Bowfinger

Amazon.com

Filmmakers often remark that it's just so hard to make a bad picture that few would take on the challenge if they weren't so naive. Steve Martin's Bobby Bowfinger is cut from that pattern, one of those sweet, indomitable operators of Hollywood who seem to be descended directly from Ed Wood (of Plan 9 from Outer Space infamy). To resurrect his ramshackle existence, Bowfinger opts to film his accountant's sci-fi spectacular, Chubby Rain, about aliens invading in raindrops. The snag is he needs to attach action megastar Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), an actor so paranoid he counts the K's in scripts to uncover possible Ku Klux Klan influences. When his effort fails, Bowfinger hits on an ingenious scheme to film Ramsey without his knowledge, throwing his actors at the hapless star whenever he appears in public. Only Kit begins to believe he's being hounded by aliens for real, and runs hysterically to his guru (Terence Stamp) at a Scientology-clone group called MindHead, where people walk around in fine suits wearing white pyramids on their heads. Deprived of his star, yet not to be undone, Bowfinger hires a look-alike, Jiff (also Eddie Murphy), to fill in. The tone of the picture is sometimes flat, rather than deadpan, but that's nitpicking. The farce is quick and engrossing, and populated with terrific performances, especially by Eddie Murphy, whose dual role as Kit and Jiff showcases his character-building gift, and by Martin, whose Bowfinger, part con man and part would-be visionary, manages to capture your sympathies. Heather Graham's would-be actress cheerfully sleeps her way to the top like she knows she's supposed to, and Christine Baranski plays her shopworn method actor with myopic self-absorption. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews:

damn funny............2007-08-21

I saw BOWFINGER in the movie theater and couldn't stop laughing my head off throughout the duration of the film. I happen to find Steve Martin's brand of humor quirky, witty and deliriously off the wall. This film is probably an example of his comedy at its best. Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is part con artist/part trashy film visionary. Yes, you could compare his calibre of genius to Ed Wood, who prided himself in making "the worst film of all time," the wonderfully campy PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. Bowfinger's vision of CHUBBY RAIN, an alien film, is no different from the low budget B movies that Wood prided himself on churning out. In this case, Bowfinger is fixated on a certain movie star, Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), playing in the film. Since there is no chance of his ever agreeing to appear in it, Bowfinger's crew must film Kit without him knowing it, while the cast recites their lines at the unsuspecting (and rather paranoid) celebrity. What's more, Kit's "stand in" is played by a really geeky guy nothing remotely like the arrogant star (also played by Eddie Murphy).

Frank Oz brilliantly directed this over-the-top fantasy of celebritydom. The cast is terrrific, the concept is delightfully absurd, and Steve Martin truly had me wondering just what PLANET his character came from. This is one of those films that is great to watch when you are feeling down in the dumps and in need of some fast and furious humor.

My Favorite Movie All Time.......2007-06-26

This is the most hilarious movie ever, yet very few people I know have ever even seen it. The cast just works so well together and are so innocently silly it literally makes me laugh until I choke. No matter how many times I watch it, I have the same reaction. Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy in his dual role, Christine Baranski, Heather Graham - they all are just fabulously loveable and gullible in their respective characters. A real spoof on all the celebrity tabloid gossip that we have come to know as Hollywood. Whether it's Eddie's near breakdown reciting his MindHead manta of Keep It Together or Christine in all her glory with a butchers knife screaming "bastard!" this movie will have something that will crack you up into side splitting, tear streaming laugher time and again.

A Comic Gem.......2006-08-15

One of the great unheralded comedies in recent years, "Bowfinger" (1999) excels in its satiric attack on Hollywood filmmaking. Thanks to Frank Oz's razor-sharp direction, the inventive characterizations of Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy far surpass their current formulaic efforts. Heather Graham, Christine Baranski and Terence Stamp provide memorable support. The "Fake Purse Ninjas" finale is hilarious.

The Last good Steve Martin movie.......2006-08-13

I thought the film was great. Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy have two different comedy styles but the movie was good. The storyline was original and Eddie Murphy's multiple role technique was good but not like the nutty professor movies. Chubby Rain and Fake Purse Ninjas are probably the more memorable moments in this movie.

FUNNY.......2006-06-30

This is one of the best of Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin I think. It is hilarious to see the charactors trying to make a movie with someone who doesn't even know they are making the movie with them.

Eddie Murphy Collection (Nutty Professor, Nutty Professor II, Bowfinger, Life)

Average customer rating:

I watched this not knowing the hook here.
I don't own it, but I know it's great!
Sherman! Sherman! Sherman!

Eddie Murphy Collection (Nutty Professor, Nutty Professor II, Bowfinger, Life)
Starring: Eddie Murphy
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Coming to America

ASIN: B000051S2P
Release Date: 2000-12-05

Customer Reviews:

I watched this not knowing the hook here........2003-06-27

When I found out what the hook was, while looking at the credits at the end, I had to watch it over again. I already had an extremely high opinion of EM's acting ability, but this was stunning to me. Not that i was stunned by the realization, I was starting to wonder, and he had done it before... stunned by his talent. Oh, and i liked this a lot better that the Jerry Lewis, frantic version.

I don't own it, but I know it's great!.......2002-12-19

Starting off, it's a great set. I'm having a tough time picking my favorite. Life is my least favorite. And as for the rest, I don't know the ranking. Hope this helps! SNAP ON YOU

bye

Sherman! Sherman! Sherman!.......2001-02-17

This 4 DVD collection, featuring Bowfinger, Life, and the 2 nutty professor movies, is definately a winner. Probably the 2 best DVDs in this collection are the Nutty Professor series, where Ediie Murphy plays most of the characters himself!

In the Orginal Nutty professor, Sherman Klump (murphy), invents an elixir to become thin - it works, however, it massively increases his hormone activity, and he transforms from an overweight science professor to sex craved sweet talking Buddy Love.

In the second Nutty Professor DVD, Buddy is at it again, this time, trying to break up the marriage of Shermans sweetheart, Denise, and otherwise cause general trouble for everyone. Both Of these movies are extremely funny, and gives 10 times the laughter that the orginal Jerry Lewis movie of the same name did. The other 2 movies take a bit of a backseat to the Nutty Professor movies however, but you'd still be hard done by to find better movies.

"Life" is a lurchingly sentimental prison comedy that's like a setup in search of a punchline. In 1932, Ray Gibson (Murphy), a Harlem hustler in silky duds, and Claude Banks, a novice bank teller with fussy parted hair, team up on a bootlegging run to Mississippi. The two don't pretend to like each other. They're from opposing schools of upward mobility: the outlaw and the assimilator. Both, however, owe money to the same mobster, and so they're forced to be partners. What they don't realize is that their partnership is doomed to last forever. They get wrongly accused for murder, and tossed to the Mississippip state prison.

Bowfinger lets the sun beat down brilliantly on a tapped-out, chewed-up wreck of a producer-director, Bobby Bowfinger, as he hustles one last, big project that he bets will make him rich -- or else he'll fail for good. Bobby has been handed an awful script he believes in, called "Chubby Rain", about aliens who infiltrate Earth hidden in raindrops.

Bobby Bowfinger is a loser; he's also a genius. A studio biggie agrees to greenlight the project contingent on Bowfinger's smoke-blowing promise to sign up Kit Ramsey (Murphy), a superhot action star who worships a crackpot New Age guru. Well, Bowfinger can't deliver, but so what? He shoots "Chubby Rain" guerrilla-style, snaring Ramsay without the celeb ever knowing the camera's rolling!

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