The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

The Nutty Professor
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tom Shadyac
Produced by	Russell Simmons Brian Grazer
Screenplay by	David Sheffield Barry W. Blaustein Tom Shadyac Steve Oedekerk
Based on	The Nutty Professor by Jerry Lewis Bill Richmond
Starring	Eddie Murphy Jada Pinkett Smith James Coburn Larry Miller John Ales
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Editing by	Don Zimmerman
Studio	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	June 28, 1996
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$54,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$273,961,019

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. The film won an Academy Award for Makeup.

Murphy plays benevolent university professor Sherman Klump, who is morbidly obese. He invents a miracle weight-loss potion and, hoping to win the affection of 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 his nephew, Ernie "Hercules" Klump Jr. played by actor Jamal Mixon) and an over-the-top parody of Richard Simmons.

A sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, was released in 2000. A prequel has been announced for a possible 2012 release.

Overview

The film co-stars Jada Pinkett, John Ales, James Coburn, Larry Miller, and a then little-known Dave Chappelle. Singer Montell Jordan has a cameo role as himself.

The film's theme song is "Macho Man" by The Village People.

Plot

At the fictional Wellman College, thousands of hamsters are overrunning the entire campus, causing general chaos. This is due to Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) accidentally releasing them by grazing the switch that opens the hamster’s cages. Meanwhile, Sherman has constructed an experimental formula that reconstructs the DNA of an obese person in a way that will allow them to lose weight more easily.

After class, Sherman meets and instantly falls in love with Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett), a chemistry graduate student who is a big fan of his work. After dinner with his obese, impolite family (most of whom are also portrayed by Murphy), Sherman asks Carla out on a date, which she accepts, much to Sherman's pleasant surprise. At the date, it begins well with Carla showing admiration for Sherman’s work, but Sherman falls victim to the club’s insult comic Reggie Warrington (Dave Chappelle), who attacks him with cruel jokes about his obesity. At home, completely depressed, he has a nightmare in which he becomes a giant and lays waste to the city with just a single fart, which is then accidentally lit on fire. When he awakens, he yields to the temptation to try the serum on himself. It works, as he loses 250 pounds in seconds. Overwhelmed he goes out and buys many normal size clothing (mainly spandex) as a celebration.

Dubbing himself Buddy Love (also portrayed by Murphy), he invites Carla out on a date at the same club again (while the serum begins to were off). Reggie is present again, and Buddy takes revenge and heckles him mercilessly (largely by targeting Reggie's "mama" with fat jokes similar to the ones Reggie pelted him with); during which he Buddy develops a personality of his own as the high testosterone levels causes him to be overly assertive and confident and then stuffs him into a grand piano. The next morning, Dean Richmond (Larry Miller) has set up a meeting with Harlan Hartley (James Coburn) at The Ritz to have Sherman describe the serum. Sherman arrives at The Ritz as Buddy Love with Carla. When the dean spots him, Carla asks Buddy if he will take Sherman's place. He does, and he takes all the credit of his work to Hartley. Hartley and the dean are very impressed with his work, and the dean invites him to the alumni ball.

After a falling out with Carla, and Richmond gleefully telling Sherman that Buddy will be taking his place at the Alumni Ball. Sherman, having enough of his alter ego, destroys all of the serum samples, but transforms into Buddy again after sipping a diet drink that Buddy has filled with the serum. Sherman’s young assistant Jason (John Ales) tries to stop him from going to the ball, but Buddy knocks him out 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%. The two of them get into a brief fist fight, but Sherman begins to fight Buddy from within. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self and tells the alumni that he was wrong for what he did, 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, but she says it doesn’t matter if he is overweight or not. The film ends with Sherman and Carla dancing, and Hartley giving the grant to Sherman because he is "a brilliant scientist and a gentleman." Outtakes of the film are shown before the credits roll.

Cast

• Eddie Murphy as Professor Sherman Klump / Buddy Love / The Klump Family / Lance Perkins
• Jada Pinkett as Carla Purty
• John Ales as Jason
• James Coburn as Harlan Hartley
• Larry Miller as Dean Richmond
• Dave Chappelle as Reggie Warrington
• Jamal Mixon as Ernie Klump Jr.

Production

• The first Tom Shadyac film to feature outtakes over the closing credits. See also Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty.
• 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.
• 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 January 30th/February 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."

Reception

The Nutty Professor is ranked as "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with a 66% positive rating. The film is #70 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

American Film Institute recognition:

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated

Awards

• 69th Academy Awards
  • Best Makeup (Won)
• 54th Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy (Nominated)

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

The Clarence Carter song "Strokin'" that was used when Buddy Love was first driving to the night club is not included on this soundtrack.

External links

• The Nutty Professor at the Internet Movie Database
• The Nutty Professor at AllRovi
• The Nutty Professor at Rotten Tomatoes