Sgt. Bilko does Get Shorty, and Bowfinger falls watchably somewhere in between.

Steve Martin is Bobby Bowfinger, a small time director with big dreams and no chance. On the brink of turning fifty years old, Bowfinger is suddenly convinced that the script his accountant has banged out in twelve days is his shot at the big time, but he still needs a star to sell the screenplay to a producer. Enter Kit Ramsey, played by Eddie Murphy, who is one of Hollywood's biggest action stars but won't commit to anything that isn't first approved by his advising organization called "Mind Head." So Bowfinger decides to hide his cameras and have his other actors and actresses walk up and say their lines to Kit, then cuts the reel together with other shots to complete the illusion that Kit is actually in the movie. In a race to the end, no lie is too big and no hustle is too outrageous to stop Bowfinger from finishing his masterpiece.

While the film version of Sgt. Bilko wasn't well received, it wasn't bad, either, and was also a return for Steve Martin to the physical comedy and over-the-top characters which made him famous. But Bilko still relied on the fact that a complete moron was supposedly in charge (supplied by Dan Ackroyd) and pushed the limits of believability too often to work with modern audiences. Bowfinger corrects for that oversight, and a dual role by Eddie Murphy helps make it all work. Relying on luck more often than common sense, the intrepid filmmakers take chance after chance putting themselves and each other at constant risk, stars and crew alike. Everything that happens walks the line of plausibility without crossing it into the impossible, maintaining the illusion that anyone crazy enough to think this stunt up could actually pull it off.

Helping out are better developed characters than a film like this usually attracts, another plus since they are played by above average talent. Heather Graham appears as the wide-eyed starlet who's initial innocence disappears almost as quickly as her clothes. Jamie Kennedy is Martin's inside man that tracks Kit Ramsey and sneaks equipment off studio lots to film with, risking felony theft charges to see his name in the credits of a movie. Terrance Stamp is perfectly cast as the all-business, all-serious leader of Mind Head, a clever jab at the Church of Scientology and it's advertised influence over Hollywood A-list talent. And Eddie Murphy's portrayal of Kit's less charismatic twin brother is so dead on you may forget it's really Eddie Murphy.

Will audiences embrace Steve Martin's triumphant return to comedic sleaze? Can you believe we just compared Eddie Murphy to Danny DeVito? The con is on. 

(3 out of 4)