Plot
Grossly overweight Prof. Sherman Klump, desperate to lose weight takes a special chemical that turns him into the slim but obnoxious Buddy Love.

Release Year: 1996

Rating: 5.6/10 (44,643 voted)

Critic's Score: 62/100

Director: Tom Shadyac

Stars: Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn

Storyline
Sherman Klump is an incredibly fat and good-hearted man. He is a college professor on the verge of a breakthrough in DNA restructuring when he meets an admirer of his, named Carla, who is a teacher new to Klump's college. He is enamored of her, but is frustrated by his tremendous bulk. He then decides to test a formula on which he's been working on himself. He is then transformed into the lecherous swinger, Buddy Love, and romantic complications ensue.

Writers: Jerry Lewis, Bill Richmond

Cast:
Eddie Murphy - Sherman Klump / Buddy Love / Lance Perkins / Papa Klump / Mama Klump / Grandma Klump / Ernie Klump
Jada Pinkett Smith - Carla Purty (as Jada Pinkett)
James Coburn - Harlan Hartley
Larry Miller - Dean Richmond
Dave Chappelle - Reggie Warrington
John Ales - Jason
Patricia Wilson - Dean's Secretary
Jamal Mixon - Ernie Klump Jr.
Nichole McAuley - Fit Woman
Hamilton von Watts - Health Instructor (as Hamilton Von Watts)
Chao Li Chi - Asian Man (as Chao-Li Chi)
Tony Carlin - Host
Quinn Duffy - Bartender
Montell Jordan - Himself
Doug Williams - Band Leader

Taglines: Inside Sherman Klump, a party animal is about to break out.

Release Date: 28 June 1996

Filming Locations: Beverly Hills, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $54,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $25,400,000 (USA) (30 June 1996) (2115 Screens)

Gross: $244,300,000 (Worldwide)

Runtime: 95 min

Trivia:
Eddie Murphy originally wanted John Landis to direct.

Goofs:
Continuity: In the second scene with Buddy Love driving the Viper the passenger side seat is occasionally empty.

Quotes:
Grandma Klump: I know a good church down there on Main Street, but they won't marry you if you're a lesbian.

Commenting on the comment "fatism" below

Rating: 9/10

As a fat person myself, I encounter prejudice every day. Movies are especially bad, because it is still considered okay to make fun of fat people. Most skinny people just assume that we're lazy. They think that we have the potential to be as thin as is considered "normal," but we just are too lazy to do anything about it. That is absolutely false (not that the skinnies would ever buy that, but I can at least try).

Anyway, to get to The Nutty Professor, I found it to be one of the most sympathetic portrayals of fat people ever put on film. The only one that tops it is James Mangold's Heavy, although the protagonist's weight wasn't all that was harming his well-being.

The Nutty Professor did have some physical comedy involving fat that one could take as funny, but I never felt that the jokes were degrading. The main reason that I feel this was so sympathetic was that, though he experienced life as a skinny stud, he did decide to be a fat man at the end. One can chock this up to formulae, but something that Sherrman Klump said at the end really touched me: "I could try to lose weight, but I'm always going to be a fat man, and you're just going to have to live with that." I think that a film where the screenwriters who were bigoted would have said something like, "I'll lose weight without this stupid formula." That's not what happened, though, and I'm glad for that.

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