My first job was as a bagger at an Albertson’s grocery store.  Yes, there were plenty of people who took the low hanging fruit that is the connection between my first name and the company I worked for, making the obvious joke.  Eventually, I got to transfer to a different department, one that included working the movie rental counter.  If you are wondering why this would have been a commercial activity of a grocery store, all I can say is that it was a different world at that time. Like any other establishment that would lend films for a fee, the new releases were always the most popular.  They would never stay on the shelf long before someone would come and take it home.  I do not recall a similar phenomenon with Bowfinger (1999), which was released at the peak of my Albertson’s days.  As such, I never felt compelled to watch it.  Now that I have, it proves the old adage regarding never knowing about something until you give it a chance.

The thing that longtime struggling director/producer Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is giving a chance in the opening scene is a script titled “Chubby Rain.”  Once he gets to the end, he sets it down and exclaims that he has finally got the hit he has long sought.  He immediately begins making phone calls to people with whom he has worked, most of whom do not trust him because he is cheap and basically a con artist.  Nonetheless, he manages to convince them to come to his house in the morning to discuss the potential movie.  Upon arriving at his house, which doubles as the headquarters for Bowfinger International, he informs them that his accountant and parttime assistant, Afrim (Adam Alexei-Malle), has finally penned something worth shooting.  They remain incredulous until he says that he is going to get major Hollywood executive Jerry Renfro (Robert Downey Jr.) to produce.  This perks up Bobby’s associates, but they want to see him deliver on these promises before committing.  Using Dave (Jamie Kennedy), Bobby’s friend who works in a real movie studio, Bobby “borrows” a fancy car off the lot, steals a suit from a clothing store rack, and heads to the restaurant where Jerry is having lunch.  Bobby manages to get the script into Jerry’s hands, who evidently is just humoring Bobby.  Jerry flips through a couple pages, saying laughingly as he walks away that he will sign on if Bobby can get famous action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy).  Bobby readily agrees.  Sneaking into Kit’s mansion, Bobby tries to trick the celebrity into agreeing to be in his film before being thrown out of a moving limousine.  Yet, upon returning home, Bobby does not admit failure.  Instead, he tells everyone that the picture is a go.  Privately, he explains to Dave that they are going to follow Kit around and film the other actors going up to him to get his natural reactions.  Because Bobby only has a little over $2,000 to make the movie, he pursues such cost-cutting measures as using a van full of illegal aliens as his production crew.  Dave also, again, “borrows” equipment from his workplace, having to replace it every night after they finish shooting.  Then the ambitious young lady from Ohio, Daisy (Heather Graham), comes to Bowfinger International.  She seeks to audition for one of the female parts, but Bobby tells her she cannot do so without paying the $25 fee.  She is about to walk away, but she has already completed the first of her conquests when she convinces the young male actor, Slater (Kohl Sudduth), to get Bobby to give her a chance.  For brevity’s sake, I will note that every time she senses an opportunity to get ahead on the production, she sleeps with the next person in line.  By the end, she walks into the premier of “Chubby Rain” on Kit’s arm, but I am getting ahead of myself.  Now it is time to begin filming, and they do exactly as I have described.  Because what they are making is an alien movie, Kit is bewildered by these strangers appearing and saying what sounds to him like non sequitur dialogue.  This would be more of an annoyance for a well-known Hollywood personality if not for the fact that he is receiving treatment for paranoia and sex addiction from Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp).  Terry heads an organization called Mind Head, which caters to celebrities.  If you are thinking of Scientology, you have the idea.  Terry tries to get Kit to calm down, but the continued odd occurrences lead to a mental break, and the star disappears into a Mind Head safe house for a few weeks.  Scrambling for a replacement, Bobby finds nerdy and shy Jiffrenson “Jiff” Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), somehow missing that Jiff and Kit are brothers despite them being identical and sharing a last name.  In the meantime, Bobby uses Jiff for wide shots until Kit resurfaces.  Now it is time to get the final shot, which is to take place at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.  Boxing in Kit’s car in a parking lot, and using Afrim as an extra to make Kit think that aliens are truly after the star, Kit drives off with Daisy.  Bobby and company are about to get what they need when Terry interrupts the shoot and takes the mentally fractured Kit.  Thinking they are ruined, the crew is looking over the footage when they come across shots of Kit exposing himself to Lakers’ cheerleaders.  Bobby brings the clip to Terry, and is able to convince him and Kit to give them the missing piece of the movie.  The film is released to thunderous applause (somehow), and we close with Bobby and Jiff making a martial arts movie in Taiwan.

In the couple of scenes we see of this new movie at the end of Bowfinger, Bobby is joining in the action.  It is just one more con in a string of lies he tells throughout the movie, which makes him not a favorite character of this Catholic reviewer.  I get that it is supposed to be a comedy, and I found a lot of the writing to be funny.  However, even though he is one of the men with which Daisy sleeps, at least the tales he tells do not involve promiscuity.  Again, this is an enjoyable movie, but my favorite brand of comedy is not usually the ones where terrible people are being terrible to each other for the duration.  If there is one moment that slightly redeems these people, it is when they are all in the theater watching “Chubby Rain.”  I can only imagine what such a low budget, over-acted film would look like, but to Bobby and others that worked on it, it is their art.  What also struck me is when one of their characters commented that acting is a gift.  To that I say amen.  It is a gift from God to be able to make a movie and witness it played before an audience.  I tend to get snarky with bad productions, but in doing so I obviate the efforts of people doing the best with that which God gave them.  The way they look at their finished product with awe reminds me that one has to be careful about what one says.  I do not like being uncharitable, and I try to reserve my sharpest critiques for films that are morally bankrupt.  One could make the argument that describes all the characters here, but at least their work is not damaging souls beyond their own.  I consider it my job to worry about your soul, which is what motivates me to continue reviewing movies.

I am not sure any of this is a motivation to watch Bowfinger.  As previously mentioned, it is not a bad movie, and there are some genuinely funny moments in it.  It is also a bit of a thinker, which might explain why it spent so much time not being rented at Albertson’s.  Should any of this interest you, you can currently find it on Amazon Prime.