The trick at the center of the film, of course, is that its message doesn’t seem subversive or challenging at all.
There’s only one thing to say about Carpenter’s sharp-witted, enormously entertaining masterpiece: BUY.
And so it was, just like that, without potion, without alchemy, that I was shown the ropes at the tender age of 17.
Merlin’s got the potion that will put your sword into motion.
Of all Jerry Lewis’s films, The Nutty Professor may be the closest to achieving an unfussy plea for pathos.