The Nutty Professor (1996)

Well, now it’s time to talk about the 1996 remake, “The Nutty Professor.” Roger Ebert started his review out by saying, “Eddie Murphy's talent for comedy has been in eclipse during these lean recent years of flops such as “A Vampire In Brooklyn.” But in “The Nutty Professor” he's back with exuberance and energy, in a movie that's like a thumb to the nose for everyone who said he'd 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.”

The movie is based off of Jerry Lewis’s 1963 comedy, which has been said by some people that it was his best, where Lewis played a mild-mannered chemistry professor whose scientific potion that made him into an obnoxious bar regular named Buddy Love. Some said that Buddy Love was based off of Lewis’s former comedic partner, Dean Martin, allowing him to play both sides in a double act. Others said the Buddy Love character was a creepy foreshadowing of Lewis’s own personality in his future. It might have been a little of both.

The Eddie Murphy remake follows the big picture of the Lewis film, with one added part: The protagonist is morbidly obese, along with making him shy and clumsy, and that doubles the chance for physical comedy. Jerry Lewis’ transformation from the professor into Buddy Love was a personality switch, but Murphy also goes through a complete physical change, from 400 pounds to average weight and back again, sometimes almost instantly.

As the movie starts, Murphy plays Professor Sherman Klump, brilliant chemist and geneticist, and fat man. He immediately falls in love with a new graduate student named Carla Purty, played by Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett, and warily bumbles his way into asking her out on a date. Meanwhile, his position at the college depends on raising new research funds, and the sycophantic college dean, played by comedian Larry Miller, puts on the pressure during a sarcastic meeting (“Anything I can get for you? Juice? Coffee? Rack of lamb?”).

Sherman’s habit when he gets worried is to eat, and so he sits down with relief to the Klump family dinner table. Every member of the Klump family (Sherman’s parents, brother, and grandmother) is played by Murphy, who has always been a master of disguises (think back to the SNL sketch of Gumby). But here he outdoes himself, in bringing up the increase of vulgarity that would be disgusting if it weren’t so funny (Ebert admitted, “The audience laughed so hard at Papa Klump's approach to colon cleansing that I missed the next six lines of dialogue”). The dinner table scene is where we also hear the famous "Hercules, Hercules, Hercules" line from the mother. Not only does Murphy play the Klumps, but he also scores huge laughs as a Richard Simmons droid on a TV exercise program.

The character of Sherman himself is a victory of successful disguise combined with good writing and acting. The makeup of Rick Baker (three-time Oscar winner) adds weight to Murphy’s face and neck so flawlessly that Sherman looks completely convincing. As Murphy plays him, Sherman becomes one of the most likable characters, good-hearted, sympathetic and funny. Ebert asked, “When Sherman morphs into Buddy Love, the thin character resembles some of Murphy's own abrasive stage incarnations; does this mean he'll be hosting telethons in 10 years?” The plot, freely inspired by the 1963 film, gets Sherman and the beautiful Carla to a cool nightclub where Sherman is humiliated by a comedian, played by one of the funniest comedians Dave Chappelle, because he’s fat (“I think I found where they hid Jimmy Hoffa.”). Dave Chappelle admitted at that part, he made Eddie Murphy break character by making water shoot out of Murphy's nose, which Chappelle admitted was a great feeling to make Murphy break character. Eddie Murphy admitted that at that part, you get to know Sherman very well and when that happens to him, you sympathize and feel sorry for him. Both Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle say that part is their favorite in the entire movie. Later Buddy Love returns to the club and gets revenge, although Carla’s attraction to Buddy is never really accounted for the fast-moving plot.

Sherman’s transformation into Buddy isn’t all makeup. At times animation and visual tricks are used. There are a couple of smooth special effects parts, including a nightmare where Sherman grows to be as big as King Kong and walks through a frightened city. Buddy has a tendency to show up into Buddy without notice, which leads to embarrassment: Fireman have to cut him out of a sports car. Murphy plays both roles at the same time in a scene where the two characters fight for control over the body. (The crazy energy here is a reminder that the director, Tom Shadyac, also directed “Ace Venture: Pet Detective.”) The ending is just as sentimental as the original, with Sherman finally accepting himself (and to be loved by Carla). He gives a heartfelt speech (“Buddy’s who I thought I wanted to be – who I thought the world wanted me to be”). Ebert admitted, “Eddie Murphy looks straight at the camera as he hits the last line, and it occurred to me that maybe he was referring indirectly to some of his recent career miscues.” There is a lot of Buddy Love in Eddie Murphy’s screen persona, and not enough Sherman Klump. Ebert ended his review by saying, “But I’ve never doubted Murphy's comic gift, and “The Nutty Professor” shows him back on track, balancing two sides of a real talent.”

Overall, I think this remake is funnier than the original, although I do not hate the original at all. If it wasn’t for the original, we would not have gotten this version. Both versions are funny in their own respective ways, but this one I just found funnier. Maybe it’s because I grew up around the time when Murphy was still in his popular days and I’m not old enough to say anything about Jerry Lewis. Anyways, check this one out if you have or haven’t seen the original and/or you are an Eddie Murphy fan because it’s definitely worth seeing. The dinner scene with all the farting I found to be funny, but that’s maybe because I’m really immature.

Dave Chappelle admitted that Eddie Murphy is one of the funniest people he has ever met, and when Murphy was in the Sherman outfit and makeup, he came over and told Chappelle that he is very funny. Murphy told Chappelle that he is really smart and funny, which makes him stand out from the other comedians, and Chappelle looked at him like he was surprised someone said that. Chappelle admitted that Murphy would give him good advice by saying when to write jokes, you think in pictures, which was the highlight of the movie for Chappelle.

Look out for this Friday when I look at the second installment in Soderbergh “Ocean’s Trilogy.”