The Nutty Professor (1996) on Netflix
PG-1319961h 35mComedyRomanceSci-Fi
Sherman Klump, a kind-hearted professor at Wellman College, invents a serum that helps a person shed weight. Mocked about his size by comedian Reggie Warrington, he tries the formula on himself.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb5.7/10132,553 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sherman Klump is a kind-hearted professor at Wellman College who has invented an experimental formula that rebuilds a person's DNA so weight can be lost more easily. Carla Purty, a chemistry graduate and an admirer of his research, arrives, and at a club he is mocked for his size by the comedian Reggie Warrington. The next morning he swallows the serum himself and drops 250 pounds within seconds. The effect does not last, so he takes on a new identity, Buddy Love, and asks Carla out to the same club, while his lab assistant Jason sees the change at the college.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Nutty Professor (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Rick Baker made Murphy's fat suits from urethane foam and a spandex suit filled with pockets of liquid so they would jiggle believably; the makeup took three hours to apply each day, and Baker said Murphy spent 80-odd days in the chair and never complained.
- The character Reggie Warrington is named after Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, brothers who directed one of Murphy's previous films, Boomerang; Reginald Hudlin was surprised to see the character named after him and his brother violently stuffed into a piano.
- Jerry Lewis was an executive producer on both this film and the 2000 sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, yet in 2009 he expressed regret for allowing the remakes, saying "What I did was perfect the first time around and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection".
- Murphy and Grazer had hoped John Landis, who had previously worked successfully with Murphy, would direct the film; ultimately Tom Shadyac, the director of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, joined the project.
- Murphy said the film is not a strict remake of the Jerry Lewis original: "we stripped down the story to its bare bones and built it up to this whole different thing", adding elements of Jekyll and Hyde and Cyrano de Bergerac. Pinkett turned down a role in Independence Day to star in it.
