The Nutty Professor is single-handedly responsible for Eddie Murphy's career revitalization, but I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. Ever since this movie, the only good pieces of work Murphy has done was Doctor Doolittle and Bowfinger, the latter of which was funniest more for Steve Martin than anything Eddie Murphy did. And some of his worst films have come from his post-Professor period, including The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Norbit. And it might be one thing if The Nutty Professor was funny, but despite all the money it made, it's not.

The Nutty Professor tells the story of one Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy in a fat suit), a brilliant but morbidly overweight and socially inept college professor who is on the verge of making a wonder drug that could destroy obesity forever. Unfortunately for Klump, he is not a popular man at the university, and his position is in danger. To further compound his problems, he meets a graduate student named Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett, and yes, her last name is literally "Purty") and becomes smitten with her. She agrees to go on a date with him, but at the club where they go, Klump is humiliated by an obnoxious comic (Dave Chappelle), and feels his self-respect plummet. In response, he takes his own drug in an experimental form, and immediately turns into a thin, oversexed man called "Buddy Love" (Eddie Murphy in spandex). Buddy achieves things Klump never could, but at the same time, repulses Carla and everyone else close to Sherman.

Jerry Lewis' comic retelling of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story was inspired madness. This remake instead seems to wallow in the banal. The humor is mostly scatological, whether it be hamsters pooping in coffee or Sherman's dad farting repeatedly at dinner. Sherman doesn't work well as a sight gag, and Buddy Love is so good at being obnoxious that he forgets to bring the laughs. In short, there's almost nothing funny about this movie. And worse, it revolves around a few scenes where Murphy plays almost every actor on the screen. While he had done this before (notably in Coming To America), he never let the gimmick overrun the movie the way he did here. And, of course, this disturbing trend leads us to a truly awful film like Norbit.

If there's one saving grace to the picture, it's Jada Pinkett as Carla Purty. Despite the character having maybe the dumbest last name in all of filmdom, Pinkett is a radiant presence. While this isn't her greatest acting moment, she gives the movie a much needed warmth and a sense of genuineness. You really believe that Carla likes Sherman as much as she says she does.

The HD DVD:

The Image:
Universal presents The Nutty Professor in a 1080p 1.85:1 VC-1 transfer. I've found that quite a few 90's films haven't made the best leap to HD, and I didn't expect this one to be any better. But surprise surprise, Universal actually made The Nutty Professor look pretty darn good. Looking at it again, I realize there are a lot of bright colors throughout the picture, and the transfer has a good level of detail. At the dinner table scenes, I could see the lines where they superimposed one image over the other. A generally pleasing image all around.

The Audio:
Universal offers up a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround mix for this release, and it's not mind blowing. There's not much surround activity, but the mix isn't bad. It's just not very directional. It still has some pop and it does get lively in the busier scenes, but it's not demo material.

The Supplements:
For once I'm actually happy to declare that there are no extras present on a disc. Not that I'm going to grade it higher, but at least I didn't have to spend any more time on it.

The Conclusion:
The Nutty Professor may have revived Eddie Murphy's bank account and box office viability, but in terms of content it's just as bad as his lesser films and points the way to some of his very worst. While the HD DVD looks and sounds pretty good, this movie is not worth seeing. Skip It.

Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.