By Jonathan Sweet, columnist

When people heard Eddie Murphy, whose last few films ("Vampire in Brooklyn," "The Distinguished Gentleman") were box-office bombs, was to star in yet another movie--and a remake of a comedy classic to boot--many well-known movie critics certainly grabbed an air sickness bag in one hand and prepared to point the other thumb down.

Surprise. Director Tom Shadyac gives us a heart-warming and laugh-out-loud romp, starring Murphy as Sherman Klump, a 400-pound research scientist whose gargantuan girth puts Blues Traveler frontman John Popper to shame.

His bulbous belly constantly gets in the way, making simple tasks like climbing a short flight of stairs a problem, not to mention his brushing against a lever in the lab and releasing hordes of hamsters all over campus or running against the chalk-board and erasing every bit of the complex equation he's just scribbled.

Add to this the riotous and cantankerous Klump family (all played by Murphy) who makes every meal feel like Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of junior high kids and sexy graduate assistant, Carla Purdy (Jada Pinkett) whom Sherman falls for and wants to impress more than anything.

On their first date, everything goes wrong. His feelings bruised, he resorts to drug therapy to cure his weight problem--an experimental formula originally tested on an obese hamster. In seconds, he peels off more than 250 pounds and is transformed into a fast-talking, obnoxious gigolo named Buddy Love.

Buddy proceeds to live out all Sherman's fantasies. Unfortunately, the effects don't last, and Buddy has several incidents of unexpected bloating in public.

The best moments of "The Nutty Professor" come in the almost car-toon-like scenes in which Klump changes into Love, the comical nightmare sequences Klump has about crushing Carla under his massive bulk or bloating to Godzilla-like proportions and destroying an entire city.

Murphy shows more dramatic range in "The Nutty Professor" than in his last several flops. His humor is reminiscent of his early movie work and classic "Saturday Night Live" sketches.

Whether he's padded up to play the sweet, sensitive Klump or stripped down to step into the loud and brassy shoes of Buddy Love, Murphy is in top form.

This movie is tailor-made for anyone who ever worried about their weight. It will fit an audience as a jogging suit fits Al Sharpton. "The Nutty Professor" is a comedy that is truly fat--er--phat.

Rating: Five diamonds
Five diamonds= love it!
One diamond= leave it!

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