Cru Jones Society

Release Date: August 13, 1999
Box Office Gross: $66,384,775
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 79%
Pertinent Review Line: “Bowfinger is smoothly directed and acted with glee, showing off the quick-witted comic spirit that is enjoying a welcome resurgence late this summer. (Dick, the diabolically bubbly Watergate satire, and The Muse, forthcoming from Albert Brooks, are in much the same literate vein.) But what makes it work, beyond a landslide of wily gags that would do a Mad magazine satire proud, is the rueful experience that colors its humor. Mr. Martin doesn’t flaunt this, but it shapes his screenplay effortlessly.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

For our next underrated movie we turn to the Steve Martin penned, Frank Oz directed satirical look at Hollywood, Bowfinger. Eddie Murphy teams up with Steve Martin in this farce to make us laugh and perhaps something more to show why this movie is underappreciated.

The Case For Why It’s Not Underrated

Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy are both huge stars and it seems the combination of the two would be enough to get a movie over. However, at the time both actors were coming off a string of flops: Sgt. Bilko, The Out Of Towners, Metro, Life. These subpar movies helped turn people off to Martin and Murphy, and teaming them up was like teaming broccoli with lima beans, nobody wanted that.

Falling star power aside, this movie is a satire, and satire can be a tricky thing to find mass appeal for. First one has to understand what is being parodied, then understand that it a satire; if either one of these components is missing, then the whole thing will fall flat. Since Bowfinger doesn’t beat the parody over your head like a Mel Brooks movie, it fails to gather the attention.

The movie contains a lot of goofball comedy which doesn’t allure as much as the movie hopes it would. On the other end of the spectrum there are subtle high brow jokes that fail to resonate with many people who saw this movie. It has a hard time finding a comfortable middle ground of comedy to reach the widest audience possible.

Additionally, many critics find Martin’s script to not be up to his full potential. Having written a few scripts in the past he has set himself up for comparison. L.A. Story was well received and many believed Bowfinger should be as good as that, despite subject matter.

Finally this is a movie about making a movie. From my memory movies about making movies tend to not be interesting to a lot of people. It’s like reading a novel about writing a novel (actually I read a novel like that. It wasn’t too bad), we don’t want to know the process; we just want the end result.

The Case for Why it Is Underrated

If we can go to the first point about Martin and Murphy. Despite the stigma surrounding them going into this movie, they both give great performances. Martin is an aging writer/director trying to get that one great movie made. He has a ridiculous script and no budget but he has a willing crew and all the optimism in the world. He demonstrates the kind of spirit this country was built on.

As good as Martin was in this movie, Murphy was well above. He showed great comedic choices that reminded me of how he became a big star in the first place. As he is prone to do he plays dual roles. First he is big time movie star Kit Ramsey. A man with a giant ego, but is just as crazy to boot. Tracy Morgan’s character on “30 Rock” is very reminiscent of Kit Ramsey, just slightly more naïve than Kit. Murphy’s other role, Jiff, is Kit’s cousin and he is the opposite of Kit. With Urkele-esq glasses, braces, and a big dopey smile, Jiff is absolutely content with his station in life, and it is hard not love him.

The cast is rounded out with Heather Graham and Christine Baranski, both who get knocked in this movie for their apparent poor acting. But the point that is often missed is they are supposed to be bad actresses. Graham is a mid-west girl who moved to Hollywood to become a big star. What she lacks in acting ability, she makes up for in hotness and the ability to sleep her way to the top. Baranski is an aged veteran, but she is a drama queen, and thusly, she overacts. Both exhibiting traits as to why they are not in main stream movies but instead have settled for this indie film.

It’s these eccentric characters that make the satire work. If these people all had their acts together they should not have much of a problem making their movie. But since they don’t they have to go through so much and jump so many hurdles to see their vision come to life. The problem then becomes people not looking at all the characters as a whole but rather as individuals, and to that affect the movie won’t work. It’s like a football team, you can’t just focus on the quarterback, you need the whole team, otherwise it’s just a guy throwing a ball in an empty field.

Watching Martin and his film crew attempt to make a movie without permits and using a Kit Ramsey look alike billed as Kit Ramsey becomes almost like watching a ballet in the absurd. Each shot is carefully planned, but the execution becomes slapsticky as they shoot while trying to circumvent the law. This is part of the comedic charm of the movie.

The movie also acts a nice little homage to classic crappy filmmaker Ed Wood. Wood didn’t have a lot of money, or the best ability, but he had big dreams and big ideas and nothing was going to stop him from making movies. Now those movies live on in their own special way. Martin is making a movie in the same vein proving that the Spielbergs, Coppalas, and Lucases are not the only film makers to inspire people.

In the end, with the help of everyone working together for one cause they all believe in, they are able to make their movie. Reminding everyone there are only two things you need to achieve a dream: the drive to do whatever it takes, and someone to believe in you. Also it doesn’t hurt to have a celebrity look alike on your side.

That’s an underrated movie.

lee.s.hart@crujonessociety.com