Bowfinger MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -2 1/2

Struggling filmmaker Bowfinger (Steve Martin), now pushing the age of fifty, has been looking for that perfect script his entire career. His accountant writes a screenplay about an alien invasion which Bowfinger thinks has real potential. But after pitching it to a major Hollywood producer, hes told mega-star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) must agree to be in the film for it to be accepted. However, convincing Kit to be in the picture presents an almost impassable obstacle. Brainstorm! Maybe Bowfinger doesnt need Kits permission to film him for the picture. Kits paranoid delusions about alien invasions and a film about aliens are a perfect match. All Bowfinger has to do is secretly film Kit during the normal course of his day and set up the necessary scenes with different actors from the film. These candid camera sequences capturing Kits realistic reactions are certain to make the blockbuster film Bowfinger has always dreamed of. But will BOWFINGER make a blockbuster film for Universal? It has some hilarious moments and some major stars, including the rising starlet Heather Graham, but most fans will not find it to be Martin or Murphys best work.

The premise of BOWFINGER makes for a potentially very funny and appealing film. But, like its summer competition, it throws in just enough sexual content and language to make it something less than appealing. Heather Graham plays a nave, but not so nave, girl from Ohio who ends up manipulating men by sleeping with them. And she even introduces a lesbian relationship at the end of the film. No graphic sex is shown but Martin and Graham are shown in bed together kissing passionately and intercourse is implied. Other sexual innuendoes about male genitals and arousal, appearing nude in films, and references to Grahams other conquests abound. Language includes one f-word, several s-words and many crudities, mostly from Murphys character. Most violence in the film is corny and fake, staged for the shooting of Bowfingers film. BOWFINGER includes two of the greatest comedic minds in Hollywood today, but the hilarity of the film is overshadowed by crude sexual references and offensive language.

Preview Reviewer: Cliff McNeely
Distributor: Universal, 100 Universal City, CA 91608, (818) 777-1000