| | | "HD-DVD, The Look & Sound of Perfect."
Features: DVD, Widescreen
Eddie Murphy gives the "performances" of his career playing no less than seven roles in the comedy. Murphy stars as Dr. Sherman Klump, a kind, "calorically challenged" genetics professor who longs to shed his 400-pound frame in order to win the heart of beautiful Jada Pinkett. So, with one swig of his experimental fat-reducing serum, Sherman becomes "Buddy Love," fast-talking, pumped-up, plumped down Don Juan. Can Sherman stop his buff alter ego before it's too late, or will Buddy have the last laugh?
"A triumph!" David Denby, New York Magazine
"Murphy is wonderful..." Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
"This is good, seamless comedy." Kevin McManus, Washington Post
"Riotously funny..." Leonard Klady, Variety
"Spectacularly funny! Two thumbs up!" Siskel & Ebert
Editor's Note
Eddie Murphy stars as a grossly overweight chemistry professor in this update of the classic 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy. Eager to reinvent himself and to ease his loneliness, the professor develops a potion that magically transforms him into a lean, mean, sex machine, capable of seducing any woman in sight, but he loses his niceness along the way. Academy Award Nominations: Best Makeup.
Plot Summary
Sweet-natured, university scientist Sherman Klump is understandably insecure about his immense weight, particularly after meeting pretty grad student Carla Purty. He is conducting experiments in the hopes of inventing a formula that will instantly make one thin. After a disastrous date with Carla (in which a vitriolic stand-up comic makes Sherman his target), the desperate researcher swallows the formula before it's been perfected.| The solution not only makes Sherman thin, it transforms him into a smug, obnoxious cad named Buddy Love. Buddy also begins dating Carla (and gets sweet revenge on that comic), but drinks more and more of the solution in an effort to erase Sherman Klump forever.| However, the formula has a major side effect: Buddy continually transforms back into the corpulent Sherman, without warning -- and at the most inopportune times...
| Features | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture And Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 4/24/2007 |
| Running Time: 96 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1996 | | Catalog ID: 61101159 | | UPC: 00025195009881 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Dave Chappelle | | Eddie Murphy | | Jada Pinkett Smith | | James Coburn | | Bill Richmond - Based On Motion Picture By | | David Newman - Original Music By | | David Sheffield, et. al. - Screenplay | | Don Zimmerman - Editor | | Greg Papalia - Art Director | | James D. Brubaker - Producer | | Jerry Lewis - Based On Motion Picture By | | Jerry Lewis - Executive Producer | | Julio Macat - Cinematographer | | Tom Shadyac - Director |
| Awards |
Winner (1997) | | | British Academy Awards, Rick Baker, David LeRoy Anderson, Best Makeup/Hair | |
Nominee (1997) | | | British Academy Awards, Jon Farhat, Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects | | | Golden Globe, Eddie Murphy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical | | | Image Award, Eddie Murphy, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture | | | MTV Award, Eddie Murphy, Best Comedic Performance | | | MTV Award, Eddie Murphy, Best Male Performance | |
Winner (1997) | | | Oscar, Rick Baker, David LeRoy Anderson, Best Makeup | | | People's Choice, The Nutty Professor, Favorite Comedy Motion Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...Murphy's portrayal of Sherman Klump is surprisingly warm and touching..." 10/01/1996 p.49Entertainment Weekly
"...A remake that improves upon the original....[A] career-reviving smash [for Murphy]....A sweet spirit..." -- Rating: A- 11/08/1996 pp.77-9 USA Today
"...A surprisingly funny comedy and respectable remake..." 06/28/1996 p.1D Variety
"...Apt and comic....Combining the riotously funny and the sweetly sentimental....Miller is at his obsequious best....[Pinkett] demonstrates that her range ranks her among the most versatile young performers in movies..." 06/24/1996 Chicago Sun-Times
"...[Murphy's] back with exuberance and energy....He's very good. And the movie succeeds in two different ways: It's sweet and good-hearted, and then again it's raucous slapstick and bathroom humor..." 06/28/1996 p.31 ReelViews 7 of 10
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...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. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Eddie Murphy's talent for comedy has been in eclipse during these lean recent years of flops such as "A Vampire in Brooklyn.'' But in "The Nutty Professor'' he's back with exuberance and energy, in a movie that's like a thumb to the nose for everyone who said he'd lost it. He's very good. And the movie succeeds in two different ways: It's sweet and good-hearted, and then again it's raucous slapstick and bathroom humor. I liked both parts...The Murphy version follows the broad outlines of the Lewis film, with one inspired addition: It makes the hero fat, in addition to making him shy and inept, and that doubles the opportunities for physical comedy. Jerry Lewis' transformation from the professor into Buddy Love was a personality switch, but Murphy also goes through a complete physical morphing, from 400 pounds to average weight and back again, sometimes almost instantly. - Roger Ebert
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