An Eddie Murphy classic is finding new life on Netflix right now. The current top 10 films on the streaming platform are a mix of the latest originals and old-school favorites. For instance, Victoria Justice’s supernatural comedy Afterlife of the Party is number one, while Jack Black’s School of Rock is sitting in fourth place. Bringing up the rear, meanwhile, in the tenth position on the board this Friday, September 10th — as per the latest stats from Flix Patrol — is 1996’s The Nutty Professor.
A remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy of the same name, The Nutty Professor stars Murphy as Sherman Klump, a kind-hearted but eccentric scientist who’s determined to lose some weight to impress the woman of his dreams, Carla (Jada Pinkett, not yet Smith at the time). Getting nowhere with conventional methods, Klump devises a serum that transforms him into a fit and wildly more confident alter ego, who calls himself Buddy Love (also Murphy). However, when Buddy becomes more and more unhinged, Sherman has to fight to reclaim his life.
Not content with just playing a dual role like Lewis in the original, Murphy portrayed a total of seven characters in the movie, with the other five being Sherman’s various family members. He added two more, to bring the total to nine, in the sequel The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, which arrived four years later in 2000. Unfortunately, it failed to match the commercial and critical success of the original, which earned an impressive $274 million at the box office.
With Murphy having just reprised one of his other iconic roles in Coming 2 America and the recent Robert Downey Jr. reboot of Doctor Doolittle, it feels like it’s just a matter of time before Universal decides to relaunch the Nutty Professor franchise, with or without Murphy. Especially as its current popularity on Netflix proves that audiences still love the 1996 version just as much as ever. To date though, nothing is in the works.
