Prime Time: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)

Although it seems to be largely forgotten nowadays, The Nutty Professor was a fun remake of a classic Jerry Lewis vehicle. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it updated the story well and packed in a decent number of laughs. Tom Shadyac directed well enough, and Eddie Murphy was on good form when not in the scenes that had him playing multiple roles.

The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps doesn’t realise what worked in the first film though. We now have Peter Seagal directing (someone who has helmed a handful of decent comedies) and even more scenes allowing Eddie Murphy to act alongside his favourite scene partner, Eddie Murphy.

Murphy once again plays almost every member of his family, the Klumps, but this time around the plot sees Sherman thinking he has discovered a scientific fountain of youth. He also aims to remove any shred of Buddy Love from his genetic material, and he is in love with a colleague, Denise (Janet Jackson). Things start to go wrong, of course, once Buddy is separated from Sherman. Not only do the two end up competing over Sherman’s new scientific miracle, but Sherman starts to lose a significant amount of brain cells, meaning that he actually needs to incorporate Buddy back into his system if he wants to keep his intelligence and his career.

There isn’t really too much that needs said about this. It is another Eddie Murphy vehicle that ends up being both helped and hindered by the leading man. Segal directs competently enough, but he cannot overcome a script that relies on numerous fart gags, dream sequences to give Murphy more screentime (and more fart gags), and a number of sniggers at the idea of a man being sodomised by a giant hamster. I am sure Paul and Chris Weitz, two of the co-writers on this, don’t have this at the top of their CV.

Murphy does well enough in his various roles, and it’s hard to watch this even today and not appreciate the skill required to interlock his various performances, with the only major mis-step being Buddy Love, who is as annoying as he was the first time around, but also has some extra canine DNA mixed in this time. Jackson is very sweet and appealing, taking on a thankless role that is made even more thankless while she takes a backseat to the multiple Murphys. And then we have poor Larry Miller, a man who has to suffer the indignity of being the “punchline” in that aforementioned hamster sequence.

While it remains far from the worst Eddie Murphy vehicle, and that is a low bar indeed, this just isn’t very good. But, even worse, it’s a disappointingly huge step down from the previous film. That felt like an attempt to update an old film into something that would entertain comedy fans. This feels like an attempt to simply entertain Murphy.

4/10

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The Creator (2023)

With a basic narrative that will feel very familiar to fans of popular media (a man has to ferry a child from A to B while trying to stop people from realising how important/powerful the child is), I can see why The Creator didn’t really make the impact that writer-director Gareth Edwards would have been hoping for. That’s a shame though, because The Creator is a visual feast that ends up being more than just the sum of its parts. 

John David Washington plays Joshua, a former soldier who is tasked with heading into enemy territory and taking ownership of a weapon that could turn the tide in an ongoing battle between humans and A.I. robots. The weapon doesn’t look like a weapon though. It looks like a child (Madeleine Yula Voyles), albeit a robo-child, and details are revealed that make the situation increasingly complicated for Joshua.

The cast is a big plus here, and Washington continues to deliver great performances in everything he’s attached to. Voyles is also very good, playing her innocent and powerful character with just the right amount of constant vulnerability. Gemma Chan doesn’t get much screentime, but she plays a pivotal role in the proceedings, and Allison Janney once again shows how effortlessly badass she can be, this time playing a badass military figure. Other familiar faces include Amar Chadha-Patel, Ralph Ineson, and Ken Watanabe, all being as reliable as our lead.

The other big plus, and the main selling point, is the gorgeousness of the full world that has been realised onscreen. Edwards knows how to stretch every dollar of a budget, and the spectacle he presents here rivals that of many movies that would have cost two or three times what this cost, if not more. Although it doesn’t take time to dwell on every detail, this is a film that feels as if a whole world keeps on turning just beyond the edges of the frame. The score from Hans Zimmer works in perfect harmony with the visuals, and sci-fi fans should find plenty to soak up and enjoy here.

The script is where things fall down. Working with Chris Weitz, Edwards is unable to craft any dialogue or set-pieces worthy of the world that the characters inhabit. There are very good moments here and there, and it’s still engaging thanks to the central characters, but things are dragged down by a mix of predictability and stretched plausibility. The backstory for Joshua doesn’t seem to fit pieces together as well as it’s supposed to, but maybe that’s just me being cynical.

Weakness be damned though. I loved The Creator. The strengths ultimately outweigh the weaknesses, and I am happy we have this kind of originality to savour, even if it’s as derivative and faltering as some other movies I might judge more harshly, depending on my mood and the timing.

8/10

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Down To Earth (2001)

Chris Rock stars in this remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, a film already revisited a couple of times before this outing, with sadly underwhelming results. The material has some added jokes about race, and creates potential for some bigger laughs by making the main character a struggling stand-up comic, but it ends up falling flat far more often than it succeeds.

Rock is Lance Barton, a young, funny guy who just can't seem to transfer that humour to his stage act. Yet he keeps trying. His main venue is going to be closing soon, which makes him desperate for one last shot to win over the audience there. Unfortunately, his plans are thrown into disarray when he's hit by a truck. It's all a big mistake, which an angel named Keyes (Eugene Levy) only realises when Lance is already in heaven. While they try to resolve the situation, Lance is offered a "loaner" body by King (Chazz Palminteri), another heavenly being who seems to be in charge. That body ends up being one that belonged to a wealthy, white businessman named Charles Wellington, III (Brian Rhodes). Lance has to use the body to pursue his quest for a spot at the upcoming stand-up event, while avoiding the dangerous scheming of Wellington's wife (Jennifer Coolidge), and his assistant (Greg Germann). And things become more complicated when he falls in love with Sontee Jenkins (Regina King), who hates him.

Down To Earth is a very frustrating film to watch. You can see moments when it might be able to step up a notch or two, when it could let Chris Rock rant and make the most of his power as a comedian. Sadly, those moments do nothing more than get close to something good before sinking back down to mediocrity.

The cast includes some great performers, especially in the supporting roles. Levy and Palminteri are both great fun as the angels trying to correct a terrible mistake, Coolidge does well with her usual mix of ditzy and wannabe-sexy, and Germann works very well alongside her. Mark Addy does okay as a perplexed butler, while Wanda Sykes steals a couple of scenes as a housekeeper who does very little to hide her disdain for her employer. Even John Cho raises a smile or two, despite his role amounting to little more than a cameo. Regina King is easy to like, and Frankie Faison is very likable as the manager who continues to see the best in Lance. The weakest link, unfortunately, is Rock. He seems neutered, at best, and just stilted and awkward, for the most part.

Directors Chris and Paul Weitz don't seem to put in any effort at all, while the script (co-written by about four people, including Rock and Louis C.K.) reeks of similar laziness during the many moments that aren't comedic. The love story angle just never feels real, despite the efforts that everyone goes to in order to make viewers forget that Regina King is supposed to be enjoying time with an elderly, white businessman.

It's actually a shame that this was such a missed opportunity, a star vehicle created around someone who never seemed comfortable as a leading man. I love Chris Rock, but I don't think his style and energy work when being forced into a package like this. Thankfully, we can always revisit him in the greatness that is Osmosis Jones.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Down-Earth-Chris-Rock/dp/B00005JH9O/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1406542627&sr=1-2&keywords=down+to+earth

American Pie (1999)

It's obviously not going to be for everyone (which is, I realise, quite a redundant saying as it could be applied to every movie ever) but American Pie is a classic in the teen comedy genre. It may not have the nostalgia factor of an American Graffiti or the sharp, dark, wit of Heathers, but it has memorable set-pieces, some great characters and a sweetness running through all of the bawdy antics.

Four young men (played by Jason Biggs, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Chris Klein and Thomas Ian Nicholas) make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. Jim (Biggs) is awkward and prone to mishaps that see him extremely humiliated, Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) tries to maintain an air of intelligence and sophistication about him even while desperate to get a date, 'Oz' (Chris Klein) joins a singing group in a stealthy move to get close to some good-looking girl (Mena Suvari) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is already happy with his girlfriend (Vicky, played by Tara Reid) even though he can't bring himself to say: "I love you". Also involved with this quartet are Jim's dad (Eugene Levy almost stealing the entire movie), the coarse and carefree Stifler (Seann William Scott), a lovely foreign exchange student named Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) and a young woman (Alyson Hannigan) whose every story seems to take place at band camp.

Written by Adam Herz, and directed by Paul Weitz (with some uncredited help from his brother, and producer, Chris Weitz), this fairly zips along from one-liner to one-liner in between the truly hilarious set-pieces. I always felt that when it was first released it was done a disservice with the talk about it being so focused on one particular pie-related incident. Thankfully, most of the other set-pieces throughout the movie are actually a lot better than the main pie moment and every scene between Jim and his dad is full of comedy gold.

The film made stars out of some of its leading players although many of them could never quite escape the shadow cast by this one huge success (well, okay, this one and the official sequels before the brand name was ruined by the many "American Pie Presents..." movies - more on those at a later date). Jason Biggs highlighted his problem with his memorable cameo role in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back when he said: "No, it always comes back to that fucking pie! I'm HAUNTED by it!"
Still, he did better than some of his co-stars, with the main breakouts from the film being Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan (who'd already been doing such great work on Buffy The Vampire Slayer anyway) and Seann William Scott.

Mind you, what do audiences care about the career paths of those onscreen? The fact that they were all in one place for this movie, and the few main sequels, is all that matters. That allowed people to hear the choice insults from Stifler, it allowed eagle-eyed viewers to spot Blink 182 in a sequence that I rate as the comedy highlight of the whole movie, it allowed everyone to learn the word MILF (if they didn't know it already) and it simply allowed for everything to come together to make a near-perfect, raunchy teen comedy. I've not even mentioned Jennifer Coolidge, Natasha Lyonne, Chris Owen (as "The Sherman-ator") or the fleeting appearances from John Cho and Casey Affleck, but I guess that highlights the best thing about American Pie - there's so much more to it than just the pie.

9/10

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