Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)

Directed by: Peter Segal | 106 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson, Larry Miller, John Ales, Richard Gant, Anna Maria Horsford, Melinda McGraw, Jamal Mixon, Gabriel Williams, Chris Elliott, Duffy Taylor, Earl Boen, Nikki Cox, Freda Payne, Sylvester Jenkins, Wanda Sykes

After the immense success of ‘The Nutty Professor’ from 1996, a sequel was inevitable. However, it seems that for the sequel no scriptwriter, but a fart pillow has been flown in. The level of this sequel is rather ‘light’ (read: a series of flatulence jokes)…

In ‘The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps’, the shy and good-natured Professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy in fatsuit) returns. The fat scientist is still struggling with his weight. When he wants to win the favor of his new colleague Denise (a very annoying Janet Jackson), he reaches for his slimming potion again and Sherman’s selfish and extroverted alter ego Buddy Love (Murphy without a fatsuit) is freed. This man destroys Sherman’s life and “lives” in his body. It is incumbent upon the professor to exorcise his alter ego and accept his obese body. It’s all about the inside, not the outside!

Humor is very subjective. What one person likes, is disgusting to another. Whatever your take on ‘The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps’, there’s no denying that this sequel aims for easy, physical jokes. Most of the jokes are about farts, bodily fluids and the size of the title hero. If you’re still shaking your stomach after a hundred noisily escaping intestinal gases, this may well be your favorite movie. If you can then also roar for 106 minutes at obese people and sexually active elderly ladies with drooping body parts then you must be the one person who is now collecting autographs to justify a third installment in this franchise (which hopefully doesn’t expand further). .

If you think a comedy should offer more than gruffing fats and horny grandmothers, then ‘The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps’ will disappoint you. Murphy is a charismatic comedian, but he relies too much on cheap toilet humor. The sharpness is gone and his (stand up comedy) talent is not addressed. The most creative thing this man does is put on countless fatsuits to play the entire Klump family almost single-handedly. Let’s be honest, the grime is great, but sadly more money went into these suits than a script. Murphy’s love for costumes that turn him into bonkers characters resulted in ‘Norbit’ in 2007. This flop brought Murphy’s career to a dead end.