Directed by Frank Oz
Written by Steve Martin
Starring Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Terence Stamp
My Advice: Matinee.
Bobby Bowfinger (Martin) is a man with a problem. His professional clock is ticking. He's about to hit the big five-oh and he's convinced that it will be too late for his breakthrough into big-time directing. His accountant, Afrim (Adam Alexi-Malle), has just written what Bowfinger thinks is guaranteed blockbuster material--an alien invasion/action script called Chubby Rain. And all he needs to get a greenlight, according to big time producer Jerry Renfro (Robert Downey, Jr.), is a big star. Say, like Kit Ramsey (Murphy), THE action star of the big screen. When attempts to get Ramsey to read the script don't go so well (i.e. Bowfinger is thrown off the property), the aspiring (and desperate) director has to go to desperate measures to get his movie made. These measures consist of Bowfinger filming Ramsey without his knowledge as a cadre of actors accost him in public, spouting lines about alien sex and motherships.
And out of this comes a lovely and smart spoof of Hollywood. Steve Martin, who has penned some of his own funniest on-screen moments, continues this habit with a clever, clever screenplay that pokes fun at pretty much everything and everybody. Scientology, producers, megastars, studios, casting--it all gets skewered with wild precision.
Eddie Murphy does what he does best--play multiple characters. Not only is he the completely paranoid misanthrophic racemongering Kit, but he is also the slow Kit stand-in Jiff--and both sides of the coin Murphy plays to the hilt. Christine Baranski is dead-on funny as an actress who can deliver the line "You only want ALIEN LOVE" and still respect herself in the morning. Heather Graham is great as the seemingly innocent and naive young lady right off the bus from Ohio who only wants to know who she should sleep with to get to the top. And only the man who gave us Zod, Terence Stamp, could possibly deliver the role of the head of Mindhead, an organization dedicated to pointy hats. No, I'm not kidding. Stealing many scenes are a group of Mexican illegal immigrants Bowfinger grabs to be his crew--so pay attention.
This film is, in this day and age, an endangered species. It's a comedy that relies on being funny rather than just aimless projectile vomiting and throwaway scatalogical references. So do check it out, it is quite the hoot.