THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
On the way back from three days at the parent-child Space Camp with my son where he and I heard and saw what exemplifies the best in America, the whole family stopped to see the remake of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. In quite a contrast, the construction of this movie is symptomatic of much of the current degradation of our society.
In the remake, producers Brian Grazer and Russell Simmon manage to transform a simple kids' comedy into the filthiest kids' movie I can ever remember seeing. Certainly the show does have many funny parts, and Eddie Murphy does demonstrates tremendous acting bandwidth, nevertheless, as a picture marketed to youngsters and where the audience is filled with kids under ten, this film exemplifies all that is wrong in Hollywood today.
Don't misread me. I am a libertarian when it comes to films. If produces want movies overflowing with bad language, that is a judgment call they get to make. In some movies it works (PULP FICTION or GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS) and others it doesn't (GIRLS TOWN). However, in shows where the trailers make it look like good humored fun for kids, where the original movie was silly and innocent, where you know that a large portion of the audience will be kids under 10 and where the rating is PG-13, one should not expect a constant stream of filthy language including crude sexual jokes about mothers.
A few years ago, this movie would certainly have gotten an R, which would, of course, have decreased the box office take. To me this movie speaks volumes about the state of the country. Adults should have their shows, but why do we think children should be taught the B and the N words? Do we want them to use them to their friends? Do we want them to begin insulting each other with horrible sexual innuendoes about each other's mothers?
The movie does have some good aspects and several big laughs, although not near enough for an adult audience. The film opens with enormously fat Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) watching a Richard Simmons look-alike doing an exercise show on television. The film starts off quite promisingly. The professor is a brilliant, but nerdy scientist. He accidentally released hundreds of hamsters around the campus. My favorite small scene has one of them running up one student's leg.
The plot by writers Barry Blaustein, Steve Oedekerk, Tom Shadyac, and David Sheffield starts off to be a comedy with some serious messages. The movie has the professor inventing a drug to become thin. The messages surround how hard it is to get thin and how fat people are stigmatized and humiliated by society. The first message is trivialized, and the second is contradicted. The movie turns into a diatribe against fat people regardless of the movie's tacked on and moralistic ending. As a person who was fat for the first twenty years of my life and who then lost one hundred pounds (to 135) and kept it off for the last thirty, I am well aware of the importance of the messages that this show only flirts with.
The show by director Tom Shadyac (ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE) soon goes straight for the gutter. In an impressive acting demonstration by Murphy we have him playing all of the roles of a large family with obese members. In a horrible caricature, they are extremely gross with a grandmother with a very foul mouth and a father who engages other members of the family in seeing who can let off the most gas during dinner.
Other scenes in the movie, thank goodness, do work better. In a nightmare scene, the professor sees himself on the operating table. The doctors look on in horror as one shrieks, "He's getting fatter, and we can't stop it!" Looking like he will explode at any moment he gets out of the hospital only to become a GODZILLA sized creature who terrorizes the city.
Like an alcoholic, the professor wakes one morning after a night of binging to finally proclaim that is the last time. After that the show becomes a fat and thin version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
The professor's alter ego is an obnoxious and self-centered creature who calls him self Buddy Love. Of course, he is out to steal the professor's girlfriend, Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett). Murphy, who was so touching in COMING TO AMERICA, does his crude nightclub routine though most of the show. That he can play seven roles is an amazing testament to his inherent talents and to some great special make-up effects by Rick Baker, but why couldn't the sweet Murphy come out when the picture calls for it? Why?
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR runs 1:35. It is an R picture, but with an MPAA rating of PG-13. Do not take kids under 13 to see the show, and I would prefer to see teenagers be mature before going. Although we tried to get him to leave, Jeffrey (age 7) refused. In the end he gave the film a thumbs sideways. We developed a new family rule after the film that whenever a parent says leave, there are no more negotiations. We try to investigate PG-13 films, but were lolled by the innocent trailers and the name of the picture to think this one would be okay. I do not recommend this lame picture to any age group, and I give it * 1/2 for a few nice laughs and excellent special effects.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 25, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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