Bowfinger (1999)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 108
Fresh: 86 | Rotten: 22
A witty commentary on modern film-making, with enough jokes to keep it entertaining throughout.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 3
A witty commentary on modern film-making, with enough jokes to keep it entertaining throughout.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 72,812
My Rating
Movie Info
A group of wanna-be filmmakers and actors concocts a scheme to make a movie with a major star without having to pay him in this comedy. Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) has struggled for years to make it in Hollywood with no real success; he's convinced that he has to make his big break soon or it will be too late. Bobby has a script, and he has a cast, including an ingenue straight off the bus from Ohio (Heather Graham), a one-time regional stage star who fondly recalls her brief moment of glory
Cast
-
Steve Martin
Bobby Bowfinger -
Eddie Murphy
Jiff Ramsey, Kit Ramsey -
Christine Baranski
Carol -
Heather Graham
Daisy -
Terence Stamp
Terry Stricter -
Jamie Kennedy
Dave -
Robert Downey Jr.
Jerry Renfro -
Adam Alexi-Malle
Afrim -
Kohl Sudduth
Slater -
Barry Newman
Kit's Agent -
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All Critics (114) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (22) | DVD (19)
The best thing about Bowfinger is the way the script by Steve Martin is tooled to his own and Murphy's comic strengths.
This is enjoyable but thin, which is no doubt what was intended.
Preposterous and utterly self-absorbed, this has la-la land down to a tee.
Top CriticMartin the writer plants some wicked barbs in Hollywood's rear end about creative financing of movies and hoarding of profits, the art of the deal, hipper-than-thou attitudes and exploitation.
This is his first screenplay since L.A. Story, yet you get the sense that Martin has lost some of the artistic aspiration he once brought to the movie business. This effort feels like it's just business.
Bowfinger never hits a note of high hilarity.
Entertaining, great actors but not a home run.
Hugely funny film that mixes knowing satire with winning stupidity, and has Martin and Murphy in form they have rarely managed in recent years.
A showcase for wit.
Mr. Murphy chews the scenery every chance he gets and it recalls what made him such a star in the first place.
There is a solid little collection of extras on the disc.
Murphy is wonderful ... The plot is mechanical, clunky and boring.
Just watch two of the still funniest guys in the country do what they do best, without a bad script to get in the way.
You'll laugh 'til you stop!
This all has the potential to become a sidesplitting caper. ... Unfortunately, only a few of the manic scenes work.
[An] entertaining little comedy that should be forgiven for not living to its potential.
It's lively and frequently funny -- but why does it leave such a sour aftertaste?
Lest the movie get too saccharine (and it never does), Eddie Murphy is on hand to juice things up.
Hilarious.
The movie reaches giddy, cartoonish heights, even while it carefully dodges any chance to move beyond skin-deep.
A wicked satire of the absurdity of the Los Angeles lifestyle.
Audience Reviews for Bowfinger
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Kit Ramsey: Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together.
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- Dave: But movies cost millions of dollars to make.
- Bobby Bowfinger: That's after gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut. Cash, every movie cost $2,184.
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- Bobby Bowfinger: Now that you and your colleagues here at Mindfu - , head have had a chance to think, what do you say?
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- Bobby Bowfinger: [Interviewing Jiff for the movie] Would you be willing to cut your hair?
- Jiff Ramsey: Well, yeah, but it would probably be better if someone else did it. I've had a few... accidents.
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- Kit Ramsey: Gotcha suckers!
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- Jiff Ramsey: Heavenly God! Heavenly God!
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