The Nutty Professor review

The Nutty Professor is a remake of that classic Jerry Lewis side-splitter from 1963, about a weedy college professor who takes a potion to turn himself into a he-man so he can win the girl of his dreams, this stars Eddie Murphy in something of a comeback performance after a series of duds earlier in the nineties.

In Murphy’s and director Tom Shadyac’s (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) update, professor Sherman Klump isn’t weedy, he’s HUGE. Weighing in at over twenty-eight stone, he has tried every diet and exercise imaginable when he uses the serum and becomes Buddy, a smart-mouthed, arrogant Casanova – but it’s not long before Sherman realises his other half may be going out of control.

Murphy – who plays Sherman, Buddy and four members of the Klump family (including mama and grandma) in a couple of hilarious dinner table scenes – is hysterical from the opening scene to the outtakes shown over the final credits.

Certainly, this is one of the few remakes that is as good as – or maybe even better than – the original, and it is also a triumph for Murphy (although he did later disappoint by making a forgettable, low-on-laughs sequel, The Klumps, in 2000).