The Nutty Professor (1996)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Tom Shadyac

Writers (WGA):

Jerry Lewis (1963 motion picture) and
Bill Richmond (1963 motion picture) ...

Release Date:

28 June 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Inside Sherman Klump, a party animal is about to break out.

Plot:

Grossly overweight Prof. Sherman Klump, desperate to lose weight takes a special chemical that turns him into the slim but obnoxious Buddy Love.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | Overweight | Professor | Formula | Hamster

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 wins & 8 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. July 10	8:00 PM	OXYGEN
Sat. July 11	4:00 PM	OXYGEN

Cast

Eddie Murphy	...	Sherman Klump / Buddy Love / Lance Perkins / Papa Klump / Mama Klump / Grandma Klump / Ernie Klump
Jada Pinkett Smith	...	Carla Purty (as Jada Pinkett)
James Coburn	...	Harlan Hartley
Larry Miller	...	Dean Richmond
Dave Chappelle	...	Reggie Warrington
John Ales	...	Jason
Patricia Wilson	...	Dean's Secretary
Jamal Mixon	...	Ernie Klump Jr.
Nichole McAuley	...	Fit Woman
Hamilton von Watts	...	Health Instructor (as Hamilton Von Watts)
Chao Li Chi	...	Asian Man (as Chao-Li Chi)
Tony Carlin	...	Host
Quinn Duffy	...	Bartender
Montell Jordan	...	Himself
Doug Williams	...	Band Leader

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude humor and sexual references.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Spain:18 | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-8 | Germany:12 (w) | Netherlands:AL (original rating) | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | UK:12 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Dean Richmond was named after Bill Richmond, co-writer of the original Nutty Professor.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the end of the first family dinner scene, the camera cuts back and you can hear Ernie Jr. continuing to laugh loudly, but it is obvious by looking at him that he is not laughing.

Quotes:

Buddy Love: [to Carla] Are you ready to go upstairs?
[Carla slaps him]
Buddy Love: I guess not.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Soundtrack:

I'm So Excited

Commenting on the comment "fatism" below

As a fat person myself, I encounter prejudice every day. Movies are especially bad, because it is still considered okay to make fun of fat people. Most skinny people just assume that we're lazy. They think that we have the potential to be as thin as is considered "normal," but we just are too lazy to do anything about it. That is absolutely false (not that the skinnies would ever buy that, but I can at least try).

Anyway, to get to The Nutty Professor, I found it to be one of the most sympathetic portrayals of fat people ever put on film. The only one that tops it is James Mangold's Heavy, although the protagonist's weight wasn't all that was harming his well-being.

The Nutty Professor did have some physical comedy involving fat that one could take as funny, but I never felt that the jokes were degrading. The main reason that I feel this was so sympathetic was that, though he experienced life as a skinny stud, he did decide to be a fat man at the end. One can chock this up to formulae, but something that Sherrman Klump said at the end really touched me: "I could try to lose weight, but I'm always going to be a fat man, and you're just going to have to live with that." I think that a film where the screenwriters who were bigoted would have said something like, "I'll lose weight without this stupid formula." That's not what happened, though, and I'm glad for that.