Bowfinger 1999
Saw this at the cheap seats tonight (now $2.00). I had heard good things about this from some critics but they must have seen something that I didn’t. I have a real problem with a movie that makes fun of bad filmmaking and then demonstrates the same thing. The whole film felt like something Steve Martin thought up and half-way wrote in a day, got some money to make it because he got Eddie Murphy to agree to star in it, and then shot everything in about a week filling in the holes in the plot as he went. Unfortunately that also is (more or less) the plot of the movie. It might be a really good joke on Steve Martin’s part to have pulled off something like that, but unfortunately the audience is the victim. Good one, Steve. You got me. But at least he only got me for $2.00.
I imagine this will be out on video soon but I recommend against it. There were a couple of funny moments, but most of it is very tired and unfunny. In overall quality Bowfinger falls about halfway between Mixed Nuts (Martin’s worst ever movie) and The Three Amigos. Like Three Amigos, Bowfinger has ideas and moments that should have been funny but fell flat. Unlike The Three Amigos, Bowfinger lacks the cast and fun silliness. This is sad because I like pretty much the entire cast but none of them were doing anything close to their best work. I had heard that this one of Eddie Murphy’s best roles of recent memory, but his parts weren’t really that big. The role he plays as basically himself was just filler and of no real interest. The role as himself’s nerdy brother was better, but was pretty much just Eddie making a funny face and being goofy.
The only real character development came from the illegal immigrant “crew” of the film who, in one of the only funny moments, are picked up by driving a van near the border, opening up the back doors and waiting until it fills up with people.
I give this one a D+