Doubled Over

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By Newsweek Editors

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Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy are both in peak form in "Bowfinger," a wackily imaginative farce written by Martin. Bobby Bowfinger (Martin) is a fly-by-night producer-director at the end of his rope. But he's got this script, written by his Iranian accountant, that he's sure will turn his luck around--if only he can get action superstar Kit Ramsey (Murphy) to be in it. But being a realist (he has only $2,000) and a con artist, he has a better idea: gathering a cast and crew as desperate as he is, he will get Kit to appear in his film without knowing he's in it! Alas, Kit is not just the biggest star in town, he's the most paranoid. And with strange people approaching him in the street babbling about alien invasions (this would be Bowfinger's cast, being filmed with hidden cameras), Kit's condition is not likely to improve.

It's an outlandish premise, but director Frank Oz knows how to build the jokes until the farce reaches full comic boil. Murphy's strung-out star is an incendiary delight, and he doubles the fun playing his own brother, the sweet, not-so-swift Jiff. "Bowfinger" may not be as subtle as "Roxanne" and "L.A. Story," also written by Martin, but like them it supplies an indecent amount of fun.

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