BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1999	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Frank Oz (Director)
Running Time	92:54 minutes	Other Extras	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Spotlight On Location (23:27) Deleted Scenes (2) Outtakes (7) Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies DVD-ROM Extras
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (50:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Frank Oz
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar	Starring	Steve Martin Eddie Murphy Heather Graham Christine Baranski Terence Stamp
Case	Brackley
RRP	$39.95	Music	David Newman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes (only in the extras)
Subtitles	English Portuguese French Arabic	Annoying Product Placement	Yes, moderately
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, audio at the end of the credits

    One day, Bobby is reading a script penned by his accountant, Afrim (Adam Alexi-Malle), and decides that this is it - this is the movie that he is going to make, come hell or high water - Chubby Rain. He wheedles his way into a sort-of meeting with Jerry Renfro (Robert Downey, Jr.), a successful producer, who in a fit of insanity, gives him the go-ahead to make the movie, subject to Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) playing the lead role, Kit Ramsey being the current hottest action star in Hollywood. Once again through desperate measures, Bobby Bowfinger gets the script into Kit's hands, but is rejected outright. Undaunted, Bobby determines to make the picture starring Kit Ramsey regardless, and has his motley crew come up to Kit Ramsey in the street and say their lines to him whilst being filmed secretively. This actually works quite well, since Kit is paranoid about aliens and Bowfinger's movie is about exactly this topic.

    Bowfinger works quite well as a gentle, self-effacing comedy about desperate, but ever-positive people who just want to make movies. It never had me rolling in the aisles, but I certainly was amused by it and enjoyed it. There are some great character parts, such as Carol (Christine Baransky) as the has-been theatrical actress, Daisy (Heather Graham) as the ever-ambitious girl from Ohio, and Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp) as Kit's guru.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was extremely sharp and clear at all times, with enormous amounts of detail on offer at all times in the image. Shadow detail was impeccable, particularly so when you consider that this movie is not often brightly-lit. There was no low-level noise.

    The colours were strongly rendered, but never to the point of oversaturation. Indoor scenes in particular were very strongly coloured. Outdoor scenes were vibrant and colourful.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing was not an issue for this transfer other than the odd trivial occasion here and there which will pass you by without being noticed. Film artefacts were generally absent from the transfer except for two bursts - one during the opening credits and one towards the end of the movie. This was the only negative aspect of this entire transfer, and are predominantly the reason why this transfer has been denied reference quality status.

    This DVD is an RSDL disc with the layer change occurring during Chapter 12, at 50:43. There is a significant pause at this point which is quite noticeable.
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five audio tracks on this DVD; English, French, Italian, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks and an English Audio Commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded. I listened to both the default English 5.1 soundtrack and to the English Audio Commentary track.

    The dialogue was usually easy to understand, although some of Eddie Murphy's dialogue was a tad problematic at times. There was significant hiss in his dialogue during the underground car-park scene, and some of his dialogue was distorted. There were no audio sync problems.

    The score by David Newman left no impression on me whatsoever, so either it did its job remarkably well, or it didn't.

    The surround channels were generally silent until the climactic scenes of the movie when they sprung into life, with the sounds of helicopters being spread around the entire soundfield. Prior to this, some music ended up in the rears, but it was basically a front hemispheric sound mix, not that there is anything necessarily wrong with this approach given the subject matter of this movie.

    The subwoofer was more-or-less silent until the aforementioned climactic scenes when it lent support to them.
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu (16x9 enhanced)

Featurette - Spotlight On Location

Audio Commentary

Deleted Scenes (2)

Outtakes (7)

Theatrical Trailer

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

DVD-ROM Extras

• English DTS 5.1 soundtrack

    The video quality falls just short of reference quality.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    The extras are superb.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (my bio)
20th May 2000