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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps: Collector's Edition (2000)

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps: Collector's Edition (2000)

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Released 11-Apr-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Featurette-Spotlight On Location
Audio Commentary-Peter Segal (Director)
Audio-Only Track-A Conversation With Dir P Segal and Prod B Grazer
Deleted Scenes-2
Featurette-Makeup Application
Storyboard Comparisons
Outtakes
Music Video-Doesn't Really Matter-Janet Jackson
Theatrical Trailer
Production Notes
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Notes-DVD Newsletter
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 102:20
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (75:38) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Peter Segal
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Eddie Murphy
Janet Jackson
Larry Miller
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI $36.95 Music David Newman


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Interview Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Danish
Finnish
Dutch
German
Swedish
Norwegian
Polish
Czech
Hebrew
Greek
Turkish
Hungarian
Bulgarian
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement Yes
Action In or After Credits Yes, outtakes during end credits

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Eddie Murphy reprises his role as Professor Sherman Klump for this sequel to the Nutty Professor and 'fleshes' out several more "vertically challenged" characters from the original in the form of almost the entire Klump family (Cletus "Papa" Klump/Young Cletus Klump/Anna "Mama" Klump/Ernie Klump/Grandma Klump). Also making a return is Sherman's alter ego and arch nemesis, Buddy Love.

    Also along for the ride are Janet Jackson as Sherman's romantic interest, Professor Denise Gaines, Larry Miller as Dean Richmond, a youth rejuvenation potion, a lot of often crude humour, some over-the-top effects and a giant hamster that defies description.

    The plot is a little 'thinner' than the original. There is more 'heavyweight' action, the jokes are cruder and there is a lot more of Eddie than ever before. Not since Patty Duke has something quite this radical been tried with a single performer and it just didn't quite come off in my opinion, although there were some excellent moments. My biggest gripe was there simply wasn't enough of Larry Miller, who stole the show.

    The story begins with a dream sequence, as Sherman Klump is about to marry Professor Denise Gaines. Unfortunately, out 'pops' Buddy Love to spoil things. Seeing this as a sign of things to come, Sherman seeks help from a psychiatrist colleague, but Buddy is back and all the positive affirmation in the world isn't going to help as he slowly changes from a mild-mannered professor with a weight problem into his bad-mouthed alter ego.

    After showing off his new youth formula to Dean Richmond and Professor Gaines, the Buddy ego starts to ruin Sherman's life. Determined to be rid of him, Sherman takes drastic action by removing an errant DNA strand from his own. Now the fun begins, as Buddy emerges from a pile of 'goop' with the aid of a dog hair and decides to steal the youth formula for himself. Meanwhile, Sherman discovers he is slowly begins to lose his intelligence.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a visually stunning and quite sumptuous-looking movie. There were a couple of slight blemishes which I felt detracted from the transfer slightly, but only slightly. Most people probably wouldn't have even noticed the faults in the normal course of viewing.

    The transfer is presented in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness throughout is exemplary - check out the pattern in Sherman Klump's suit at 4:53, and the stitching line. Grain and noise are almost non-existent, with shadow detail perfectly rendered giving depth of field during low-lit scenes.

    The colour is also suitably vibrant without being oversaturated. Skin tones are precise and even Eddie Murphy's various prostheses look almost totally natural.

    I never noticed any of the normal film artefacts like black/white specks or dirt marks, although there were a couple of film-to-video artefacts that did mar what was otherwise a truly magnificent transfer. Aliasing can be seen at 38:09 on the guard rail and building in the background. A second incidence occurs at 72:24 on the venetians behind the giant hamster. A moiré artefact can be seen at 38:29 on a set of venetian blinds. The only other blemish that is worthy of note is some very minor edge enhancement. Given the amount of digital compositing that would have accompanied the final edit of this movie, with as many as five separate characters shot on blue screen backgrounds, digitized and reinserted, you would have expected substantially more problems. Kudos go out to the editor William Kerr for a magnificent job.

    The subtitles were clear and readable but did seem to exhibit some slight pixelization (nothing problematic). There is also an excellent selection of subtitles for this movie.

    The layer change is at 75:38, occurring mid-scene between Sherman and Dean Richmond. The change is noticeable but nicely placed with no interruption to the flow of dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    It is rare for a movie of this ilk to have more than average sound with the front/centre being the focal point of your attention, and any activity from the surrounds and subwoofer being more in terms of added atmosphere than anything else. With this in mind, I was actually quite pleased with the sound given the comic nature of the material, although I was a bit annoyed with the dialogue. All things considered, this was only a reasonable effort in comparison to the visuals, although for another film it may have been considered quite exceptional (such is my opinion of the video elements of this disc).

    There are two Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks available on the disc, both with a 384 kilobits per second bitrate; English and German. Since I don't speak German I stuck with the English soundtrack version. There is also a Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio Commentary available with Director Peter Segal.

    The dialogue is often hard to understand, not because of any problems with the sound levels or clarity, but because of the fact that Eddie Murphy is mostly covered with prostheses and trying to sound like seven different characters all with different voices. This only works in the most rudimentary way, when he appears alone, or with someone else from the cast. The moment he is talking to one of his alter egos, the problems arise. A person can raise or lower the tone of their voice, but there is great difficulty in changing the timbre and inflection. Consequently, much of the dialogue was not clear and some scenes, like the restaurant, were a bafflement to me (subtitles really do help though). There was also quite a bit of additional voice-over added to the final mix adding a further layer of complexity. Despite all of this, the audio sync appeared spot on.

    The music is by David Newman, the composer for two of my favourite comedies; War of the Roses and GalaxyQuest. This isn't a truly outstanding soundtrack by any means, but is very competently done as you would expect from a seasoned professional. Incidental music by Janet Jackson was judiciously used in the mix.

    The surround channels get very little use except for adding atmosphere to the music and some special effects (the lightning scene at 24:28 kicked the old rears a bit). I didn't really expect extensive use of the surrounds considering the emphasis on dialogue.

    The subwoofer gets a bit more of a work-out than do the surrounds. A nice example is during Sherman's psychiatric session when he jumps up and down and exclaims "I'm in charge" (6:02). Apart from little instances like this though, the subwoofer is strictly confined to supporting the music. As far as I was concerned, the lack of subwoofer activity wasn't a problem - you expect to have your socks knocked off in a comedy, but not from subwoofer activity!

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    This disc offers a fairly straightforward 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced menu, with a picture of Sherman Klump and the menu selections. Overlaid are snippets from the movie accompanied by music. The menu is simple to navigate. All features listed below use Dolby Digital 2.0 sound at a bitrate of 192 kilobits per second except where noted.

Featurette - Spotlight on Location

    With a running time of 24:15, scenes from the original movie are shown and discussed as the basis upon which the sequel was formulated. The featurette is presented Full Frame, with the movie clips shown letterboxed to either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 and non-16x9 enhanced, and discussed by the producer, director and various cast members. This is a fairly standard extra apart from the scenes from the original movie.

Audio Commentary

    A rather interesting commentary by the director, Peter Segal. He is obviously talking whilst watching the movie. He sounds bright and communicates his ideas well. Informative, if a little congratulatory in parts, he does offer some interesting asides as well as dissecting his directing style. A decent effort overall.

Audio-Only Track

    Seemingly a rather novel idea at first, the initial 24:26 minutes of the movie are underscored by a running audio commentary with the director, Peter Segal and the producer Brian Grazer. It's a rather strange feature in that much of Segal's comments are also repeated in his audio commentary, and even though it is fairly unique to include the producer in a discussion about the making of the movie, it was far too short and one really wonders why this was included.

Deleted Scene - Fantasy House

    With a running time of 1:23, this is shown Full Frame using letterboxed movie clips at 2.35:1 non-16x9. There are copious MPEG artefacts, aliasing, grain and noise. The colour is faded and obviously this was cut well before any digital enhancement was done.

Extended Scene - Restaurant

    This is the entire restaurant scene from the movie, unexpurgated. At 10:10, it is again presented Full Frame with the movie clip in 2.35:1 non-16x9 letterbox format. There is a lot of aliasing, the colours are saturated and various film artefacts can be clearly seen throughout. After seeing this version of the restaurant scene, the version in the movie made a lot more sense.

Featurette - Makeup Application

    Full Frame and utilizing time lapse photography we see Eddie Murphy being transformed into a) Pappa Klump - 1:24 and b) Ernie Klump - 2:10.

Storyboard Comparisons

    This is comprised of 4 different movie clips and storyboard analyses. The Wedding (1:32), Bachelorette Party (3:03), The Hamster (2:13) and Baby Buddy (2:52). Basically each clip contains the storyboard in letterbox format above the actual snippet from the movie and shows how each scene was fleshed out. An interesting comparison between the concept and the finished product.

Outtakes

    With a running time of 2:35 and presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this featurette shows various bloopers and outtakes. The movie clips are again shown in either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 letterbox format and non-16x9 enhanced. The scenes exhibit excessive pixelization, aliasing and moiré artefacts. These are different to the outtakes included in the end credits of the movie.

Music Video

    Janet Jackson's "Doesn't Really Matter" music video. Full Frame with a running time of 4:46 in Dolby Stereo 2.0 with a slightly beefier 256kb/s soundtrack. Nicely done with no visible artefacts or grain.

Theatrical Trailer

    A stock standard trailer (1:13) in Full Frame. Nothing spectacular.

Production Notes

    22 pages of notes about the making and casting of the movie. Much of the material is covered in various other ways as part of the bonus material.

Biographies-Cast & Crew

    Eddie Murphy/Janet Jackson/Larry Miller/Brian Grazer and Peter Segal get mentions. Pretty much stock standard stuff, nothing exciting.

Notes

    Basically offers a website address where you can get notes about the DVD...woohoo...

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    It looks like the R1 and R4 are the same which would tend to make the R4 version the better choice with PAL's better resolution. There is a new "Uncensored Director's Cut" due out in R1 soon if you are interested. The details are sketchy but there appears to be a couple of new music videos, Janet Jackson screen test and wardrobe, some more outtakes (uncensored) and the original Sherman Klump makeup test.

Summary

    Well, I guess the old adage still survives - the sequel is rarely the equal of the original. The Nutty Professor II-The Klumps is a very 'lightweight' comedy in all respects other than the characters. The greatest pity is that they didn't make more use of Larry Miller who stole the show with the best lines and the funniest moments. The plot was far too thin for comfort, with too few genuine moments of mirth.

    The video is almost of reference quality apart from a couple of minor defects.

    The audio is decent without being exceptional, with the dialogue problem really working against the overall rating.

    The extras are hefty enough in number, but a couple had me scratching my head as to their inclusion.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Carl Berry (read my bio)
Sunday, May 06, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5006DD, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Xelos (81cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderRotel RSP-976. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationRotel RB 985 MkII
SpeakersJBL TLX16s Front Speakers, Polk Audio LS fx di/bipole Rear Speakers, Polk Audio CS350-LS Centre Speaker, M&KV-75 Subwoofer

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