The 90s on Netflix: The Nutty Professor (1996)
Review Overview
Brain
6Heart
8Colon
7Mark Harrison | On 24, Sep 2021
Director: Tom Shadyac
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chapelle
Certificate: 12
Where to watch The Nutty Professor online in the UK: Netflix UK / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Rakuten TV / Google Play / Sky Store
Do you remember the 1990s? Mark does. In this column, he flashes back to the golden decade of our childhood. From family-friendly films to blockbusters we shouldn’t have been watching, get ready for a monthly dose of nostalgia, as we put down our VHS tapes and find out whether the 90s on Netflix are still Live & Kicking.
The best kind of remake is sometimes one that takes the original as a jumping-off point and does something different. Jerry Lewis may not have agreed, but Eddie Murphy’s take on 1963’s The Nutty Professor is better for standing on its own. Co-written by Coming to America screenwriters Barry W Blaustein and David Sheffield as well as Ace Ventura director Tom Shadyac, the 1996 version is very much of its decade, from its image obsession to its VFX-driven set pieces.
In this version, Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is an obese scientist who’s working on an experimental weight-loss formula that reconstructs human DNA. Belittled by his boss, Dean Richmond (Larry Miller), but beloved by his family (Murphy, Murphy, Murphy, Murphy and Jamal Mixon), Sherman is eventually unhappy enough with his weight to test the formula on himself. As the 250-pounds-lighter Buddy Love (Murphy again), he courts attractive grad student Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett) but may lose his own heart in the process.
In total, Murphy plays seven characters, including Sherman, Buddy and most of the Klump family. This kind of performance technique has often been scoffed at in the years since, but having seen this film a lot in my younger years, I was today-years-old when I realised that Murphy also plays Lance Perkins, the Richard Simmons-alike fitness video star seen at the very beginning of the film, so maybe I’m an easy mark.
In retrospect, it’s most interesting how Murphy sends up his own persona here. Buddy is most like a Murphy that we recognise at this point – quick and charismatic and rude and abrasive – but most of all, an absolute nightmare. Heck, he’s the villain of the piece. It’s as clear-cut an announcement of a star shredding their own image on screen as this writer can think of.
Everyone likes Sherman better because he’s “a brilliant scientist and a gentleman” (as James Coburn’s grumpy donor puts it at one point) and even though the film is having fun at his expense, it’s always on his side. The script directly sends up the increased contemporary emphasis on dieting and lifestyle changes and, while it doesn’t have any great statements to make on how important health is to self-esteem, it does value happiness and kindness – even while revelling in “mama so fat” jokes, as in the riff-off between Murphy and Dave Chapelle’s insult comic (another opportunity for the star to send up ruder comedy).
Likewise, although the Klumps are broad caricatures in all senses, they’re recognisable ones. The comedy leans on visual effects, be they Rick Baker’s fat-suits and make-up or the unmistakably late-90s CGI, but also on Murphy’s performances.
Anyone who’s seen his stand-up special Delirious will recognise the one-man back-and-forth on display in the dinner table scenes here, which are unquestionably the comic highlights. Fans of that special will also remember that Murphy’s one signposted kid-friendly joke involved a bear wiping its backside with a rabbit, and that’s pretty much the North Star for this film’s inoffensive toilet humour.
The film wound up as one of the ten best performers at the worldwide box office in 1996, so perhaps that made the sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, inevitable. It furthers some of the commentary on Murphy’s old persona seen here, but largely dives headfirst into wacky gross-out comedy at the expense of both story and character. It’s the Buddy Love to the first one’s Sherman, and continued rumblings of a third one are as ominous as those of Papa Cletus’ stomach.
Somewhere between the farts and the farce, The Nutty Professor strikes the right balance between sweetness and schmaltz. Featuring several of Murphy’s most audacious comic performances all at once, it’s a ridiculous but charming update of the premise that encapsulates the decade’s comedies and special-effects movies in one swoop.
Next Time on The 90s On Netflix…
“You’d better think of something to name him because when I come home and he’s destroyed my house, I wanna know what to call him!”
The Nutty Professor is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription.