They say, inside every fat person there is a thin one screaming to get out. After an hour and forty five minutes of enduring Eddie Murphy's latest fat joke, I myself was screaming to get out, writes Alan Smithee. While the original Nutty Professor was hilarious and sometimes oddly moving, Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps (PG) belly-flops with most of its intended laughs.

Eddie Murphy stars as Sherman Klump, an overweight professor who finds himself torn between his own good nature and the inner voices of his crude alter-ego Buddy Love. Sherman attempts a radical solution, conducting an experiment to get Buddy out of his body, but Buddy won't go that easily.

The disastrous effects of Sherman's plan result in his mischievous other half returning in human form to torment him, his girlfriend (Janet Jackson) and his family (all played by Murphy himself).

The family provide the few laughs in the sequel, continuing the banter that made their scenes in the original worth watching. But this does not rescue the movie.

Most of the comedy is over the top. It makes Dumb and Dumber seem like Woody Allen. For example, a moment when a 20ft hamster performs an act on Sherman's boss (not suitable for printing in a family newspaper).

The scene provided chuckles but the rest of the film is drastically unfunny most of the time. Disappointing considering Eddie Murphy is usually the kind of performer who can send you into hysterics with even the most mundane of material.

The saving grace of the movie is the make up. The prosthetics are genuinely believable in the shape of Murphy's excitable mother, rude father and randy granny.

But no one is more plastic than Jackson whose performance shows the only studio she should be allowed near is the recording one.

In fairness to NP2, it is hilarious in places. But laughs-per- second are just not enough.

The punchline was delivered in the first movie, let's just hope the joke isn't dragged out any longer. l Out now.