El Profesor Chiflado 2: La Familia Klump

How much one likes `The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps' depends on how much Eddie Murphy you can stand. After grossing more than $125 million at the box office, I would have to conclude that moviegoers couldn't get enough. This sequel is a one-man show built around a character skit from the first movie. Murphy plays eight different roles and gives a tour de force performance without the benefit of any story whatever. I got the impression that the writers were superfluous anyway, since Murphy was obviously ad libbing about 90% of the time.

The humor is lowbrow and delivers a good deal of physical comedy laced with sexual innuendo. Though Murphy's caricatures are consistently droll, they rely too much on unflattering stereotypes of blacks. The first dinner scene is a rehash of the dinner scene from the first film. After that scene, most of the film is a repetition of the same tired sight gags. Though Murphy's amusing electricity runs through every character, once the novelty wears off the film's appeal wears thin.

Kudos to the makeup department for an outstanding job on Murphy's various alter egos. Otherwise, the production of this film was nothing out of the ordinary. Larry Miller also gets a very honorable mention as the obnoxious Dean Richmond, getting his just deserts at the hands of a giant hamster.

This film has some laughs but not enough substance for a feature length movie. I rated it a 6/10. Add two or three points if you are an Eddie Murphy fan.

This was not a funny movie. Eddie Murphy who has starred in movies such as "Coming To America" and "Beverly Hills Cop" which were both hilarious, has struck out here in the poorest fashion possible.

"The Nutty Professor" (1996) was okay because of the use of the Klump family who appeared throughout the movie every so often breaking it up with some humorous scenes. In "The Klumps", the family were over used and relied on for all the laughs, but instead just became sickening and in turn extremely boring. I understand using the Klump family was the idea for the sequel, it's just that it doesn't come close to working.

I could probably count on one hand how many movie sequels are anything other than a complete waste of everybody's time. The Nutty Professor II is no exception, and I would go as far as to say that the 2 minutes of outtakes are probably funnier than the rest of the film combined.

The original was a definite success and featured one of Eddie Murphy's career-best performances. Unfortunately, the follow-up is little more than a lazy cash-grab that sucks the life out of the previously hilarious Klumps with a barrage of crass toilet humour. The storyline is absolutely atrocious and it culminates in a completely nonsensical ending. Murphy does just enough to make this film watchable but even he can't make up for such a bad script.

If you enjoyed the first movie, you'd be better off re-watching it than putting yourself through this. Really lame stuff and a massive insult to its excellent predecessor.

Eddie Murphy once again slaps on the fat suit to play Sherman Klump. And Mama Klump, and Big Daddy Klump, and Grandma Klump, and Brother Klump, and Buddy Love (although without the fat suit on that one). Since the Klump dinner scene was easily the best scene in the original film, they decided to focus on the entire family in the sequel. And somehow got Janet Jackson to fall in love with Sherman. I wish I knew how that happened. Anyway, while the movie still focuses on Sherman and his quest for love and scientific goals (this time making people younger), the rest of the family gets involved in the story lines. And I thought that took away from the heart of the film. While it was fun to see all the Murphy characters, there needed to be a better story line for them, rather than a bad marriage. Although I will admit the horny Grandmother Klump story line was very funny. They should make a movie just about her next time. But I regress. The story line with Sherman and Buddy, about how Buddy was still inside Sherman, and Sherman managed to get him out, only to have Buddy come to life, and then Sherman is becoming more stupid by the minute and will go into a vegetable state unless he eats Buddy. It's all very cheesy. I mean come on, one tear from Janet near the end manages to bring Sherman back to life? It was all very corny.

This is not to say that there aren't funny scenes in the movie. Again, I thought the best scene was the entire Klump family going out to dinner and all the hi-jinks that ensue. And there were other funny moments scattered throughout the film, but not enough for me to really get into the movie and enjoy it. Basically it was a moment to moment film, not an overall enjoyment film. Eddie Murphy is amazing, and Martin Lawrence has got nothing on dressing up as a fat woman, but it's just not enough. The Klumps is something you can rent for a quiet evening at home.

I loved the first film, it was funny and touching, and I feel it is underrated. This sequel is inferior, but I have honestly seen much worse sequels than this. There are some things wrong, such as the weak plot, uneven script, a slow beginning and uneven direction, but it is very amusing regardless. Thanks to some great sight gags such as the Fountain of Youth and the giant sex-mad hamster, another brilliant performance from Eddie Murphy and Janet Jackson very effective at playing it straight as the long suffering girlfriend. I also liked how it was filmed, and the score was lovely.

Overall, this is not a bad movie, not great, but not at all terrible.

6/10 Bethany Cox