was actually surprised that BOWFINGER got a mere average rating of 6.4 on this site because the IMDb is full of wannabe film makers who are gonna love a movie satirizing the Hollywood studios , a film both cruel and amusing in turn and it would be very interesting to see how the votes panned out . I'm sort of guessing here that the wannabees awarded it very high marks while the typical Eddie Murphy fans , casual film goers and those people who claim THE MUMMY RETURNS is the greatest film ever ( And no I'm not criticising anyones opinions and tastes ) would have given it relatively low marks . I'm guessing that it's a possibly a film that unfortunately went above a lot of heads
First off is the title BOWFINGER . What sort of image does that conjure up ? Possibly a James Bond spoof ala AUSTIN POWERS with lots of slapstick ? If you enjoy that sort of schoolboy humour you'll be very disappointed . Likewise if you're an Eddie Murphy fan because Murphy's dual performance is very restrained here and all the better for it . It also has an opposite effect for people who don't like Eddie Murphy ( Or for that matter Steve Martin ) very much but are people not keen on either Murphy or Martin going to watch this in the cinema ? I was very happy that the movie did relatively well on its initial release in 1999 because it certainly had the potential to be a flop at the cinema
The premise is very simple: Film producer Bobby Bowfinger ( Martin ) has a knock back from Hollywood star Kit Ramsey ( Murphy ) so Bowfinger decides to secretly film him anyway and edit it into his movie . Thankfully the screenplay of BOWFINGER is developed well enough for maximum comic effect , Bowfinger is making a sci-fi movie so Kit finds himself facing aliens at one point and yes he genuinely believes they are real aliens . Bobby Bowfinger himself seems to have been based on the infamous Ed Wood while watching Kit attend the MindHead classes one is perhaps reminded of John Travolta or Tom Cruise and I don't care what the critics say - Some of the gags like the scene with the dog in the underground car park are laugh out loud funny without ever going OTT
All in all a fairly amusing satirical comedy that enjoys taking pokes at the American film industry and certainly one of the better films that have either starred Martin or Murphy
First off is the title BOWFINGER . What sort of image does that conjure up ? Possibly a James Bond spoof ala AUSTIN POWERS with lots of slapstick ? If you enjoy that sort of schoolboy humour you'll be very disappointed . Likewise if you're an Eddie Murphy fan because Murphy's dual performance is very restrained here and all the better for it . It also has an opposite effect for people who don't like Eddie Murphy ( Or for that matter Steve Martin ) very much but are people not keen on either Murphy or Martin going to watch this in the cinema ? I was very happy that the movie did relatively well on its initial release in 1999 because it certainly had the potential to be a flop at the cinema
The premise is very simple: Film producer Bobby Bowfinger ( Martin ) has a knock back from Hollywood star Kit Ramsey ( Murphy ) so Bowfinger decides to secretly film him anyway and edit it into his movie . Thankfully the screenplay of BOWFINGER is developed well enough for maximum comic effect , Bowfinger is making a sci-fi movie so Kit finds himself facing aliens at one point and yes he genuinely believes they are real aliens . Bobby Bowfinger himself seems to have been based on the infamous Ed Wood while watching Kit attend the MindHead classes one is perhaps reminded of John Travolta or Tom Cruise and I don't care what the critics say - Some of the gags like the scene with the dog in the underground car park are laugh out loud funny without ever going OTT
All in all a fairly amusing satirical comedy that enjoys taking pokes at the American film industry and certainly one of the better films that have either starred Martin or Murphy