Bowfinger, roi d'Hollywood

...it was to see this movie. So completely unfunny. Quite a shame, too, because I think Steve Martin is absolutely hilarious. I really wanted to like this movie, too. In fact, I made my friend go see it with me instead of the Sixth Sense...BIG mistake! We knew what was supposed to be funny, and it wasn't. It wasn't even Gosford Park (great movie) wit that was funny, this was just dull and boring and long and boring and dull. 1/10.

When I took a break after the first half hour of this movie (which I found mildly bad), I read some very negative reviews of it. Some people called it one of the worst movies they'd ever seen. I thought "C'mon, it's not that bad. I hate hyperbole." But as I tried to finish the movie ...I agreed. Viewing this was an exercise in watching the clock, and fast-forwarding. I'm very grateful I wasn't stuck watching it in a movie theater. Bowfinger is soooooo bad. The writing is pure limpness. Frank Oz directs a half-interested cast including Martin, who wrote the damned thing. Structurally... also limp. There probably is a funny movie to be made about a vigilante film crew, surreptitiously making a movie without the star knowing he's in it. But it's just not going to be this wholesome and perky. And we're not going to be preoccupied with whether we like the scumbag-producer at the end. John Waters riffed on a similar idea, but made it funnier in Cecil B. Demented. Typical jokes: - Martin positions himself at a restaurant to be overheard by a big producer making a phony phone-call using a handset with a detached cord hanging from it. That's the joke. The character and writing are that cutesy & stupid When Martin says he's going to hire the best crew money can buy, we cut to the desert where he's waving illegal aliens into a van. Firstly, the bump/spike joke format is dead from overuse and lack of imagination, and second, this isn't a joke some establishment guy in his fifties can get away with. Humor in action is a beautiful care-free thing. This ain't humor. How do you have a naturally funny actor like Robert Downey Jr. in your movie and somehow provide him with nothing to do? You'd actually have to work hard to get in the way to make Downey unfunny. Martin was always too concerned with being likable; then he jumped on the Touchstone gravy train, which transformed him into some sort of freakish monster of solicitousness and ingratiation. This is why his stuff will never rise above mediocrity - He's just too boojie in his concern for what people think of him. Everything is played broad so Joe Average will get the joke. Every idea is too mediocre. A viewer couldn't be less involved. Oz and Martin tirelessly flog their toothless, mainstream angles; it shows in every frame of this. Comedy has moved on. This isn't a movie, it's a product for people who want to consume funni-ness and leave the theater with a clean, empty mind. Terrible.

Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is a Z-list producer who lies, steals and schemes to make a movie out of a script written by his accountant. He gets A-list Hollywood producer Jerry Renfro to greenlight the script if he could get superstar Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) to do the movie. Kit kicks Bobby out of his car but Bobby promises his crew that Kit agrees to do the movie. His idea is to shoot the movie without telling Kit. Soon his actors are approaching Kit on the street with strange dialog. He hires hungry newcomer Daisy (Heather Graham), actress Carol (Christine Baranski), Kit lookalike Jiff (Eddie Murphy) who turns out to be Kit's brother and the cheapest crew possible. Kit is a crazed narcissist who finds counsel from Mindhead leader Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp). When actors keep approaching him with weird dialog, he starts to suspect that aliens are really after him. This is simply a brilliant satire. Bowfinger is sleazy but with a heart. He just wants so badly to make a movie. Steve Martin is such a charming lead. I love Daisy sleeping her way up the Hollywood ladder. This is two of Eddie Murphy's best performances. The movie is hilarious. Every other scene hits it with big laughs.

I know I'm probably the only person who thought that this movie sucked, but I'm willing to be the odd-man-out on this one. Everyone I know who has seen this movie loved it, so there must be something wrong with ME, right? I don't think so. You know what I think? I think everyone WANTED so much to like this movie, they effectively fooled themselves into thinking it WAS funny, when in actuality, it was anything but. It's like this: Steve Martin hasn't done a funny role in a long time, and people want very much to see him do that again. Eddie Murphy hasn't been consistently funny in years. Everyone has always wanted them to do a movie together. Unfortunately, it didn't happen until now. It struck me very much as a movie that MIGHT have been funny if it were made during these comedians' heyday: the 80's. As it is, it was incredibly UN-funny. There was that one bit toward the beginning where Steve Martin is faking the cellular phone call in the restaurant. I must admit - I did chuckle somewhat at that. But as for the rest of the movie - I was just wondering when it was going to be over. I found myself repeatedly checking my watch thinking "It can't possibly be any longer, can it?" It was one of the few times in my life that I left the theatre TRULY lamenting the hours of my life wasted in there. I can usually smell a stinker a mile away, but this one even got ME. Eddie Murphy as Kit Ramsey was just trying TOO hard, and it showed (at least to ME it did). Very much like his Buddy Love character in "The Nutty Professor": Trying too hard, absolutely NOT funny. Actually, it was more annoying than anything else. Eddie Murphy is at his best these days when he does characters, like he did in The Nutty Professor (the family at the dinner table scene).

Very few people went to see Bowfinger. It was a big surprise because it starred BOTH Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin and both are playing their "A game". Maybe those who went to see it expected something very different from what they got. After all, the plot was a little complicated, there were no explosions and there were no exposed breasts (all the elements NECESSARY to make most comedies succeed). Bowfinger is a man who is the modern equivalent of 50s schlock-meister Ed Wood. He tries very hard to convince those around him that he IS a big-time movie producer and director but his films are actually substantially worse than those produced by Troma Films. Amazingly enough he actually convinces many would-be actors to join him in making a sci-fi alien flick starring the totally insane Kit Ramsey (hillariously played by Murphy). The only problem is, Ramsey does NOT know anything about this--and then the FUN starts!!!

This is an excellent movie. Basically, this is the way Hollywood works. It has all the real people of Hollywood. It also shows all the hoops and all the BS that people in the business have to jump through and deal with. There are thousands of movies about making movies in Hollywood - but this tops them all. Yes, there are some over the top scenes, but somehow this movie brings it all to a close. Solid entertainment - with an opening theme song which just kicks ass. One of the best songs I've ever heard in a movie soundtrack - one which surely fits the scene and story as a whole. Awesome job from everybody.

Steve Martin leads a pack of film-making hacks and amateurs in a project that involves filming a major star without his knowledge or consent. Now that the plot is out of the way, the review. It's hard to give this title a 9 or a 10. It's not perfect. There are a few slow passages, but those are few and a placed in such a way that they do not lead to a major train wreck. While the humor is not terribly cerebral, there is so much heart in the story, and the enthusiasm and love for film shines through. By the end, we understand the joy that comes with the film-making process. It's one thing to make a brilliant film, and to be recognized as a wonderful director, but lacking that talent, the joy is not decreased by making an average or poor film by overcoming obstacles and producing a piece of work. The biggest weakness in this film is not in the premise or the acting at all - it's in a few touches of the script that make it a little closer to being predictable. Regardless, if you can get in touch with the love of film presented, a good time is there to be had. If you want your comedies without heart (a la American Pie) then you'll be bored.

Stage actor turned Grade Z amateur filmmaker:Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is Hollywood's least successful director. When Bowfinger decides to make an ultra low-budget film with the hottest action star:Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). But Bowfinger will filmed his latest protect without Ramsey never knowing that he's in the movie! Bowfinger uses his crew and his actors to act with Rasmey in several scenes to pull the scam off. But Rasmey is actually a paranoid action star, who believes in aliens and other outrageous things. For Bowfinger's ingenious scheme, he decides to use a double for Rasmey, a nerdy look-alike (Also played by Murphy). Directed by Frank Oz (HouseSitter, Little Shop of Horrors-1986, The Stepford Wives-2004) made an wildly funny comedy that is actually based on a real incident in the late 1920's with actress Mary Pickford, which it's hard to be believe. Still, this comedy manages to be quite original and also this is an underrated film. Good supporting cast includes:Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Jamie Kennedy, Terence Stamp, Adam Alexi-Malle, Kohl Sudduth and Robert Downey, Jr. Murphy is fun in is dual role (especially in the role of the nerdy look-alike). Sharp, funny script by actor:Martin (The Jerk, Roxanne, Shopgirl). (****/*****).

Steve Martin, the funniest man alive in the 80s, lost his way in the 90s with the likes of "Leap Of Faith" and "A Simple Twist Of Fate". Now, after sterling work in David Mamet's "The Spanish Prisoner", Martin's return to writing and acting in straight-up comedy is surprisingly, reassuringly good. "Bowfinger" is a movie about movies, with all the potential for in-jokery and self-indulgence that brings, but for the most part dispenses with the clever-clever, isn't-Hollywood-shallow stuff to deliver laughs. Martin's Bobby Bowfinger, a struggling producer desperate for a hit before he reaches the 'unemployable' age of 50, hits on the idea of putting action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) in his new sci-fi film "Chubby Rain" without the star knowing anything about it. Consequently, Bowfinger's inept crew follows Ramsey around in increasingly crazy and surreal fashion, utilising everything from 'Will Work For Food' signs made of foil to cranes mounted on trucks to get the shot they need. When Bowfinger stumbles across a Kit double (Murphy again) who will do anything the director asks including fetch the coffee, he starts to think all his birthdays have come at once. Meanwhile, the neurotic Ramsey, never that stable to begin with, begins to lose it altogether as he becomes convinced that sex-crazed pod people are stalking him. It's a simple plot and, while the script throws a few barbs at Hollywood, it's played mainly for big laughs - and gets them. Heather Graham is spot-on as the ingenue literally just off the bus from Ohio who is prepared to sleep with anyone to get longer scenes, and Jamie Kennedy is all laconic wit as Bowfinger's long-suffering assistant. Really, though, it's Martin and Murphy's show. The original wild and crazy guy shows he hasn't lost all his manic energy in the title role, nor his wit with the sharp script. Surprisingly enough, though, the standout performance is Murphy's; he is brilliant as both the paranoid, highly-strung Kit and his dumb-but-sweet double Jiff. This might even be a career-best. It's simple, lightweight and throwaway of course, but comedies that try to SAY something, even if they're good, often just don't make you laugh that much. Bowfinger will.

The remarkable thing about this film is that hardly ever has Steve Martin ever been so genuinely sympathetic without seeming clumsy about it. Believe me, this movie could have been over in the first few minutes if the writing hadn't started out so deliciously cynical. Immediately, I was hooked by the story of this downtrodden dreamer who endeavors to commit his life's savings to a hopeless cause. Forget about the weak (tacked-on) ending and the craziness for comedy's sake. This is a light character study worthy of a filmlover's earnest attention. Kudos to Murphy for the dual role-one a loving tribute to his inner child and the other a biting satire of his public image.