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.
Copyright © 2000 Steve Rhodes
out of 4
