That pile of nerves and eyes and brains in the see through veggiematic... MYSTERIO, managed to check out THE KLUMPS early on... And now he's here to give us the inside skinny about the flick... Read on...
Hey, ho Harry. Mysterio chiming in here again. But pssst! I’m not supposed to say anything about this according to the little slip of paper I signed with a big, fat “M”. But as big as Sherman Klump’s gut is, I’m about to bust out! Ya see I just saw the Nutty Professor. Now not just “the” Nutty Professor, but the whole damn Klump family too!
What I indeed did slip into unnoticed by most (as usual) was…
“THE NUTTY PROFESSOR 2: The Klumps”.
The title says it all, well for the part, most of it.
Now before I get into this review, let me state for record my dislike for the last flick. Didn’t like it, didn’t care for, just didn’t work for me. Way to damn many predictable, tiresome, fat jokes for my flava. I know Moriarty and I are of different opinion on that film from recent talks, but hey, he’s got his valid points for liking it and that’s just fine. There’s just not enough validly for my palate to like it on whole.
But I did enjoy Murphy’s performance in last year’s overlooked, “BOWFINGER”, in which again, he played duel roles. But they were so different and never seemed to cross into the other, that in my opinion, was a terrific performance throughout (not to mention Terrance Stamp’s cameo in it as well).
So, based on my past disliking for Murphy’s “The NUTTY PROFESSOR”, imagine my reluctant disdain in even considering making the effort to take a sneak peek at the sequel. But hey, it’s supposed to be one of this summer’s biggest blockbusters, but will it be? Let’s see…
Well Eddie’s back. And he’s bringing the whole damn Klump family back along with him! And boy, like the title says, there are a lot of Klumps in this comedic “klump” of non-stop hilarity. Oh yeah, and what would a “Nutty Professor” movie be without Sherman Klump’s mischievous and sexist alter ego Buddy Love? He’s back as well.
Man, aside from Janet Jackson playing Sherman Klump’s love interest, this film’s all Eddie. All Eddie, all over the place. No scene is without him. His playing of multi-characters throughout the entire film is something to give props to. What must’ve have been extremely difficult to choreograph, not to mention the excruciating make-up sessions (done wonderfully once again by the talented Rick Baker), is made seemless and impressive to watch throughout. So congrats to Eddie, the make-up and special effects team for pulling it off.
This film overall seems stronger on a whole when compared to the previous. Sherman seems to have more inner depth in this one in his relationship to Denise (Jackson). You see here, Sherman longs for that someone who will love him for what he is on the inside, and look beyond his large physique. Denise sees past that and finds the light in Sherman that sparks his heart. But Sherman is afraid to take it further with Denise, fearing that his alter ego, Buddy Love, will take hold of him, causing any chance of happiness with her to fail because of Buddy’s antics.
There are some really nice moments that show Sherman’s sensitive, shyness, and the conflict that battles inside him with trying to contain Buddy Love. It’s a feeling like that of Bruce Banner trying to hide and control the rage that is The Hulk, inside him. Sherman is a man who longs for normalcy, but who also cannot live apart from his other half, and therefore must strive to find a way to live complacent with Buddy.
(MINOR PLOT SETUP SPOILERS)
Buddy on the other hand is that mischievous devil which rests on his shoulder, that through what seems like a successful gene extraction procedure that Sherman performs on himself, later causes Buddy’s isolated DNA to be accidentally recombined with that of the lab’s dog plays havoc with Buddy’s his psychosis. This “recombining” allows Buddy to become a physical entity which allows him to act independently from Sherman.
And act he does. Buddy learns fast of a “youth serum” that Sherman has nearly perfected that has an offer from a huge pharmaceutical company that, based on it’s demonstrated results, will net him and the college $150,000,000. Of course he plans to steal it and sell it for himself, all the while sabotaging Sherman’s chances of sealing the deal. It’s not long though before the serum ultimately finds itself in the incompetent hands of the Klumps.
The Klump family is back on hand to provide the comical banter that, if you liked the dinner table sequence from the previous flick, you’ll love the Klumps much broadened part in this sequel. Their interaction and squabbling amongst each other is downright hilarious, including one scene that has Grandma Klump trying to get Buddy Love in many uncompromising situations. Mrs. Robinson she ain’t. But she’s the best of the bunch. There’s one hilarious dream gag involving her running towards Buddy in an open field, which offers a great sight gag.
(END OF MINOR PLOT SETUP SPOILERS, you may now proceed reading safely below)
And there are sight gags aplenty to accompany the many crude jokes, which I assume the raunchier ones came from Chris & Paul Weitz, the brothers of “American Pie” fame who co-scripted the screenplay along with Barry Blaustein & David Sheffield.
The weakest link in the film has to be the romance. There’s really not much backstory setup explaining how they met or what discovery causes Denise to feel for Sherman the way she does. It would’ve been nicer to see that romance build rather than just come into it as “she loves him because he’s kind, sweet, yada-yada.” We know that, but what was it about him that made her see that? The romance feels a bit forced and thrown in there, but does offers some nice tender moments shared between the two.
But strangely enough, walking into this, I had reservations as to what I’d expect to see. But I really didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did, since I really don’t remember laughing from the previous one.
The pacing was lean at approximently 105 minutes, and the print seemed about 90% locked sans credits.
The outlook looks good for Murphy and company on this being a successful follow up, and amidst what looks to be a dreadful summer, should fair well at the box-office. It’s only problem though, “ME, MYSELF & IRENE” which could hold strong through the summer.
Till next time out…
-Mysterio
