Nutty Professor 2

As a platform for Eddie Murphy, the third Nutty Professor movie - the first was Jerry Lewis's - does not disappoint. He plays eight roles, ranging from a randy grandmother to a bald couch potato. Fatness and an incomprehensible Southern accent unite them. Only in the form of the professor's alter ego, Buddy Love, does he appear as himself.

However silly the storyline, his ability to create the Klump family is more impressive than relying solely on the make-up department, as Martin Lawrence did in Big Momma's House.

You may not like any of these people, or find them remotely funny, but the way Murphy builds his characters goes deeper than pantomime, broader than stand-up. Also, he succeeds in making himself so unrecognisable that the Eddieness of his screen persona disappears and you discover that you are watching a genuine actor at work.

Despite a sneaking admiration for the risks he takes, the film relies too easily on sexual innuendo, fart jokes and geriatric lust. The plot fits the pattern of Hollywood's recent dependency on special effects, combined with the apparent need to make comedy so light it flies out of your head before you've had time to register the level of its inanity.

Sherman, the shy professor, is the size of a tank. At present working in the lab on a youth serum, he is engaged to the delectable Denise (Janet Jackson), who loves him for his sweet nature, apparently oblivious to the flab factor.

Inside Sherman, the dreaded Buddy connives to upset the nuptials by putting lascivious remarks into Sherman's mouth, which appall the prudish Denise. Buddy breaks free from Sherman and steals the youth serum. Sherman extracts the Love genes from his DNA so that Buddy won't be part of him anymore, with devastating results - he becomes a moron.

The humour is sexist, ageist and gigantist. Sherman waddles about like a Jurassic jelly fish, while Jackson has little to do but look pretty. The Klumps dominate because there are so many of them and Murphy hates being off-screen for a minute.