Herald rating: * * * *
Running time: 97 mins
In stores: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
Bowfinger is a low-rent movie producer making a film starring a top Hollywood action hero. Except the star who won't know he's in the picture because Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is going to follow him around town and shoot on the sly.
The movie, called Chubby Rain, is about aliens in raindrops; it helps that the star, Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), belongs to a cult that believes in alien encounters.
Bowfinger's hangers-on are bigger losers than he is: his Iranian accountant/screenwriter, a bunch of illegal immigrants, wannabe actress Daisy (Heather Graham) and Jiff, Kit's double, played by ... Eddie Murphy.
Cameos from Terence Stamp as Ramsey's guru and Robert Downey Jr as a bigtime studio exec.
Four stars because Martin and Murphy remind what good comics they can be, despite recent disasters; because Martin remembers how to be write funny, too; and because it's one of Hollywood's few recent comedies for grown-ups.
<i>Video:</i> Bowfinger
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