Okay, fellow tapeheads, let’s rewind the clock just past the Y2K panic to the year 2000. Blockbuster shelves were still a battleground, DVDs were gaining ground, but the echo of the 90s comedy boom was loud. And right in the thick of it landed Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, a sequel that doubled down on the element everyone remembered from the 1996 hit: Eddie Murphy buried under latex, playing not just Sherman Klump and Buddy Love, but the entire Klump clan. If the first film was a showcase, this was a full-blown, chaotic family reunion crammed onto one sputtering VHS tape (or maybe a shiny new DVD if you were fancy).
### All Klumps, All The Time
Remember the sheer novelty of seeing Murphy inhabit Mama, Papa, Ernie, and Grandma Klump in the first film's dinner scene? It was groundbreaking stuff, fueled by the Oscar-winning genius of makeup maestro Rick Baker. Universal Pictures clearly saw the dollar signs in those transformations, because The Klumps essentially takes that scene and stretches it into a feature film. Sherman is happily engaged to fellow professor Denise Gaines (played with charm by superstar Janet Jackson, a major casting coup at the time), and he's on the verge of selling his revolutionary youth formula. The catch? His smooth-talking, hyper-sexual alter ego Buddy Love is still lurking in his DNA, threatening to sabotage everything. The proposed solution involves extracting Buddy, but naturally, things go hilariously, and often grossly, wrong.
This shift decisively moves the focus from Sherman's journey to the broader, louder, cruder antics of his family. Directed by Peter Segal (who already had 90s comedy cred with Tommy Boy and Naked Gun 33 1/3), the film amps up the slapstick and the bodily function humor considerably. It felt like a response to the burgeoning gross-out comedy trend kicked into high gear by films like There's Something About Mary (1998). Some gags land with anarchic glee – Grandma Klump's unbridled libido is still startlingly funny in its sheer audacity – while others… well, let’s just say taste levels vary, and this film pushes boundaries that feel very specific to that turn-of-the-millennium moment.
### The Eighth Wonder: Murphy Under Latex
Regardless of how you feel about the jokes themselves, you simply have to marvel at Eddie Murphy's commitment. Playing Sherman, Buddy, Papa Cletus, Mama Anna, Ernie Sr., Ida Mae Jenson (Grandma), and Lance Perkins (a Richard Simmons parody) required staggering endurance. Rick Baker and his team refined their techniques, but reports consistently mentioned Murphy spending upwards of 3-4 hours in the makeup chair per character. Think about filming scenes with multiple Klumps – that meant multiple lengthy applications, often starting before dawn. It’s a Herculean effort, a testament to practical makeup effects artistry just as CGI was becoming truly dominant. Today, achieving this might involve more digital shortcuts, but back then, it was pure latex, glue, and phenomenal physical acting by Murphy, differentiating each character through voice and mannerism even under pounds of prosthetics. A fascinating bit of trivia: the sheer complexity of scheduling Murphy's transformations and shooting the multi-Klump scenes significantly ballooned the production budget to a reported $84 million – a hefty sum for a comedy in 2000!
Janet Jackson brings a welcome warmth and serves as a grounding presence amidst the Klump chaos. She has genuine chemistry with Sherman-Murphy, making their romance believable, even when competing with rogue DNA strands and giant hamsters (yes, really). Larry Miller also returns as Dean Richmond, reliably exasperated and delivering some solid reaction shots to the escalating absurdity.
### A Sequel's Legacy
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps wasn't quite the critical darling or box office behemoth the first film was (grossing around $166 million worldwide vs. the original's $274 million), but it was still a hit. Audiences turned up, primarily for the spectacle of Murphy's multi-character performance. The script, credited to several writers including Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield (who worked on the first film and Coming to America), sometimes feels less focused than the original, leaning heavily on set pieces featuring the Klump family rather than Sherman's core dilemma. Was it too much of a good thing? For some, maybe. The relentless pace and often juvenile humor can be exhausting.
Yet, watching it now evokes a specific kind of nostalgia. It’s a time capsule of early 2000s comedy – loud, unapologetic, and built around a megastar pushing the limits of performance and practical effects. It feels like the last gasp of a certain kind of high-concept, star-driven studio comedy before the landscape shifted again. I distinctly remember renting this one, the chunky plastic clamshell case promising wall-to-wall Murphy mayhem, and it delivered exactly that, for better or worse.
Rating: 6/10
Justification: The score reflects the undeniable technical achievement of the makeup and Eddie Murphy's incredible multi-role performance, which remain impressive. Janet Jackson adds charm. However, the film loses points for its less coherent plot compared to the original and its reliance on often dated, crude humor that hasn't aged as well. It’s more spectacle than substance, but the spectacle itself is noteworthy.
Final Take: A whirlwind of latex, laughs, and occasionally questionable taste, The Klumps is peak Y2K Eddie Murphy energy captured on tape – a testament to practical effects wizardry, even if the humour feels like a time capsule best opened with fondness rather than critical scrutiny.