Bowfinger
"Bowfinger", with Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Terence Stamp and Robert Downey Jr. Written by Steve Martin, directed by Frank "Yoda" Oz. MPAA Rating PG-13, run time 92 minutes.
Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is a moovie producer that's down to stems and seeds in Hollywood. A lifetime of second-rate products has left him broken down on the side of the proverbial road to Fame and Fortune, waiting for his big break.
In a last stab at the gold ring of mediocrity, Bowfinger reads a script for an action/sci-fi flick written by his accountant/receptionist Afrim, (Adam Alexi-Malle) promptly pronounces it a "good script" - very nearly directly at the camera - and sets a cobbled together machine in motion to produce the moovie.
The key to what little plot there is in "Bowfinger" is that he needs a star. He settles on Kit Ramsey, (Eddie Murphy) Hollywood's hottest action/adventure property. The twist is that Ramsey doesn't know it.
Bowfinger enlists a rag tag crew, including fresh from the border illegal aliens, a studio insider that supplies "borrowed" cameras, equipment and intelligence on the daily whereabouts of Kit Ramsey, and a cast of misfits, has-beens and amateurs. They use the inside dope on Ramsey to drop him into scenes without his knowledge.
The funniest side bar to this moovie is that the moovie that Bowfinger is trying to make is a sci-fi alien brain-melting creepfest, and Ramsey is a paranoid patient at a New Age shrink tank headed by a very calm Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp) and believes, in spite of all assurances, that aliens are all around him and trying to steal his brain. Stamp, by the way, is probably the best realized supporting character in this moovie - he has the look of a mature, wealthy snake-oil selling lunatic and the calm, but wide-eyed demeanor of that guy that shipped everybody off to meet Hale-Bopp a couple of years ago.
Eddie Murphy also plays Jiff, a goofy, orthodontia-enabled errand boy who acts as the Kit Ramsey double. Duh! He's the one you've seen in the trailer dodging traffic across the L.A. freeway for one of the moovie's scenes. It could've been funnier. Just imagine a blindfolded Adam Sandler trying to run across a busy freeway. At rush hour. With his feet taped together.
Onward. The moovie goes into production, with Bowfinger and company intercepting Ramsey at every turn, shooting from bushes and parked vans, getting the star on film without his knowledge, sending him into sedative overload while managing to edit together a semi-credible (at least in his eyes) - extremely low-B grade sci-fi two-reeler in the process. The moovie, of course, meets with critical acclaim, avoiding a shortfall of the Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland "We could put on a show!" happy ending formula.
For the most part, "Bowfinger" reads like a Hollywood insider's moovie, but lacks the punch - or the humor - of films like "L.A. Story" or "Ed Wood". I'm sure Steve Martin probably chuckled himself into a coma while writing the screenplay, but the end product is flat and colorless. It wouldn't be quite as embarrassing, but we've seen him do so much better. Part of the problem is the disbelief factor. I just couldn't disconnect my reality filters long enough to enjoy what was happening. If they had just hooked a rope to it and dragged it a little farther towards either pole - pure camp, or a more cynical tongue-in-cheek smirk at the moovie industry - this would have had a chance at being an hysterical film.
Admittedly, there are a few laughs, and a couple of pretty good ones at that, mostly sight gags, sprinkled throughout "Bowfinger"; like (my favorite) the dog-as-foley-artist wearing high heels and clopping along on cue, stalking the paranoid Kit Ramsey through a dark parking garage while the camera rolls in hiding.
But, all things being equal, unless you're just way too bored and have to get out of the house before you achieve critical mass, you'd be well-advised to just wait for the video release. It may actually be funnier at home. You have absolutely nothing to gain by seeing "Bowfinger" big.
"Bowfinger"? I'll have my (one) cow call your cow - let's do lunch.
Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is a moovie producer that's down to stems and seeds in Hollywood. A lifetime of second-rate products has left him broken down on the side of the proverbial road to Fame and Fortune, waiting for his big break.
In a last stab at the gold ring of mediocrity, Bowfinger reads a script for an action/sci-fi flick written by his accountant/receptionist Afrim, (Adam Alexi-Malle) promptly pronounces it a "good script" - very nearly directly at the camera - and sets a cobbled together machine in motion to produce the moovie.
The key to what little plot there is in "Bowfinger" is that he needs a star. He settles on Kit Ramsey, (Eddie Murphy) Hollywood's hottest action/adventure property. The twist is that Ramsey doesn't know it.
Bowfinger enlists a rag tag crew, including fresh from the border illegal aliens, a studio insider that supplies "borrowed" cameras, equipment and intelligence on the daily whereabouts of Kit Ramsey, and a cast of misfits, has-beens and amateurs. They use the inside dope on Ramsey to drop him into scenes without his knowledge.
The funniest side bar to this moovie is that the moovie that Bowfinger is trying to make is a sci-fi alien brain-melting creepfest, and Ramsey is a paranoid patient at a New Age shrink tank headed by a very calm Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp) and believes, in spite of all assurances, that aliens are all around him and trying to steal his brain. Stamp, by the way, is probably the best realized supporting character in this moovie - he has the look of a mature, wealthy snake-oil selling lunatic and the calm, but wide-eyed demeanor of that guy that shipped everybody off to meet Hale-Bopp a couple of years ago.
Eddie Murphy also plays Jiff, a goofy, orthodontia-enabled errand boy who acts as the Kit Ramsey double. Duh! He's the one you've seen in the trailer dodging traffic across the L.A. freeway for one of the moovie's scenes. It could've been funnier. Just imagine a blindfolded Adam Sandler trying to run across a busy freeway. At rush hour. With his feet taped together.
Onward. The moovie goes into production, with Bowfinger and company intercepting Ramsey at every turn, shooting from bushes and parked vans, getting the star on film without his knowledge, sending him into sedative overload while managing to edit together a semi-credible (at least in his eyes) - extremely low-B grade sci-fi two-reeler in the process. The moovie, of course, meets with critical acclaim, avoiding a shortfall of the Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland "We could put on a show!" happy ending formula.
For the most part, "Bowfinger" reads like a Hollywood insider's moovie, but lacks the punch - or the humor - of films like "L.A. Story" or "Ed Wood". I'm sure Steve Martin probably chuckled himself into a coma while writing the screenplay, but the end product is flat and colorless. It wouldn't be quite as embarrassing, but we've seen him do so much better. Part of the problem is the disbelief factor. I just couldn't disconnect my reality filters long enough to enjoy what was happening. If they had just hooked a rope to it and dragged it a little farther towards either pole - pure camp, or a more cynical tongue-in-cheek smirk at the moovie industry - this would have had a chance at being an hysterical film.
Admittedly, there are a few laughs, and a couple of pretty good ones at that, mostly sight gags, sprinkled throughout "Bowfinger"; like (my favorite) the dog-as-foley-artist wearing high heels and clopping along on cue, stalking the paranoid Kit Ramsey through a dark parking garage while the camera rolls in hiding.
But, all things being equal, unless you're just way too bored and have to get out of the house before you achieve critical mass, you'd be well-advised to just wait for the video release. It may actually be funnier at home. You have absolutely nothing to gain by seeing "Bowfinger" big.
"Bowfinger"? I'll have my (one) cow call your cow - let's do lunch.