Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
| Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster for Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | |
| Directed by | Peter Segal |
| Written by | Jerry Lewis (characters) Steve Oedekerk Barry W. Blaustein David Sheffield Paul Weitz Chris Weitz |
| Produced by | James D. Brubaker Brian Grazer Karen Kehela Jerry Lewis Eddie Murphy Tom Shadyac |
| Starring | Eddie Murphy Janet Jackson Larry Miller John Ales Richard Gant Anna Maria Horsford |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | William Kerr |
| Music by | David Newman Star Wars theme: John Williams |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date | July 28, 2000 |
Running time | 106 min. (109 in director's cut) |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $84,000,000 (estimated) |
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is a 2000 science fiction comedy film directed by Peter Segal. The film is a sequel to The Nutty Professor and stars Eddie Murphy and Janet Jackson. Murphy plays not only the inept but brilliant scientist, Sherman Klump, as in the first film, but also (wearing different, but equally elaborate makeup) most of Sherman's family as well. Various subplots involving his family occupy a substantial part of the film.
Just like the first film, the film's theme song is "Macho Man" by The Village People, which this time is played during the end credits.
Plot
As the film opens, Sherman is working on a new miracle formula– this time, the fountain of youth. He is also preparing to marry a fellow scientist, Denise Gaines (Janet Jackson). Unfortunately, he has started suffering from personality lapses that are threatening to alienate his bride-to-be: against his will, he acts like the obnoxious, hypersexed Buddy Love of the first film. After a particularly unpleasant incident, Sherman goes to his lab to analyze his DNA and locates Buddy Love's DNA in an abnormal gene. He decides to use Denise's genetic research methods to isolate the gene and permanently extract Buddy Love's DNA from his own. His assistant, Jason, tries to stop him, warning him that he might damage his health or even lose his intelligence. Sherman disregards the warning and, alone in his lab late at night, extracts Buddy's DNA.
The orphaned DNA, a glowing blob of jelly, combines with a hair from a basset hound and grows spontaneously into an adult man, Buddy Love—now a fully autonomous being. Thanks to his doggy heritage, however, this Buddy Love has a tendency to chase cats and cars. Sherman, meanwhile, has inflicted so much genetic damage on himself by removing Buddy that his brain cells begin dying at an exponential rate.
Buddy breaks into the Klump's house and steals some of Sherman's youth formula (not before being mouth-kissed by Granny), planning to sell it to the highest bidder, then adds a household chemical to the remainder of the mixture. When Sherman administers the adulterated potion to a hamster in front of a large audience, the hamster grows to enormous size. The Dean (Miller) hides from the hamster under a fur coat, which the hamster sees as a female. The hamster performs a lewd act (offscreen) on the Dean. After the fiasco, the deeply traumatised Dean tells Sherman that he is "fat...and dumb...and fired."
However, This the least of Sherman's problems; his brain damage is now reaching a critical level. With the help of his loyal lab assistant, Jason, he devises a strategy to restore his mind. He plans to reintegrate Buddy into his DNA by reverting him back to the jelly-like matter he used to be, then sucking him up through a straw.
Sherman concocts a new, stronger youth formula when he is interrupted by Dean Richmond, demanding to know what Sherman's playing at. Richmond explains Buddy Love is selling the youth formula to a rival company, and believes Sherman to be in on it. Sherman gets a tennis ball, and heads with Dean Richmond to the office where Buddy is pitching the youth formula he stole; if he can revert Buddy to an infantile state and consume him, the return of Buddy's DNA to his own system will repair the damage that he originally caused. When Sherman arrives Buddy laughs claiming: "Well, if it is Professor Sherman Klump, the inventor of Jumbo, the horny hamster" much to Richmonds trauma. Sherman then throws the tennis ball, and Buddy's dog genes compel him to give chase. Sherman has coated the ball with his new, super potent youth formula, and when Buddy catches the ball, he turns into a toddler. He runs off, then melts into a gelatinous blob that continues fleeing. Finally, Buddy dies when he evaporates into a public coin fountain. But unfortunately, for Sherman, he can no longer get back inside of him.
Denise and Cletus arrive, and see Sherman and Richmond. Sherman, before his brain becomes seriously damaged, sadly tells Denise, whom he no longer recognizes, that he no smart, never, no more. Denise starts crying, and one of her tears lands on the dried blob, causing it to trickle into the fountain. As his companions begin to usher him away, Denise promising to take care of him, Sherman turns and mumbles something about "pretty water". They see the fountain's water glowing a bright neon blue. Denise realizes that Buddy's DNA is still alive in the water. She and Cletus force Sherman to drink the water before Buddy evaporates, and he rapidly regains his mental faculties. In the last scene, Sherman and Denise get married. As in the first film, bloopers accompany the closing credits.
Cast
- Eddie Murphy as Professor Sherman Klump/Buddy Love/Cletus 'Papa' Marcellus Klump/Young Cletus Klump/Anna Pearl 'Mama' Jensen Klump/Ida Mae 'Granny' Jensen/Ernest "Ernie" Klump, Sr./Lance Perkins
- Janet Jackson as Professor Denise Gaines
- Larry Miller as Dean Richmond
- John Ales as Jason
- Richard Gant as Mr. Gaines
- Anna Maria Horsford as Mrs. Gaines
- Melinda McGraw as Leanne Guilford
- Jamal Mixon as Ernie Klump Jr.
Reception
The film grossed over $42.5 million in its opening weekend and went on to a total gross of over $123.3 million. It garnered an additional $43 million in foreign markets.[1] Although audiences seemed to like it, The Klumps was widely panned by critics. Adjectives such as "obnoxious", "lowbrow", "bloated", and "unfunny" crop up frequently in reviews for this film, and Salon.com, which gave the movie one of its few positive notices, offers the rather faint praise "cheerfully vulgar".[2] The New Yorker's Anthony Lane is particularly severe; in addition to hating the film on general principles, he dismisses Murphy's playing of multiple characters as "minstrelling", and charges the actor with "at once feeding us what we like and despising us for swallowing it."[3] Most critics, however, mix a generally negative assessment of the movie with at least a nod towards Murphy's versatility and comic talent. However, Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film two thumbs up.
The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps was parodied by comedian Jack Black in the film Tropic Thunder, in which Black's character Jeff Portnoy plays several members of a comically obese family.
Soundtrack
Sequel
A sequel has been announced, tentatively titled Nutty Professor III with a late 2010 or early 2011 release. With Universal currently searching for writers of the new film.[4] Eddie Murphy is expected to return for the sequel, and possibly add a few new characters like Papa Klump's brothers family as a plot element Murphy and writers have said.[5]
References
- ^ The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)
- ^ Nutty Professor II: the Klumps at *RottenTomatoes.com
- ^ Lane, Anthony. The New Yorker, August 7, 2000.
- ^ Tilly, Chris (November 18, 2008). "More Nutty Professor?". IGN. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
- ^ Morris, Clint (November 17, 2008). "Murphy klumps another Professor sequel". Moviehole. Retrieved 2008-11-18.