Bowfinger (1999)
Directed by Frank Oz
On the verge of bankruptcy and desperate for his big break, aspiring filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger concocts a crazy plan to make his ultimate dream movie. Rallying a ragtag team that includes a starry-eyed ingenue, a has-been diva and a film studio gofer, he sets out to shoot a blockbuster featuring the biggest star in Hollywood, Kit Ramsey -- only without letting Ramsey know he's in the picture.
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What critics compared Bowfinger to
Honestly, “Bowfinger,” the half-forgotten Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy comedy from the late ’90s, was a more successful skewering of Scientology than “The Master.”
Body-swapping, or character-shifting comedy, has long been a stunt that allows some virtuosic comic actors to rise to the occasion; think of Steve Martin sharing his body with the ghost of Lily Tomlin in All of Me , Eddie Murphy double-cast in Bowfinger (and quintuple-cast in other movies), or Tom Hanks playing an overgrown 13-year-old in Big .
Yet, Christine Baranski ("Bowfinger," "Bulworth"), Bill Irwin ("Illuminata," "My Blue Heaven") and Molly Shannon ("Superstar," "Never Been Kissed") can't do much with their sketchily drawn roles.
Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show) makes a perfect snobbish mayor, Christine Baranski ( Bowfinger ) unleashes her sophisticated charm as the Grinch’s love interest, and Sir Anthony Hopkins ( Hannibal ) provides a spirited narration of this well-loved holiday fable.
Director Frank Oz ("Bowfinger," "The Stepford Wives") crosses the pond to make a typically English farce, but while it has its moments it is also mired in truly offputting scatological 'humor,' absurdly forced setups and a simply horrible performance from famous former Beatle girlfriend Jane Asher ("Dreamchild") as the clan's matriarch.
Let’s hope the Muppet man-turned-director has another Bowfinger or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels left in him.
At the helm of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, he paired Steve Martin and Michael Caine to comedic effect, ditto Martin and Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger .
(God bless Ingmar!) Instead, this broad farce blows the coffin lid off dignified send-offs, thanks to Dean Craig’s screwball script and the deft direction by Frank Oz, who previously helmed Bowfinger, In & Out and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Directed by Frank Oz ("Bowfinger," "In and Out"), it has the requisite amount of knockabout silliness.
Then he delivered Bowfinger, The Score and The Stepford Wives.