'Nutty' by Nature By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 28, 2000

Eddie Murphy stars as majority of the cast in "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps." (Universal Studios)

"Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" is also cluttered with some of the nastiest language to qualify as family comedy. But if nasty doesn't mar your entertainment, you'll be creased with laughter more than you'd care to admit. Co-producer Murphy and his collaborators (including director Peter Segal) allow the Klump family to run so free all over the place, it's strangely liberating. And for a sequel, that's a sort of left-handed blessing.

You remember the Klumps, the latex-assisted characters (all played by Murphy) in the enormously successful "The Nutty Professor" of 1996. In the first movie, they were subplot characters, adding irreverent color to the story. But in this movie, the ratio changes. They're the main attraction.

The central character, as before, is Professor Sherman Klump, the big-sized, shy, lovable science professor, whose heart is even bigger than his belly.

Sherman is madly in love with fellow professor Denise Gaines (Janet Jackson in iconic overdrive), but he's having a personality problem. It seems that a wicked element in his DNA (played by Murphy sans disguise) is ruining his life.

Every time Sherman finds himself in high performance situations – like meeting his future in-laws or making public presentations about his latest research – Buddy Love comes to spoil the show.

In desperation, Sherman uses Denise's cutting-edge research to extract that troublesome DNA component from his makeup.

But you can't take the Buddy Love out of a person without terrible consequences. This Buddy comes back with a vengeance, hellbent on stealing the professor's latest discovery, an explosive youth serum that restores vigor and vitality.

Okay, forget about that plot. Prepare for the Klumps. For starters, there's Sherman's pop, Cletus, who's having a sexual performance problem lately, while his long-suffering, saintly wife, known as Mama, waits patiently for a bedroom miracle.

There's also Ernie, Sherman's bald, make-peace brother who yells "Stop the violence, stop the violence" when the family gets into an argumentative lather; Ernie Jr. (Jamal Mixon as the one Klump not played by Murphy); and last but not least: Granny Klump.

In Granny, meet the star of the movie. Her colorful commentary about her sex life and sagging infrastructure leaves subtlety hung, drawn and quartered. What she loves to do with her lover (a grim-faced, skeletal old man who looks like death microwaved over), she says, is get in the mood by watching such TV programs as "Mating Season on the Serengeti." She's also the pendulous-breasted attraction in a slow-motion sequence, in which she imagines herself friskily leaping through dreamlike fields. This particular scene may just sear your memory forever.

These and more Klump moments are the central DNA of "Nutty Professor II," which was penned by a small consortium of scriptwriters, including Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield (who created Gumby, Buckwheat and Velvet Jones with Murphy), and Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz (makers of "American Pie"). We get so caught up in the family shenanigans, as well as such bizarre spectacles as an oversized hamster who can rear-fire his cannonball-sized droppings, it almost comes as an intrusion that we have to get back to Sherman and Denise. But then again, a wedding also means a whole roomful of Klumps.

NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS (PG-13, 105 minutes) – Contains obscenity, near-nudity and bathroom humor.