The Nutty Professor on DVD

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Dom Robinson reviews

The Nutty Professor
Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

    Cover

  • Cat.no: UDR 90012
  • Cert: 12
  • Running time: 91 minutes
  • Year: 1996
  • Pressing: 1999
  • Region(s): 2, PAL
  • Chapters: 16 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround, Mono
  • Languages: 7 languages available
  • Subtitles: 7 languages available
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: DVD 5
  • Price: £19.99
  • Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Biographies, Filmographies, Production Notes

Producers:

    Brian Grazer and Russell Simmons

Screenplay:

    David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk
    (Based on the original film written by Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmomd)

Music:

    David Newman

Cast:

    Sherman Klump: Eddie Murphy (Another 48 Hours, Best Defense, Beverly Hills Cop 1-3, Boomerang, Coming To America, The Distinguished Gentleman, Doctor Dolittle, 48 Hours, The Golden Child, Harlem Nights, Holy Man, Life, Metro, Raw, Trading Places, Vampire in Brooklyn)
    Carla Purty: Jada Pinkett (Jason’s Lyric, Menace II Society, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Scream 2, Set It Off, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, Woo)
    Harlan Hartley: James Coburn (Affliction, The Baltimore Bullet, Deadfall, Eraser, The Great Escape, Hudson Hawk, Keys To Tulsa, The Magnificent Seven, Major Dundee, Maverick, Parker, Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, The Player, Sister Act 2, Young Guns II)
    Dean Richmond: Larry Miller (Pretty Woman, Undercover Blues)
    Reggie Warrington: Dave Chappelle (Con Air, Half Baked, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Undercover Blues, Woo)
    Himself: Montell Jordan

The Nutty Professor is the 90s remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis original, starring Eddie Murphy as the excessively overweight teacher, Dr. Sherman Klump.

After his first meeting with one of the new students in the building, a mutual attraction is struck up, and for their first date they head for a nightclub where a comic makes a mockery of Sherman’s size to the point where it makes him very depressed.

It’s time to put his latest scientific invention to the test. As creator of a DNA-restructing liquid to reduce weight by significant proportions, the treatment has been working wonders on his pet guinea pig. However, if he is to up the dose considerably, will it also work for him?

The answer is yes, and within a few minutes Sherman turns into Buddy Love, a slim, athletic man whose new-found figure gets the hots for wearing nothing but spandex. When he meets up with Carla again, this is the first time he’s seen her as his new persona, but the effects are beginning to wear off and his body begins to turn Sherman-like again, bringing some occasional neat SFX into action.

If there’s one problem with this film, it’s that when Sherman loses his weight he doesn’t really turn into Buddy Love, but … Eddie Murphy – the same Eddie Murphy from films such as Vampire in Brooklyn and Harlem Nights where he just behaved as himself with a wafer-thin character, and not the Eddie Murphy we remember from films such as 48 Hrs, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop where he actually played someone else and hadn’t got too big for his boots.

Also unfortunately, this film goes for all the obvious gags first, an example being when he first meets Carla, instead of saying “I’m flattered”, he comes out with “I’m fatter..”. Similarly, later on in a nightclub, as Klump and his date head for their table, he knocks over anyone and anything in his way in predicatable fashion.

Couple this with the usual film world of Eddie Murphy where white people become little more than a distant memory, plus Murphy’s over-use of foul language despite the film only being a 12-certificate, and the end result is a disappointment, not only because of the way the film is, but also because director Tom Shadyac‘s Liar Liar, was one of the funniest comedies I’ve ever seen.

And I haven’t even mentioned yet that Murphy goes several times further than repeating himself in Coming To America, where he played a few different customers who frequent a barber shop, by replicating the entire Klump family, who sit about the dining table farting endlessly.

Elsewhere in the cast is Jada Pinkett playing the token love interest, and a nothing-performance from James Coburn who may as well not have been in the film for all the difference it made.

The picture quality looks great from the usual viewing distance, but there are traces of artifacts as you get closer to the screen. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically-enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions which provides 33% higher resolution and the average bitrate is a very good 6.32Mb/s, occasionally peaking at 10Mb/s.

The sound isn’t jam-packed full of surround-sound moments, but what’s here comes across clearly. This DVD comes complete with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for the English soundtrack, unlike the PAL Laserdisc which could only accomodate a Dolby Surround one.

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer : There’s only 16 chapters here to cover the 91-minute film, which isn’t bad, but pales in comparison with the 34 that adorned the PAL Laserdisc. The original theatrical trailer is included.

Languages and Subtitles : Only English is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, while French, German, Italian, Spanish and Czech can be heard in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) and Polish citizens have to suffer the film in mono. Subtitles can be seen in English, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish.

Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes: Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available for Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett, James Coburn and Dave Chappelle, plus director Tom Shadyac. A few pages of production notes give some background info on the film.

Menu : Similar to the first batch of Universal releases, the menu is static and silent with a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu while other menus contain pictures of cast members. On playing the disc you see the Universal logo and a copyright message before the main menu appears.

Overall, the film occasionally has its moments – but these are very few and far between. If you did like the film though, then this disc is certainly worth a look and you’ll find no more extras on the Region 1 DVD.

A review of the PAL Laserdisc can be found here.

FILM : ** PICTURE QUALITY: **** SOUND QUALITY: **** EXTRAS: ** ——————————- OVERALL: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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