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The most beloved scene in the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor was the one where sweet-natured,
obese science professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) sat down to a rambunctious dinner
with his family. The popularity of the scene is easy to explain - Mama Klump, Papa Klump,
Granny Klump and brother Ernie Klump were all also played by Eddie Murphy, who displayed
remarkable comic chemistry with himself. It's no surprise, then, to find the family's role
greatly expanded in the exhausting sequel, The Klumps.
As the new movie opens, things are clearly going Sherman's way - he's
discovered a revolutionary new youth formula and he's dating Janet Jackson. Or rather,
fellow professor Denise Gaines, played by Jackson, who is engaged in some groundbreaking
research of her own, involving DNA. Sherman's courtship of Denise takes a nosedive,
however, when his repressed alter-ego Buddy Love begins to emerge from his subconscious,
causing Sherman to make rude and raunchy outbursts at inappropriate moments. Determined to
rid himself of Buddy once and for all, Sherman uses Denise's radical gene splicing
technique to excise Buddy's genetic code from his brain.
All seems well at first; Sherman proposes to Denise and the Klump
family prepares for a joyous, long-awaited wedding. Then, through the miracle of movie
science, Buddy is reborn - this time as a separate entity rather than Sherman's Mr. Hyde.
Buddy plans to get his hands on the youth formula, sabotage Sherman's batch, and sell the
good stuff himself to the highest bidder. But Sherman has stowed the formula at his
parents' house, where Papa Klump, suffering from Viagra-proof impotency, decides to sample
the wares. Furthermore, the removal of the Buddy gene proves disastrous to Sherman's
intellect - his brain cells begin to deteriorate, rendering him stupider and stupider. And
then there's Sherman's horny grandmother...and the giant hamster...and did I mention that
Buddy is now part dog?
Between the story and the screenplay, five writers are credited for The
Klumps, and the result is a textbook example of too-many-cooks syndrome. The frantic,
scattershot approach reeks of desperation, and the movie grows exponentially more silly as
it goes along. When Sherman's presentation of the youth formula to its potential corporate
buyers goes horribly awry (this is where the giant hamster comes in), his brother Ernie
muses, "Now - was that supposed to happen?" It's a question that arises all too
frequently while watching this movie. Because, while the wacky plot tangents fly fast and
furious, they all follow the exact same trajectory - right into the toilet. That's the
other major holdover from the first movie's Klump family dinner: an insatiable fascination
with the comedic possibilities of the human digestive system. There's enough gas in this
movie to get the rising prices at America's pumps back under a dollar. Flatulence humor
hits an all time low with a fantasy sequence that parodies Armageddon, Star Wars
and 2001 - all without generating so much as a weak chuckle.
So what does The Klumps have going for it? Eddie Murphy, and
plenty of him. The former Saturday Night Live star is in practically every shot of
the movie - sometimes in three or four places - and though the digital compositions are
occasionally shaky, Murphy is always sharp and completely focused. If there's a more
brilliantly inventive comic performance this year, I'll eat Sherman Klump's pants. Buried
under mountains of latex, Murphy manages to fully inhabit six distinct characters - seven
if you include the youth formula-injected version of Papa Klump. All the strain and
ludicrous plot machinations the writers provide are for naught. The only funny moments in The
Klumps are the few brief scenes where the various Murphy incarnations sit around
riffing and bickering. It's certainly not the first time Murphy has surrounded his
undeniably versatile talent with a complete dud of a movie, and it probably won't be the
last. But if there must be a Nutty III, please do us all favor - just turn on the
cameras and let him loose. Save the fart jokes for Adam Sandler.
