Customer Reviews

Bowfinger [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I liked this movie. I thought is was definitely one of the funnier movies of 1999. Steve Martin as a con-man and Eddie Murphy as both Kit and Jiff made an excellent team. I really liked the bit when Jiff was crossing the freeway. Besides, I REALLY like looking at Heather Graham.

This movie is one of my faves. I thought it would be bad when I went to the theater, but I was laughing so hard at the end. It is about Bobby Bowfinger, a struggling movie producer who thinks his big break is coming when he reads a script written by one of his friends called "Chubby Rain." He decides to film it. He makes all his friends the stars, and trys to get famous action star, Kit Ramsey, to star too. But when Kit turns him down, he decides to film the movie with him starring, but he won't tell him that he is in the movie. See it today!

There are some movies that are just pure fun. Bowfinger is one of them. Steve Martin plays a down-and-out movie producer. He decides to make a film without the star, Eddie Murphy, knowing about it. So he gets a film crew and follows Murphy around, placing him in situations and capturing it on film.

Murphy plays two roles, one of the film star and one of a rather dumb guy hired to play the film star's double. He is so good I thought it was two different actors. He has the ability to twist his face into outrageous expressions and get laughs from just a gesture.

The whole story is satire and done well. I found myself laughing throughout and, even though the film was predictable from start to finish, I wasn't bored for a moment.

It's a silly movie and that's what it's supposed to be.

It's Ed Wood meets The Player in the form of a wacky mainstream comedy attempt to breathe new life into the careers of Martin and Murphy. All the Hollywood satire here has been seen before in more clever forms, of course, but that isn't the problem with this movie -- the problem is that it simply isn't very funny. I think I laughed two or three times in the 1 hour and 40 minutes I spent watching it. It is flat and unengaging, and it surprised me that it was directed by Frank Oz. If you're coming at Bowfinger for Steve Martin -- stick with his earlier comedies. If you're coming for Eddie Murphy, well ... maybe you'll like it ... I only very occasionally find him funny to begin with. But essentially this is just another strangely vacant, soulless late-90s throw away.

Comedians Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy team up with a talented cast of supporting actors, which include Terrence Stamp, Heather Graham, Robert Downey Jr., Christine Baranski, and many others to give us an original comedy unlike any other for some time.
In this 1999 motion picture, which was directed by Frank Oz, Martin plays Bowfinger, a movie director who is down on his luck and close to broke, who is brought a script by one of his employees-friend. As Bowfinger reads the script, he realizes that this script could make him famous. As the story unfolds, Bowfinger starts to call his friends in to help him make the picture. Christine Baranski chips in a wonderful performance as another one of Bowfinger's close friends that he calls when he is in need.
As Bowfinger goes to pitch the movie to a big budget producer played by Robert Downey Jr., he realizes that he needs a big time star to put the movie on the map. Due to financial difficulties, Bowfinger and his henchmen have to film the movie without Eddie Murphy's character, Kit Ramsey, who is all the rave of Hollywood at that moment, having knowledge that they are including him in the scenes without his knowledge of the fact.
In shooting some of the scenes, Martin, who wrote the screenplay, shows some of his comedic genius with some of the situations that he puts the actors in. The garage scene with the dog is one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing as I thought about how they got the dog to do the scene.
Heather Graham plays an innocent looking girl from Ohio, who when it all comes down to it, will do anything it takes to get into the movies.
Terrence Stamp plays the head of a cult called Mind Head which Kit Ramsey seems to be their biggest contributor of. As Kit goes to Mind Head to help him with his anxiety about being a black man in racist Hollywood, the Mind Head gurus use him to help fund their extracurricular activities.
I'm not sure what Steve Martin was trying to accomplish by poking fun at the people and what it takes to make a movie in Hollywood but ninety-seven minutes of sheer fun is what he did accomplish.

I saw this movie when it first came out and can't remember the last time I laughed so hard in the theater!!!! The concept of a down and out would-be director filming a movie around an unsuspecting superstar is fresh and original and Kit Ramsey's outrageous paranoias and rather... umm... unusual reaction to the word "Shakespeare" give it an added kick. "DID YOU SAY ALIEN LOVE?????" Gotta love Jiff the stand-in: "I'd love to get a job running errands... that would be a major boost for me!" and his infamous crossing of the freeway. Too many laughs to mention here but THE LAST FIVE MINUTES - WHAT A RIOT! Steve Martin's not-so-subtle poking of fun at Scientology-type religions ("Mind-Head?") and wanna-be starlets is a terrific send up. The only thing this movie could have done without is Christine Baranski, who overplayed her diva bit just a tad too much. Otherwise, a terrific, original comedy.

My expectations weren't very high when I rented this, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I was laughing throughout the entire movie. A few scenes were annoying though, especially those involving Eddie Murphy's cult. Still, I highly recommend Bowfinger, and it's worth seeing for the last five minutes, which had me in a fit of hysteria.

I expected this movie to be a little hokey and lame, but instead I found it entertaining and definitely worthwhile. It's very well written and acted. Probably the best Steve Martin film since Parenthood. And Eddie Murphy is at his best!

If you like REAL comedy and not just people falling down or farting all the time, you should like this movie, however, if you are a 12 year old boy who only likes Adam Sandler movies, you might not be able to understand the concept or "clever comedy". You might want to rent it before you buy it.

Uneven comedy. Several hilarious scenes, but also long, boring sequences that fails to be funny, especially in the beginning. Inspired by Ed Wood, but not a remake. Ed Wood was a funny drama, this is an occasionally funny comedy. Best scene: Eddie Murhpy being followed by footsteps in a dark parking lot.