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Nutty Professor, The
Universal Pictures

Nutty Professor, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 62 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for crude humor and sexual references

Starring Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle, John Ales, Patricia Wilson, and Jamal Mixon

Eddie 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', a 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? (Universal)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Romance  |  Sci-fi  
WRITTEN BY: David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein
Tom Shadyac & Steve Oedekerk
Jerry Lewis (1963 motion picture)
Bill Richmond (1963 motion picture)
 
DIRECTED BY: Tom Shadyac  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 23, 2005 
Video: November 16, 1996 
Theatrical: June 28, 1996 
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Best Makeup, 69th Annual Academy Awards

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
More than just a walking fat joke, Sherman Klump is Eddie Murphy's winking rebuke of his own arrogance.
Read Full Review
80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Tasteful, subtle and sophisticated are a few of the words that aren't going to be applied to Eddie Murphy's version of The Nutty Professor. But funny, funny is something else again.
Read Full Review
80
Newsweek Allison Samuels
Directed by Tom Shadyac ("Ace Ventura"), it's nearly sociopathic in its quest for laughs, and busts a very big gut.
Read Full Review
80
Time Richard Schickel
Murphy, abetted by director Tom Shadyac and a whole raft of writers, cannot entirely escape the curious blend of aspiration and sloppiness that marked the earlier film.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Mike Clark
But it does mine Murphy's gifts, and the payoff is both nutty and funny. Sometimes even touching, too. [28Jun1996 Pg.01.D]
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
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.
Read Full Review
75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Eddie Murphy is funny again. Sadly, he lacks the guts to follow through on the cathartic self-satire that gives the film its distinction.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Rita Kempley
Murphy owes much of his success to the amazing special-effects makeup by Rick Baker ("An American Werewolf in London"), but he brings a tenderness and dignity to the performance that he has never shown before.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Kevin McManus
This is good, seamless comedy, even if it's not terribly sophisticated.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Without ever posing a serious challenge to the original, the new Nutty Professor is much more respectful of its source and funnier than I'd anticipated.
Read Full Review
63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The Nutty Professor aims for guffaws at the lowest level -- anyone with a double-digit IQ will get every joke. Whether you laugh at them or not is often more of a matter of taste than a question of having a sense of humor.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Not that The Nutty Professor should ever be confused with a good movie, but it is a perfect vehicle for the redisplay of Murphy's neglected talents, steering him away from the smug persona of his recent disasters and whisking him back to the cozy locale of his Saturday Night Live roots.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Staff(not credited)
This remake of Jerry Lewis's 1963 Jekyll and Hyde comedy is slackly directed and overloaded with flatulence jokes.
Read Full Review
60
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Mr. Murphy proves himself a surprisingly strong actor here, playing Sherman with sweetness and poignancy, not to mention loads of funny weight-related humor.
Read Full Review
60
Empire Angie Errigo
Occasionally irritating farce but inventive and boasting an endearing as well as laugh-out-loud performance from Murphy in and out of fat suit.
Read Full Review
50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Eddie Murphy has impressive energy, but he needs mountains of makeup and special effects to accomplish what Jerry Lewis did with sheer talent in the original 1963 version of the comedy.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Arguably better than the last five Eddie Murphy films taken together, The Nutty Professor still seems to be playing down to its audience much of the time, though you'd never know it to hear the gales of laughter erupting at the screening I attended.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Murphy is wonderful -- I wouldn't begrudge him an Oscar nomination -- but The Nutty Professor is a mess.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
Be that as it may, the movie offers the uplifting news bulletin that life is not about being happy with how much you weigh but with what kind of person you are. This is where the movie starts getting sloppy.
Read Full Review
40
The Onion (A.V. Club) Maria Schneider
The film is otherwise plastic; the supporting players stink and a few too many fart jokes exist where wit belonged.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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