Lots of belly laughs in 'Nutty Professor II: The Klumps'

By Joko E.H. Anwar

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps; Director: Peter Segal; Actors: Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson; Universal Picture, 1 hour 45 minutes

JAKARTA (JP): There are not many films which are filled with special effects wizardry yet still leave their human actors as the real stars. Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is an exception. The make-up effects here are flawless. But Eddie Murphy, who gave life to six different characters in the movie, is the one who deserves the biggest thumbs-up.

The actor started his career in 1975 at the age of 19 as one of the back-up performers on the NBC weekly comedy Saturday Night Live. It did not take a long time for Murphy to become SNL's prime attraction with his gift for mimicry and comic brilliance which he shows in this sequel of the 1996 hit comedy.

In the first Nutty Professor, the characters in the Klumps family, which comprise of a super intelligent but painfully shy professor of genetics by the name of Sherman, Papa Klump, Mama Klump, Granny Klump, and his widowed brother with a son were not really developed, since the film focused on Sherman and his alter ego, Buddy Love.

Focus in the second installment is broader which makes all members of the Klump family stars. Eddie Murphy, who plays all of the characters except for his niece, brings them to life. Not only that, he also succeeds in making each of them very unique.

Mama 'Anna' Klump is a loving, sensitive woman among the other short-fused, unorthodox members of the family.

Papa 'Cletus' Klump is trying hard to regain his self esteem after being fired from his job.

Problems he has to face include not being able to perform his duty as a husband in bed which has become the source of constant mockery from his septuagenarian mother-in-law whose sex life is hotter than melting butter.

Watching the Klumps interact with each other in one scene, courtesy of visual effects expert John Farhat, is pure delight.

Highlights include a scene in an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the Klumps celebrate Cletus's "retirement" which goes from funny to hysterical.

In this hilarious sequel, Sherman still has to deal with his diabolical alter ego Buddy Love, whom Sherman accidentally created in the first film using a potion which transformed him into a man with a perfect body and high self-esteem.

This time, Sherman who is more sweet-natured than nutty, falls in love with another professor of genetics, Denise Gaines (Janet Jackson), but is afraid that she will turn him down since he does not have a perfect body, according to the general perception.

Denise actually returns his love but Sherman still has problems because his alter ego, Buddy, makes him do silly things at crucial times, including a hilarious scene when Sherman is trying to ask Denise to marry him with the help of a Mexican band.

Sherman eventually decides to get rid of Buddy forever using Denise's cutting-edge DNA program which can extract bad genes from a person's body.

After Sherman succeeds in getting rid of Buddy, he and Denise immediately agree to get married.

The Klumps couldn't be more delighted to hear the news. Granny even gives Denise some hints on how to enjoy intimate pleasure with graphic yet hilarious descriptions of her fantasy about having sex with a popular newscaster.

Buddy, however, manages to get back into Sherman's world after a piece of dog hair falls into the strand of the bad DNA and he is ready to make things fall apart.

Sherman also finds out later that his separation from Buddy affects his cerebral system which makes him gradually loose his intelligence.

Buddy then also tries to steal Sherman's youth potion which can reverse someone's aging only two days before Sherman has to make a presentation on it in front of the country's biggest pharmaceutical company which is also being broadcast live nationally.

In his attempts to steal the potion, Buddy must confront Granny Klump whose passion can not be squelched, and she mistakes him for the male stripper she ordered earlier for Denise's party.

The Klumps is much superior to the recent comedy Big Momma's House, which also demonstrates an ample use of make-up effects but which were not very convincing.

Unlike The Klumps, the latter seems disinterested in plot continuity let alone logic. (Martin Lawrence is not Eddy Murphy, by the way).

The Klumps demonstrates a perfect collaboration between Murphy and make-up effects wizard Rick Baker who is also a five-time Academy Award winner.

The actor, who also played four different characters in Coming to America in 1988, will make people forget that it is him behind all the foam-rubber latex pieces and will convince you that the characters are all played by different people.

Besides it is the first time we see a scene where an actor plays both characters in a sexual situation, as in the scene when Anna tries to attract Cletus' attention in bed.

Some viewers may object to the film's vulgarity and gross-out jokes. But, as can be found in raunchy comedies like There's Something About Mary and Road Trip, there is a lot of sweetness in this film.

For those who enjoy a wild imagination, the film offers plenty including a giant hamster sexually assaulting a university dean, and a talking, naked baby who slyly asks a sexy woman, "Got milk?".

What more can you ask for?