steve martin took an extended vacation from all facets of moviemaking a few years back ; he spent this time writing essays and short stories for " the new yorker , " several of which wound up in his hilarious hardback compilation , pure drivel ( 1998 ) . 
much of the book spares tinseltown from mockery , although he does riff on the racist comments made by marlon brando during a larry king interview , in a fine chapter called " in search of the wily filipino . " 
now , as writer and star of bowfinger , he offers the masses plenty of good reasons not to pursue a career in the cinema , perhaps finally venting the frustrations ( 'everything being made now is crap' ) that led to his brief retirement from hollywood . 
martin stars as bobby bowfinger , a roger corman-wannabe on the cusp of fifty and desperate for some success as a producer , quality of the projects be damned . 
his accountant ( adam alexi-malle ) proposes a movie called " chubby rain , " about aliens who travel to earth in raindrops slightly fatter than regular raindrops . 
bowfinger latches onto the idea immediately , and convinces his troupe of actor friends to appear in the film , based on the lie that america's top box office draw , kit ramsey ( murphy ) , has agreed to star . 
ramsey , of course , wants nothing to do with such low-grade material , so bowfinger , on the thinking that action stars need to run , not speak , decides to photograph the superstar surreptitiously . 
he sends his cast members ( who aren't in on it , either ; they are told ramsey hates the sight of cameras and fraternizing with his co-stars ) to ramsey's table at restaurants , asks them to follow him in parking lots , etc . , spouting script dialogue , all the while shooting the outcome from a great distance . 
the paranoid ramsey flees the scene nearly every time . 
ramsey is a member of mind head , a cultish self-help organization apparently dedicated to recruiting celebrities . 
 ( as if that's not familiar enough , mind head guru terry stricter ( terence stamp ) has been dressed and combed to resemble l . ron hubbard , founder of scientology . ) 
when he goes to mind head with tales of caucasian strangers appearing from nowhere to babble " white code " in his face , they fear the nervous breakdown of an important client and rush him off to a retreat , requiring bowfinger to find a stand-in . 
murphy will probably win more fans as jiff , ramsey's adorable , ignoramus double , than as kit , but it is his portrayal of the latter that took courage . 
always surrounded by an entourage , suffering from a racial inferiority complex , murphy plays right into the tabloid image of himself . 
furthermore , consider the enemies he'll make of popular scientologists . 
pacing stricter's neutral-coloured office as if on an amphetamine binge and stripped of his bigshot veneer , ramsey is asked to shout inane personal affirmations repeatedly . 
murphy's scenes with stamp are exactly what i imagine of a john travolta " clearing . " 
not that murphy is entirely responsible for this schtick ; bowfinger is steve martin's invention . 
his script is surprisingly clever as satire , given that the pseudo-religion is a sitting duck , as is the entire los angeles film industry . 
 ( the griffin mill-types take quite a beating , in the form of robert downey jr . as bigwig jerry renfro . ) 
martin's decision to tell the story from a bottom feeder's point of view is what keeps it fresh and innovative-never have we seen on screen a group of people struggle this hard to complete a motion picture . 
as expected , there are laughs only to be had insiders or buffs , such as martin's crew of mexican border-jumpers , who gain unexpected appreciation for the classics from reading " cahiers du cinema , " or martin's nonsensical explanation to dave , his loyal cinematographer ( jamie kennedy ) , that every movie , in the end , has a budget of two-thousand dollars ( ! ) . 
most of bowfinger is universally funny , however ; i defy any viewer to keep a straight face when christine baranski , one of our brightest comediennes , is on screen . 
bowfinger's main flaw is a plot twist that has an insubstantial aftermath . 
we're also asked to believe that a few simple close-ups of kit ramsey would redeem " chubby rain , " z-grade entertainment that would make ed wood blush . 
 ( this aspect of bowfinger has much in common with the ludicrous oscar sequence in oz's last directorial effort , the poorly conceived in & out . ) 
these are significant enough weaknesses that they distracted from my enjoyment of the piece . 
as i mentioned at the start of this review , bowfinger offers solid reasons not to do what heather graham's character daisy does : hop a bus to hollywood in search of stardom . 
that said , it offers one fantastic reason to get on that bus : the sense of community between filmmakers who gel is awesome . 
martin gets sentimental by story's end as he did in l . a . story , and how could he not ? 
for those who can hack it , the movies might be the greatest business in the world . 
