steve martin took an extended vacation from all facets of moviemaking a few years back ; he spent this time writing essays and short stories for " the new yorker , " several of which wound up in his hilarious hardback compilation , pure drivel ( 1998 ) .
much of the book spares tinseltown from mockery , although he does riff on the racist comments made by marlon brando during a larry king interview , in a fine chapter called " in search of the wily filipino .
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now , as writer and star of bowfinger , he offers the masses plenty of good reasons not to pursue a career in the cinema , perhaps finally venting the frustrations ( ' everything being made now is crap ' ) that led to his brief retirement from hollywood .
martin stars as bobby bowfinger , a roger corman - wannabe on the cusp of fifty and desperate for some success as a producer , quality of the projects be damned .
his accountant ( adam alexi - malle ) proposes a movie called " chubby rain , " about aliens who travel to earth in raindrops slightly fatter than regular raindrops .
bowfinger latches onto the idea immediately , and convinces his troupe of actor friends to appear in the film , based on the lie that america 's top box office draw , kit ramsey ( murphy ) , has agreed to star .
ramsey , of course , wants nothing to do with such low - grade material , so bowfinger , on the thinking that action stars need to run , not speak , decides to photograph the superstar surreptitiously .
he sends his cast members ( who are n't in on it , either ; they are told ramsey hates the sight of cameras and fraternizing with his co - stars ) to ramsey 's table at restaurants , asks them to follow him in parking lots , etc . , spouting script dialogue , all the while shooting the outcome from a great distance .
the paranoid ramsey flees the scene nearly every time .
ramsey is a member of mind head , a cultish self - help organization apparently dedicated to recruiting celebrities .
( as if that 's not familiar enough , mind head guru terry stricter ( terence stamp ) has been dressed and combed to resemble l. ron hubbard , founder of scientology . ) when he goes to mind head with tales of caucasian strangers appearing from nowhere to babble " white code " in his face , they fear the nervous breakdown of an important client and rush him off to a retreat , requiring bowfinger to find a stand - in .
murphy will probably win more fans as jiff ,
ramsey 's adorable , ignoramus double , than as kit , but it is his portrayal of the latter that took courage .
always surrounded by an entourage , suffering from a racial inferiority complex , murphy plays right into the tabloid image of himself .
furthermore , consider the enemies he 'll make of popular scientologists .
pacing stricter 's neutral - coloured office as if on an amphetamine binge and stripped of his bigshot veneer , ramsey is asked to shout inane personal affirmations repeatedly .
murphy 's scenes with stamp are exactly what i imagine of a john travolta " clearing .
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not that murphy is entirely responsible for this schtick ; bowfinger is steve martin 's invention .
his script is surprisingly clever as satire , given that the pseudo - religion is a sitting duck , as is the entire los angeles film industry .
( the griffin mill - types take quite a beating , in the form of robert downey jr . as bigwig jerry renfro . )
martin 's decision to tell the story from a bottom feeder 's point of view is what keeps it fresh and innovative - never have we seen on screen a group of people struggle this hard to complete a motion picture .
as expected , there are laughs only to be had insiders or buffs , such as martin 's crew of mexican border - jumpers , who gain unexpected appreciation for the classics from reading " cahiers du cinema , " or martin 's nonsensical explanation to dave , his loyal cinematographer ( jamie kennedy ) , that every movie , in the end , has a budget of two - thousand dollars ( ! ) .
most of bowfinger is universally funny , however ; i defy any viewer to keep a straight face when christine baranski , one of our brightest comediennes , is on screen .
bowfinger 's main flaw is a plot twist that has an insubstantial aftermath .
we 're also asked to believe that a few simple close - ups of kit ramsey would redeem " chubby rain , " z - grade entertainment that would make ed wood blush .
( this aspect of bowfinger has much in common with the ludicrous oscar sequence in oz 's last directorial effort , the poorly conceived in & out . )
these are significant enough weaknesses that they distracted from my enjoyment of the piece .
as i mentioned at the start of this review , bowfinger offers solid reasons not to do what heather graham 's character daisy does : hop a bus to hollywood in search of stardom .
that said , it offers one fantastic reason to get on that bus
: the sense of community between filmmakers who gel is awesome .
martin gets sentimental by story 's end as he did in l. a. story , and how could he not ?
for those who can hack it , the movies might be the greatest business in the world .
Output: P