag
1996/07/03

Eddie Murphy did a great job in The Nutty Professor with his role as Professor Sherman Klump/Buddy Love and also playing the entire Klump family. While watching scenes from the family dinners it is obvious what a great job Murphy did in this film. Each of the family members has their own personality and quarks that make the otherwise pointless dinners very enjoyable and fun to watch. The special effects and make-up used in this film are also amazing and they portrayed very real looking qualities."The Nutty Professor" is one heck of a nutty movie. It's especially dang funny when Professor Klump's family is on screen. They crack me the heck up. That's probably why there was a dang sequel to this, and it was called The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Anyway, I want to close out by saying I liked The Nutty Professor. This is another Eddie Murphy classic, and sits up there as 1 of his best, not the best but 1 of his best.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

More
Michael_Elliott
1996/07/04

The Nutty Professor (1996)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Hilarious remake of the Jerry Lewis film about the overweight Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) who comes up with a chemical that will turn anyone skinny overnight. Klump rushes the experiment on himself after an embarrassing night out and becomes the skinny but annoying Buddy Love (Murphy). At first Buddy thinks this is what he wants but the side effects quickly follow. I don't care what anyone says but Eddie Murphy should have won the Oscar for this film and yes I've seen all the nominations from that year. It's rather amazing to see what Murphy was able to do here, playing at least seven characters and making of them one of the most memorable you're ever going to see. I don't care who you are but when you see Sherman Klump you can't help but fall in love with the character and the way Murphy plays him is just something amazing to watch. Even the Buddy Love character is quite memorable and this doesn't even cover the Klump family that Murphy perfectly handles. Rick Baker also deserves a lot of credit for the special effects and these here have to be considered some of the greatest of his career. The film really does walk the line between hilarious comedy and some rather sad and dramatic moments. There's no question that the film really packs a punch no matter what it's trying to do. The story itself certainly comes with a message that's not preachy and I think Murphy really delivers it in a touching way. The one flaw with the film is that it breaks out of a realistic nature at times and especially with way too many fart jokes. Still, there's no question that this here is Murphy at his greatest and the Sherman character is just so great that you can't help but be won over by the film.

More
ElMaruecan82
1996/07/05

Well, while it doesn't deny the necessity of self-improvement, it has the merit to assess the awareness of our specificity, our difference. And being aware of what we are stimulates the idea of our self-improvement as long as we keep aware of what we are not, and maybe the most important, what we can't and will never be. And the line between the incapability of this admittance and a low self-esteem is unfortunately, extremely thin.And "The Nutty Professor" is a wonderful comedy for its positive and insightful message about self-acceptance through a very sympathetic protagonist, Eddie Murphy as Professor Sherman Klump. Murphy perfectly diluted all his flamboyance and sometimes obnoxious flashiness in a sweet, gentle and likable character whose occupation besides teaching in college is to make DNA experiences on hamsters in order to find some medical solutions against obesity. Yet obesity doesn't seem to be an issue in his own life, not until he meets Carla Purty, his new colleague, played by the eye-pleasing Jada Pinckett Smith. Naturally, he falls in love, and we realize that we just meet Klump at a pivotal moment of his life, obesity became an issue.Tone-wise, Tom Shaydac's film finds the right balance between humor and sweetness. In one of the most hilarious cinematic family dinners, we meet the Klumps, a sight that works as a genetic alibi for Sherman's appearance. Eddie Murphy, who proved his chameleonic talent in such films as "Coming to America" is at the top of his game in "The Nutty Professor" where he's both a sweet and caring mother, a naughty Black mama, a mean-spirited blue-collar father, a superficial brother and Sherman Klump (the other character played by Murphy isn't featured in the scene, but you'd hardly recognize him as an Aerobic coach). The film, that won the Oscar for Best Make-Up, is the greatest credit to Murphy's talent when it comes to portray various characters.But there's more than discussions about weight and some farting contest in that dinner (always hilarious and never vulgar), the scene concludes with a beautiful exchange between Sherman and his mother. She loves him like any other mother, she sees both an inner and a physical beauty and we don't laugh at that. Whether he believed her or not is not the point, we can only sympathize with this good man, who wants this inner beauty to express itself. And when in the next scene, he asks Carla for a date, we understand Mama Klump found the right words to encourage her son to overcome his shyness. Carla is not indifferent to Sherman and accepts the date unaware that it would lead to a disaster because the restaurant stars a stand-up comedian who roasts people in the audience.Maybe I should have mentioned that the film is the remake of a Jerry Lewis' classic, but I don't think it's necessary since I know both stories are different. And I don't even think, the original is better just because it's the first one. All I know is I can more relate to a nerdy scientist who wants to be accepted by society than one who just wants to be a womanizer. Like so many great comedies like "Groundhog Day" or "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", there is a heart in "The Nutty Professor" and Eddie Murphy's so powerful that I could feel the way he felt. When everybody was getting their share of mocking jokes, he knew his turn was coming, and he would have it pretty bad (Dave Chappelle did a great job as the mean-spirited Reggie by the way), so when he tries to go to the toilet but unfortunately finds himself in the spotlight, we know the worst is to come.Murphy is so good in that role that it was impossible for me to laugh at Reggie's jokes; I could feel Sherman's broken heart, the devastation not just from the jokes, but from the people's reactions. The following scene is almost a tear-jerker when Carla tries to console him, he hardly speaks, the man was victim of a bullying that was the culmination of all the violence he tacitly endured. This is the pivotal moment where he decides to test his own researches on himself and become Buddy Love, a sort of Alpha Male who's got every thing a man can wish. Basically, Buddy Love is Eddie Murphy playing Eddie Murphy in the most irritating way, I missed Sherman Klump as soon as he disappeared but I forgive Buddy Love, if only for the magnificent revenge against Reggie, where the sprinkler became the sprinkled.Now, is the personality of Buddy Love irritating? I think it's the perfect representation of the way we indirectly perceive ourselves, since Sherman has low self-esteem, Buddy has exceedingly high self-esteem, it's his strength, his attitude almost embodies the whole 'Macho Man' theme song. Eddie Murphy mocks his own character as if he was aware that sometimes, being over confident can flirt with mean spiritedness, and he's so 'himself' that he manages to make us appreciate Sherman even more and this is the film's greatest message. I –myself- had some issues with my appearance, and used to tell myself that I would be the most confident guy in the world if I had glasses, or if I were a few inches taller, but the meaning of our lives is not to wait for physical criteria to be confident and certainly not to compare ourselves to others, because that's the negation of our own specificity, and our capacity to contribute to the world on our own.The climactic speech is something I could respond to, it's the beautiful coming to realization of a man who didn't value himself enough while he had all the reasons to. It's like Eddie Murphy acknowledging that there is this soft spot he too often hided, because everybody expected him to be the smart-ass streetwise guy.

More