Serious Movie Lover

BOWFINGER (1999/DVD)  It wasn’t the greatest time ever for Eddie Murphy last week, what with Tower Heist coming up short at the box office and his Oscar gig disappearing right out from under him (courtesy of producer Brett Ratner’s down right stupid behavior).  So I’m starting a SeriousMovieLover “Favorite Eddie Murphy Movie” campaign to remind everyone of just how great he was and is.  For myself, I’m naming “Bowfinger” as my all-time favorite.  Written by and starring Steve Martin, along with Eddie Murphy in a hilarious dual-role, the movie is a brilliant and light-hearted send-up of Hollywood, movie making, and even the Church of Scientology. Frank Oz of Muppet fame directed Steve Martin who is spot-on as Bobbie Bowfinger, a down on his luck filmmaker operating out of his classic LA bungalow and desperate to produce his accountant’s sci-fi screenplay entitled “Chubby Rain.”  Working all the angles, Bobbie decides to use his life savings (roughly $2,000!) to “go for it,” shooting his picture around one of Hollywood’s hottest stars—Kit Ramsay—played to perfection by Murphy. And of course, this is part of the hilarity of the movie because Bobbie and crew are truly “shooting around” the star who just happens to be paranoid and obsessed by thoughts of aliens—a great concept that allows Martin as the writer to introduce us to “Mind Head,” a slick cult of high rollers run by Terence Stamp and other suits who are helping Ramsay to “keep it together.”  Murphy’s second brilliant slot in the film is as Kit’s brother Jiff (his polar opposite) who joins the film as a stand-in for various shots and gives us one of the film’s signature hilarious scenes when he’s forced to cross the 101 in traffic.  Add to this Christine Baranski as Bowfinger’s lead actress, Heather Graham as Daisy—just in from Ohio –and sleeping her way to the “top,” and the rest of Bowfinger’s crew, and you have one funny movie.  If you don’t remember it (or even if you do), pull it out of your DVD collection or rent it on Netflix, put on some popcorn and have a great time.

Grade: A