Review of Bowfinger

Introduction

I love a good comedy, there is no better tonic than a damn good laugh. When I heard that Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy were in a comedy film together it sounded great. I mean it coudln`t possibly fail to make me laugh . . . could it?

Video

The image quality on this disc is very sharp and clear. Everything is as bright as you would expect from a new movie shot primarily in the daylight hours. To be honest it gets harder and harder to fault the image quality on allot of the new releases, simply put the picture is as good as you would expect it to be.

Audio

What’s this, Dolby Digital and DTS on the same disc with a full set off extras? Oh yes indeed. Yes a DTS soundtrack is a bit wasted on a movie that revolves around pure dialogue but what sound there is sounds good. The DTS soundtrack did sound slightly more dynamic than the Dolby Digital one but the difference is so minimal it is maybe more of a personal preference. I personally think DTS is great and would always buy a DTS disc over a Dolby Digital one however Dolby Digital is still pretty damn fine :).

The audio has to get full marks as they have included DTS at no extra charge.

Features

Quite a few extras on this one. Here’s the list :- Spotlight on Location, Feature Commentary with director Frank Oz, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Theatrical Trailer, Universal Showcase, Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers profile, DVD-ROM Features. My favourites are always outtakes/deleted scenes and commentaries but I thought expected more deleted scenes/outtakes to be honest. I didn’t find the outtakes that amusing overall as well.

Anyway, lots of extras to pad out the disc and worth looking at overall.

Conclusion

As with any disc it really isn’t worth getting if the film is total toilet. Luckily this is a good movie, not a great movie but a good one nonetheless.

Steve Martin plays Bobby Bowfinger, an out of luck movie producer who plans to get the current action star of the moment, Kitt Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), to star in his latest movie. The only problem is that there is no way on earth that Kitt Ramsey would star in his movie so a clever plan is hatched to get him to unwittingly star in the movie by recreating the key scenes around him in real life. I am amazed that someone hasn’t actually tried this idea in real life, it is one of those ideas that is just silly enough for someone in America to have tried out already.

Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy are back doing what they each do best, making people laugh. There are a few standout scenes, such as Steve Martin on his mobile phone in a restaurant, that will have you in stitches and the closing 10 minutes had me close to tears. The rest of the cast are only really there to fill in the gaps and the only really noteworthy supporting cast member is Heather Graham, and that’s only because she is a major babe!

So, why is this simply a good film and not a great one? Well there aren’t enough hilarious moments to be honest. When there are funny moments they are great but there needs to be more. Also the whole premise of the movie is just a little silly, well not so much silly but the movie they actually try to shoot is just total trash from the start. A little bit over the top to laugh at possibly?

So overall a great DVD and a good film. I would have liked more belly laughs but the last 10 minutes is a classic piece of cinema.