THE NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *
Gosh, aren't fart jokes funny? And if you've blown upwards of fifty bucks to take your family to the movies, you'll certainly want lots of them for your entertainment dollar. How about flatulence so intense that it literally sets a restaurant on fire? Now, that would really be funny. Right?
Well, so apparently believes the studio which spent over seventy million dollars coming up with the sequel to THE NUTTY PROFESSOR starring Eddie Murphy. This time called NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS, the movie again stars a trash-talking Eddie Murphy, playing a host of roles. The only commendable part of the production is the amazing make-up effects that allow Murphy to look like a wide variety of obese characters.
The writing credits for this abomination are shared by no less than 5 writers: Steve Oedekerk, Barry W. Blaustein, David Sheffield, Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz. I'd recommend that they all hide their heads in shame. The movie will probably make a bundle, but, surely, they could have come up with more imaginative material than this smelly batch of recycled bathroom humor. They even stoop to having an octogenarian mistakenly eat a large piece of feces.
This "R" movie, which is incorrectly rated PG-13, is actually written with dumbed-down humor that seems designed to appeal to 8-year-old boys' crude sensibilities. But, the movie would certainly not be appropriate for anyone younger than their teenage years. Among other offensive scenes are those of killer turds and an animal having anal sex with a human.
Moreover, crudeness does not equal funny, as the renowned Farrelly brothers (THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) demonstrated recently in ME, MYSELF & IRENE, a much better film than NUTTY PROFESSOR II. At least the MPAA correctly rated ME, MYSELF & IRENE as an R. Both films share about the same level of coarseness in their brand of attempted humor.
When not dispensing one disgusting joke after another, the movie follows a plot that has Professor Sherman Klump (Murphy) trying to rid himself of his nefarious alter ego, Buddy Love (Murphy). There are plenty of subplots involving the rest of the fat Klump clan. Typical of these is an unfunny bedroom scene between Papa Klump (Murphy) and Mama Klump (Murphy). "Viagra doesn't work for me," he tells her, spurning her advances. "I've been taking them like M&Ms."
I tried hard to think of good things about the movie other than the make-up. All I can come up with is that Janet Jackson, as the professor's girlfriend, does have a particularly inviting smile. (Another would be that Murphy mumbles half of his lines, which partially spares us from some of the film's inanities.) That's it. If you're still dead set on wasting your money on this film, don't say I didn't warn you.
NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS runs a long 1:50. It is officially rated PG-13 for "crude humor and sex-related material." Consider it an R. It would be acceptable for most teenagers, but I'd certainly advise against anyone seeing it.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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