Bowfinger needs an A-list actor on board to sell the film to deeply cynical producer Robert Downey Jr. Action star Kit (Eddie Murphy) can't be convinced, but Bowfinger decides to structure the film around filming of Kit without his permission. That is, Kit doesn't know that he is in the next Bowfinger movie.
It turns out that Kit is mildly disturbed, despite counseling from MindThink cult leader Terence Stamp. (MindThink is a blatant parody of Scientology and its influence over leading Hollywood actors such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta). Kit becomes freaked out when the cast of "Chubby Rain" approaches him in the street and delivers eccentric lines. Bowfinger also hires a Kit look-alike, also played by Eddie Murphy, to stand in for distant shots.
A major subplot involves Daisy (Heather Graham), an All About Eve type who hides ruthless ambition behind her ingenue personality. Soon, Daisy has slept with the entire cast and crew except for Carol and the illegal immigrant cinematographers, who learn quickly. Steve Martin, the sole screenwriter, allegedly based Daisy's character on Anne Heche.
How others will see it. Bowfinger was a moderate commercial and critical success. It is funny often enough that no one is likely to be truly disappointed by it. The film is slightly daring in that it suggests leading Hollywood actors are controlled by well organized religious cults, i.e. Scientologists. But Hollywood promptly looked the other way, and will likely continue to do so until it films a biography of Tom Cruise some forty years from now.
How I felt about it. Given the large number of comedies that both Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin have cranked out over the past quarter century, it is surprising that they have made only one film together. This probably has something to do with color: while whites are in black films and vice versa, a film generally caters to either a white or black market.
Bowfinger is for the white market. This is why you have lines, and even a subplot, that ridicules black paranoia. As such, Eddie Murphy is undeniably funny, at least when his spoiled star Kit is compared with his nerdy alter ego Jiff. But the best scene in the film has a terrified Jiff trying to cross eight lanes of the busiest freeway in Los Angeles. The success of this scene has more to do with an obsessive director than racism, although one doubts that Martin would have Heather Graham attempt such a thing. Body doubles are expendable.