From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 2 11:13:46 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-10.sprintlink.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!enews.sgi.com!decwrl!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Jul 1996 20:08:59 GMT Organization: - Lines: 104 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4r9b8r$35s@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05551 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4863 rec.arts.sf.reviews:991 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of **** United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 6/28/96 (wide) Running Length: 1:35 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Profanity, flatulence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett, Larry Miller, Dave Chapelle, James Coburn Director: Tom Shadyac Producers: Brian Grazer and Russell Simmons Screenplay: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, and Steve Oederkerk based on the movie written by Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmond Cinematography: Julio Macat Music: David Newman U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures Eddie Murphy does not make "comebacks", because, according to him, he hasn't been out of the spotlight. But, following three critical and box-office flops (THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN, BEVERLY HILLS COP III, and VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN), Murphy is hoping THE NUTTY PROFESSOR gets his career back on track. Combining his own brand of high-energy comedy with that of ACE VENTURA veterans Tom Shadyac and Steve Oederkerk, Murphy is attempting to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. And, while the flatulence-joke lovers who flocked to DUMB AND DUMBER will doubtless be overwhelmed, not to mention doubled-over, by this movie, those hoping for more cerebral humor are destined to be disappointed. THE NUTTY PROFESSOR aims for guffaws at the lowest level -- anyone with a double-digit IQ will get every joke. Whether you laugh at them or not is often more of a matter of taste than a question of having a sense of humor. Murphy is very funny, giving his most manic, inspired performance in years, and playing no less than seven different roles. Too often, however, the script lets him down. I'll admit to laughing a number of times, but I couldn't help noticing all the squandered opportunities. THE NUTTY PROFESSOR should have been funnier than it is, but, by concentrating on bodily function humor, the film makers have limited Murphy's effectiveness. This version of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR is loosely based on the 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy about a nerd inventing a potion that turns him into a lothario. That story, in turn, was a reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson's THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. It's interesting that in the last twelve months, we've seen three interpretations of this story. And, while THE NUTTY PROFESSOR isn't nearly as impressive as Stephen Frears' eerie, atmospheric MARY REILLY, it's infinitely more watchable than 1995's DR. JEKYLL AND MS. HYDE. Curiously, for a tale known best for its horrific elements, none of these movies fits into the traditional horror genre -- two are comedies and the other is a drama. Murphy plays mild-mannered Sherman Klump, a 400-pound science professor at Wellman College. One day, the gorgeous, willowy Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett) walks through the door to Sherman's classroom and introduces herself as one of his biggest fans. The poor professor is instantly smitten, and embarks on a campaign to shed his extra pounds. Day-after-day, he works out, but an opportunity in his lab presents him with a quicker, easier way to shape up. A serum for re-aligning genetic structure has worked marvels for hamsters, so Sherman decides to become a human subject. Moments after gulping down the light blue contents of a vial, the overweight scientist has been replaced by his svelte, well- toned alternate self, Buddy Love. But, along with Buddy's perfect physique comes a nasty, out-of-control personality. When it's not concentrating on members of Sherman's family passing gas, belching, or threatening to sneeze all over the dinner table, some of the comedy is cute. For example, in a nightmare sequence where Sherman imagines himself to be King Kong, his goal when reaching through the window of a skyscraper isn't the girl, it's a roast turkey. Among the other memorable sequences are an amusing takeoff on FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and the nicely-choreographed, climactic "battle" between Sherman and Buddy. There's an underlying message in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR about self- respect and accepting people as they are (oddly, this is the same theme advanced by Disney's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME). Because Murphy's performance as Sherman makes us care about the character, it's easy to sympathize with his plight. Unfortunately, this aspect of the story, which is the most touching, is skimmed over, presumably because the material is too heavy for a comedy. Worse still, the presence of so many barbed fat jokes makes it easy to suspect THE NUTTY PROFESSOR of conflicted motives. The visual effects are top-rate, recalling Jim Carrey's THE MASK. With the help of makeup guru Rick Baker, Murphy is equally believable as the hulking Sherman, his doddering grandmother, a Richard Simmons look- alike, and the slim-and-trim Buddy Love. It's a tour-de-force for the comic, and that almost makes THE NUTTY PROFESSOR worth seeing. Alas, this movie is a little too interested in easy jokes to bother with having a heart. And, in the end, we're not sure whether we're supposed to be cheering for Sherman or laughing at him. - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jul 4 13:26:56 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!01-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!swidir.switch.ch!swsbe6.switch.ch!surfnet.nl!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!oleane!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: noraruth@aol.com (Andrew Hicks) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Jul 1996 20:59:33 GMT Organization: University of Missouri - Columbia Lines: 88 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rc2jl$7mj@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: noraruth@aol.com (Andrew Hicks) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05561 Keywords: author=Hicks Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4890 rec.arts.sf.reviews:996 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR A film review by Andrew Hicks Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions (1996) **1/2 (out of four) It's all been downhill for Eddie Murphy these past eight or nine years career-wise, and he's still trying to make a crowd- pleasing blockbuster to relaunch his 80's stardom. If the crowd I was with is any indication, Murphy has succeeded. God only knows if the rest of the country's audiences will feel the same way, but the packed mall crowd I saw THE NUTTY PROFESSOR with laughed so hard at the surface-level gags that I missed half the dialogue. What do you say about a movie like this, where fart jokes abound and the word "ass" is used every couple minutes for laughter? That it's the kind of movie most of us could write in our sleep if given the premise, a lightweight and predictable comedy that the brainless masses laugh out loud at over and over. I'd almost have to lump myself in with the "brainless masses" demographic because I succumbed to a lot of the cheap laughs in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, although not loud or long enough to drown out any dialogue. Murphy plays Sherman Klump, a four-hundred pound college professor who has stumbled onto a formula that will change his molecular structure and turn him into a slim love god. So after the customary fat person sight gags (Murphy's stomach erasing the chalkboard as he writes, Murphy trying to sit in a chair, etc.) and the introduction of the love interest, a beautiful grad student (Jada Pinkett, looking ten times better here than in A LOW DOWN DIRTY SHAME), Murphy drinks his potion and reaps the immediate benefits ("I can see my dick!"). I'm sure you've heard the expression that inside every fat person there's a skinny person waiting to get out. THE NUTTY PROFESSOR assumes that skinny person is a completely different alter-ego from the person's usual personality. At his correct body weight, Murphy becomes Buddy Love, a brash, over-confident loudmouth with sex on his mind. High testosterone levels are an apparent side effect of taking the potion, causing Murphy to act on his feelings for Pinkett. This being a cut-rate sitcom, of course, he doesn't tell her that Love and Klump are one and the same, he pulls the old Clark Kent-Superman thing, having her know both personalities and having them talk about each other but never interact. And Pinkett doesn't have a clue as to what is going on because Murphy's voice is completely different as Love than Klump. His Love voice is much higher-pitched than Klump, making me wonder if we're supposed to think his voice lost weight too. Either way, the voice mystery is never explained, but you're probably not supposed to stop and think about any of this. As another sitcom gimmick, Murphy's potion wears off after a certain amount of time, and always in the exact wrong place at the wrong time. That way people can stare as his lip suddenly swells to several times its size or his foot becomes twice as big because, besides being Murphy's comeback vehicle, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR also showcases some admirable special effects from Tom Baker, the man who turned Michael Jackson into a freak in the Thriller video (which took a lot of effort, believe me). But while Murphy was sitting in that makeup chair for five hours everyday, someone else should have been working on creating a decent, cliche-free script. The movie continues with Pinkett trying to choose between Klump and Love, along with Klump having to pitch his idea to millionaire donor James Coburn (also in ERASER). We also get a couple of extended flatulence scenes with the Klump family, where Murphy plays five different overweight roles, and some TV inspiration from a Richard Simmons exercise clone (Murphy again). The ending is as absurd and unbelievable as the rest and contradicts the movie's entire premise (that fat people would do anything to achieve an effortless weight loss), but if you can overlook all of that and just let yourself enjoy the decent amount of genuine laughs mixed in with the cheap ones, you might have a positive (but probably not nutty) experience with THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. -- Visit the Movie Critic at LARGE homepage at http://www.missouri.edu/~c667778/movies.html Serving America For Over 1/50 of a Century! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:46:11 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:54:17 GMT Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Lines: 44 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89q9$lko@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05608 Keywords: author=Samudrala Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4942 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1015 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR A film review by Ram Samudrala Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala /The Nutty Professor/ is being touted as the comeback movie for Eddie Murphy. It is a story we have seen before, one where a brilliant genius-type with some physical flaw is made fun of by society. In this movie, Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is overweight. Coincidentally, his scientific research revolves around changing DNA to make someone, or something, thinner (the scientific details in the movie are best taken with rocks of salt). He achieves his goal just as he meets the woman of his dreams, Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett), the highly attractive grad student teaching chemistry across the hall. Because of his own insecurities about his weight, he takes his newly perfected formula to reduce weight and transforms himself into a sleek Buddy Love. The remainder of the movie is a battle between the sweet hearted Sherman and the arrogant and obnoxious Buddy in a tug-of-war as to who gets to stay around and get the girl. The acting in this movie is mixed. Murphy himself is amazing in his numerous roles as Buddy, Sherman, and most of Sherman's family. This is an excellent venue for Murphy's incredible comic abilities and character work. The other supporting cast members are adequate but none of them stand out. The movie, however, is full of toilet humour and jokes fit for the braindead. Not that there's anything wrong with that in and of itself. As a Jim Carrey fan, I can take toilet humor, but this movie had some scenes, like the ones at the dinner table, where it was simply banal and insipid. This movie will be a winner at the box office, since the majority of the people in the movie were laughing continually, from one toilet joke to the next. Hidden amidst the farts and the burps is a message about the way in which we treat people who are overweight and the struggle these people face in their daily lives. This comes across best in the scene with the comic in which Sherman is picked on because of his weight. In a movie where cheap humour is the major attraction, the contrast between the entire Scream club laughing at Sherman's expense is highly empathic. If you are an Eddie Murphy fan this is definitely worth seeing on the big screen. Otherwise, I would wait for the video. me@ram.org || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:46:25 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:54:02 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 93 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89pq$lkn@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05607 Keywords: author=Renshaw Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4948 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1020 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett, Larry Miller, James Coburn, Dave Chappelle. Screenplay: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac, Steve Oedekerk. Director: Tom Shadyac. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. If you ask most movie stars whether a given project is a "comeback," they would probably insist that they were never away. In the case of Eddie Murphy, that's actually pretty close to the truth. _You_ may not have seen HARLEM NIGHTS, or THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN, or BOOMERANG, or even BEVERLY HILLS COP III, but someone did -- over $300 million worth of someones, in fact. So no, Eddie Murphy never went anywhere; it was only his ability to make people laugh which took a long vacation. I was beginning to wonder whether there was any of the old spark left in Murphy, and then along comes THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. he still might have trouble identifying a decent script, but his talent is in full flower, including an unexpectedly broad acting range. Murphy plays Sherman Klump, a brilliant chemistry professor with a bit of a weight problem -- about 400 lbs. worth. His weight has resulted in clashes with the university's dean (Larry Miller) and has made him rather unlucky in love. When the department's new graduate student Carla Purdy (Jada Pinkett) captures Sherman's fancy, he resorts to testing his latest experiment, a formula for reducing weight at a genetic level, on himself. The result is a startling transformation of Sherman Klump into Buddy Love, a lean, mean testosterone machine who is every bit the party animal Sherman never was. The problems begin when Buddy reverts to Sherman at the most inconvenient times, and gets worse when Buddy's personality begins to become dominant, threatening to take over Sherman's life for good. The lion's share of the pleasures in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR are pure Eddie Murphy, but not necessarily Eddie Murphy the way you are accustomed to seeing him. True, he does take on multiple roles behind Rick Baker's incredible makeup, including a Richard Simmons-styled fitness guru and several members of the Klump family, much as he did in COMING TO AMERICA. There are some big laughs in those family dinner scenes, particularly an extraordinarily embarrassing dinner with Carla in attendance, although the flatulence gags are piled on a bit thick. But Murphy is not coasting on his street-wise motor-mouth persona here, the persona which often seemed to be the only reason for dud projects like THE GOLDEN CHILD or THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN to exist. If anything, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR is a chance to poke fun at that persona through the hyper-slick Buddy Love. Buddy is the arrogant, self-absorbed misogynist everyone probably believes Murphy really is, and he knows enough to tweak that image for all he's worth. The real surprise is watching Murphy sink his teeth into a real character, and do some real acting. Klump is not a sad-sack or a grotesquerie, like his counterpart in the Jerry Lewis original; he is a sensitive soul who tries to laugh along when he knows others are laughing at him, until that laughter becomes a humiliation at the hands of an obnoxious "Def Comedy Jam"-type stand-up comic (hilariously played by Dave Chappelle). At the same time, Klump shows a streak of the repressed sex god, grooving to Teddy Pendergrass after Carla agrees to go out with him. Murphy brings out that side as something endearing, and makes his shy, self-effacing manner terrifically appealing. I never thought I would see the day when Eddie Murphy would play a character who inspired sympathy, but watching Klump disintegrate before a barrage of the comedian's barbs is genuinely poignant. Murphy is so good that it's too bad he doesn't have better material to work with, or a more supportive supporting cast. The exceptions to both rules come in the wonderful nightclub scenes, the second of which finds a caustic Buddy turning the tables on the same comic who tore Sherman to shreds. For the most part, the script is all set-up with few truly inspired comic situations, relying on absurdist dream sequences and special effects for the big gags. There are moments when Buddy Love is on screen that you are waiting for Murphy to run to the extreme, and ACE VENTURA director Tom Shadyac just seems to be waiting for him to do something wacky. The script doesn't really give him the best opportunities, though, and he is playing off undeserving foils in Jada Pinkett and an uncomfortably edgy Larry Miller. Murphy is trying to show what he can do here, and he is given material like the overly obvious homily at the film's conclusion which doesn't show trust in his abilities to convey emotion without spelling it all out. Those abilities turn out to be what makes THE NUTTY PROFESSOR so much fun. Welcome back, Eddie, even if you never went away. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 weighting games: 7. -- Scott Renshaw Stanford University http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:36:15 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:49 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.visi.net!chippy.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!europa.clark.net!mis3!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 26 Jun 1997 15:51:07 GMT Organization: America Online Lines: 77 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5ou35b$dsl@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #08000 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7401 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1387 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **1/2 (out of 4 = OK) 1996, PG-13, 95 minutes [1 hour, 35 minutes] [comedy] starring: Eddie Murphy (Prof. Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, the entire Klump family), Jada Pinkett (Clara Purty), Larry Miller (Dean Richmond), written by David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac, Steve Odekerk, produced by Brian Grazer, Russell Simmons, directed by Tom Shadyac. If "The Nutty Professor" is Eddie Murphy's attempt at a "comeback" it's not a very good one. The film starts off with cartoonish innocence to it, but eventually it becomes a typical, raunchy Murphy flick just slightly toned down to appeal to a wider audience. The story starts off in a lighthearted manner as we meet Sherman Klump (Murphy), 400-pound chemistry professor whose obesity keeps getting him in trouble. Klump is the typical, lonely-but-lovable fat man who can't help but feel sorry for himself. He tries to exercise and diet, but it just doesn't work. The jokes and the atmosphere revolving around such an easy target seem like just that: easy jokes and gags that can be funny, be could be even funnier had they some originality to them. The first such example of this is a somewhat funny scene involving thousands of hamsters running all over the college grounds (that escaped due to Klump's massive bulk bumping into everything). However, this immediate cartoony humor is symbolic of how the film works as a whole. And what's a comedy without a beautiful woman? Jada Pinkett co-stars as Clara Purty, a new chemistry teacher who somehow finds herself drawn to Klump, and even agrees to go out with him. Let's see... we have a beautiful woman with a fat man, and they go to a comedy club... the story and the jokes essentially write themselves from here. Klump can't take it anymore and concocts a formula that causes him to drop 250 pounds in a few seconds. But when his size changes, so does his personality, that of the extremely vain, but smooth Buddy Love. Unfortunately, Love's charm wears out quickly and the film starts to return to Murphy's vulgar roots. We get sit-com-esque scenes of Love and Purty arguing with each other even as he seduces her. Then zany scenes as Love proceeds to become a wiseass who cracks on every person he sees, and even gets into a fist fight (that's not funny!). I found myself somewhat laughing at these parts, but I felt like I've seen it all before. The scenes with Klump had an innocent charm I hadn't experienced in a while, and just as it started to grow on me the entire film changed and became just another screwball comedy. At times the film can be quite gross and offensive to say the least. In fact, isn't its entire premise a little too politically incorrect for the times? Fat jokes are funny in passing, so having an entire film revolve around them is not. Consider the scenes in which Murphy plays every member of the extremely obese Klump family. All we get is a family arguing with each other and having farting contests. I laughed at the time, but in retrospect this type of comedy is pandering the lowest common denominator and who likes to be pandered to? Most of the plot of the film involves Klump's struggle to control his personalities and not get fired and Purty in the process. The battle between the personalities is what creates for most of the jokes, but the formula repeats itself often. It all depends on how much of it you can take. "The Nutty Professor" is pretty funny at times, but is just too contrived to be taken seriously. The comedy relies a little too much on special effects and makeup instead of zany situations and dialogue. [Note: I highly question the PG-13 rating. There is little sex or violence in this film but there is a great deal of profanity. Not vulgar profanity, but just disgusting, lowbrow dialogue which proves this is really an R-rated Murphy flick in disguise.] please visit Chad'z Movie page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz