"The Nutty Professor" is what you get when you cross Jerry Lewis as an actor and Jerry Lewis as a director: A mind-numbingly unfunny comedy that tries to be something it isn't. I think it's safe to say that the 1996 remake (or just a film with that shares the same name) is not only funnier, but also entertaining--and that's pretty sad, because the remake wasn't even that great.
Jerry Lewis plays a crazy dork-of-a-scientist that creates a...er...creation that makes him "hunkier" and more hip. Feeling more self-confident than ever before, Lewis hits the streets in his new persona: Buddy Love. He (Buddy Love) then sparks relationships with women and becomes suave and vogue--until his new persona starts to ultimately take over and causes trouble.
Jerry Lewis not only directs a boring film here, but a terribly pretentious one, too. How are we to care for a character in which there is no depth or emotional attraction? I couldn't care less about what happens to Lewis' character, nor those who come in contact with him. It seems Lewis thought that by setting up a few gags he could forget about character development and no one would notice. Perhaps, as a summer fun flick, you could get away with this, in a sense. But you know what you can't get away with? You can't get away with it when the film is not funny--the only thing Lewis relies on to carry his film is nonexistent. No matter how dull the character study was in Eddie Murphy's 1996 "The Nutty Professor," you have to admit it was at least kind of funny--I barely laughed at all in Jerry Lewis' take on the story.
The script writing by Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmond is like colliding together a horribly unfunny blend of humor and a terribly boring, slow-paced plot. Jerry Lewis as the barsinger-type-hip guy was incredibly boring and lasted about ten minutes--way too long for something so unfunny.
Jerry Lewis has put together an unfunny, boring, pretentious, unimaginative film that had inspiration but not enough charm to carry off the project the whole way.
1.5/5 stars -
John Ulmer
Jerry Lewis plays a crazy dork-of-a-scientist that creates a...er...creation that makes him "hunkier" and more hip. Feeling more self-confident than ever before, Lewis hits the streets in his new persona: Buddy Love. He (Buddy Love) then sparks relationships with women and becomes suave and vogue--until his new persona starts to ultimately take over and causes trouble.
Jerry Lewis not only directs a boring film here, but a terribly pretentious one, too. How are we to care for a character in which there is no depth or emotional attraction? I couldn't care less about what happens to Lewis' character, nor those who come in contact with him. It seems Lewis thought that by setting up a few gags he could forget about character development and no one would notice. Perhaps, as a summer fun flick, you could get away with this, in a sense. But you know what you can't get away with? You can't get away with it when the film is not funny--the only thing Lewis relies on to carry his film is nonexistent. No matter how dull the character study was in Eddie Murphy's 1996 "The Nutty Professor," you have to admit it was at least kind of funny--I barely laughed at all in Jerry Lewis' take on the story.
The script writing by Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmond is like colliding together a horribly unfunny blend of humor and a terribly boring, slow-paced plot. Jerry Lewis as the barsinger-type-hip guy was incredibly boring and lasted about ten minutes--way too long for something so unfunny.
Jerry Lewis has put together an unfunny, boring, pretentious, unimaginative film that had inspiration but not enough charm to carry off the project the whole way.
1.5/5 stars -
John Ulmer