The recently released Welcome to the Jungle borrows plot points from Hollywood showbiz satires such as The Producers (a stage production that is deliberately designed to flop) and Tropic Thunder (actors in a war drama finds themselves in the middle of a real war). Welcome to the Jungle struggles to maintain its spoofy tone – never a problem with another satire, Bowfinger (1999).
Frank Oz’s comedy, based on a superb original script by Steve Martin, stars Martin as a producer who is determined to turn director. Bobby Bowfinger (Martin) has been toiling away on the margins of Hollywood.
He has a script about an alien invasion that he believes will be a bona fide hit. It’s called Chubby Rain, and has been written by his accountant and part-time receptionist.
Bowfinger wants to cast the eccentric movie star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) in the lead role. So what if Bowfinger doesn’t have any money, or that Kit doesn’t know who Bowfinger is and is most definitely not going to be in a film like Chubby Rain?
A handful of hammy actors, the accountant, a camera operator, a bunch of undocumented Mexican immigrants, and Bowfinger’s dog get together to make a movie with Kit but without Kit’s knowledge. When Kit, who’s a member of a Scientology-like cult, disappears, Bowfinger casts his lookalike Jiff (Eddie Murphy again) to play the part.
Bowfinger can be rented from Prime Video. The film is a fond tribute to as well as a send-up of the passion-for-cinema business.
Bowfinger (1999).
Hilarity ensues when Bowfinger secretly follows Kit around, or when Jiff enacts a complicated sequence on a freeway, or when Bowfinger’s well-trained dog features in a scene that spooks Kit. There’s also the matter of Chubby Rain being a pile of schlock, rather than the kind of movie that Bowfinger thinks will catapult him to fame.
The humour is always sweet-natured, never knocking anybody down but instead celebrating the can-do spirit that makes cinema possible. Steve Martin takes gentle digs at swollen-headed celebrities and snobbish studios, alongside acknowledging the marginal players who contribute to the Hollywood dream factory in their own way.
While Steve Martin is perfectly earnest and manically dedicated as Bowfinger, Eddie Murphy is brilliant in a double role. Christine Baranski is memorable as Bowfinger’s loyal aide Carol who takes Chubby Rain very seriously, as does everybody else on this production.
Bowfinger (1999).
Also start the week with these films:
In ‘Strange Days’, a dystopia that is already here
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ is a zany take on the AI apocalypse
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