Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

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Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

Theatrical poster for Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Directed by Peter Segal
Produced by James D. Brubaker
Brian Grazer
Karen Kehela
Jerry Lewis
Eddie Murphy
Tom Shadyac
Written by Jerry Lewis (characters)
Steve Oedekerk
Barry W. Blaustein
David Sheffield
Paul Weitz
Chris Weitz
Starring Eddie Murphy
Janet Jackson
Larry Miller
John Ales
Richard Gant
Anna Maria Horsford
Music by David Newman
Cinematography Dean Semler
Editing by William Kerr
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) July 28, 2000
Running time 106 min. (109 in director's cut)
Country USA
Language English
Budget $84,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by The Nutty Professor
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is a 2000 comedy film, the sequel to the 1996 remake of the 1963 film The Nutty Professor. The original music score was composed by David Newman.

The film stars Eddie Murphy and Janet Jackson. Eddie 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.

Contents

[edit] 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 (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 instantaneously 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 steals some of Sherman's youth formula, 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."

This, however, is 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 "The inventor of Jumbo, the horny hamster has arrived" 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 until it dissipates on the edge of a public fountain.

Denese 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's 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". Everyone sees the fountain's water glowing a bright neon blue. Denise realizes that Buddy's DNA is still alive in the water. She commands Sherman to drink, and he rapidly regains his mental faculties. In the last scene, Sherman and Denise are wed.

As in the first film, bloopers accompany the closing credits.

[edit] Cast

[edit] 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.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (soundtrack)

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)
  2. ^ Nutty Professor II: the Klumps at *RottenTomatoes.com
  3. ^ Lane, Anthony. The New Yorker, August 7, 2000.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Peter Segal

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) • Tommy Boy (1995) • My Fellow Americans (1996) • Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) • Anger Management (2003) • 50 First Dates (2004) • The Longest Yard (2005) • Get Smart (2008)
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