History Film / Bowfinger

* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: "I know you want to show it to the Laker Girls, but you can never show it to the Laker Girls."

* BondOneLiner: InUniverse from a rejected screenplay where Kit's character would've said "I enjoyed meeting you, Cliff." right before pushing the BigBad off a cliff.

* TakeThat: Heather Graham's character is basically a hyper-condensed tale of Anne Heche (who Steve Martin briefly dated)'s rise to "fame" (by hooking up with famous people), culminating in her being in a relationship with a "powerful Hollywood lesbian" (hint hint Ellen Degeneres).

** Kit Ramsey goes through a script and found the letter K appearing 1456 times, which he says is perfectly divisible by 3. 1456 isn't perfectly divisible by 3. [[invoked]][[FridgeBrilliance Perhaps it's Kit who sucks at math.]] [[BlatantLies Or he just made it up.]]

* JustAStupidAccent: Daisy's character has a bizarre pseudo-European accent for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, it makes it very hard to understand one of her funniest [[invoked]]{{Narm}}y lines: "One slip-up in your tough, crime-filled world and you could die!".

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure:

-->'''Bowfinger:'''What difference does it make what he says? It's an action movie. All he's gotta do is run. He runs away from the aliens, he runs toward the aliens. He runs away from the aliens, he runs...

* NoBudget: Also in-universe. "Movies cost millions of dollars you say? That's after [[UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting gross net deduction profit percentage deferment ten percent of the nut]]. Cash, every movie costs $2,184". [[spoiler:[[RealityEnsues Turns out no it doesn't, Bowfinger goes broke during production, so he has to steal Daisy's credit card to finance the rest of the film]].]]

* JustAStupidAccent: Daisy's character has a bizarre pseudo-European accent for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, it makes it very hard to understand one of her funniest [[invoked]]{{Narm}}y lines: "One slip-up in your tough, crime-filled world and you could die!"

* OnlySaneMan: Dave, Bowfinger's cameraman and closest confidant, is the only one of Bowfinger's crew who knows they are following Kit. While he goes along with it, he frequently remarks on the more realistic circumstances of Bowfinger's delusions. [[spoiler:Subverted when he sleeps with Daisy, and clues her in on Bowfinger's scheme.)

* BadBadActing: Daisy's spastic, over-the-top performance; the bribed cop nearly forgetting his lines ''mid-take'', Carol constantly ChewingTheScenery, and pretty much everyone on camera save for Kit Ramsey [[invoked]][[EnforcedMethodActing since he's not really acting]].

** In a downplayed version, Bowfinger claims he began saving a dollar every week from the time he was ten years old, and now at age 49, he has a stash of $2,184. If Bowfinger had been saving since he was 10, he'd have $2,028. Of course, it's always possible that Bowfinger just added a little extra more when he could. Also, $2,184 divides perfectly into 42 -- maybe Bowfinger began saving when he was 7 or 8 and misremembered it.

* BadBadActing: Daisy's spastic, over-the-top performance; the bribed cop nearly forgetting his lines mid-take, Carol constantly ChewingTheScenery and pretty much everyone on camera save for maybe Kit Ramsey.

* BondOneLiner: "I enjoyed meeting you, Cliff."

** [[spoiler:Kit's obsessive need to flash the Laker Girls becomes relevant at the end of the film in a big (and [[TeenyWeenie not so big]] way.]]

* JiveTurkey: Bowfinger attempting to sound cool by describing a script as "butter" and "jiggy baby."

* TheReveal[=/=]TheUntwist: [[spoiler:Jiff later reveals he's Kit's twin brother.]]

* TroubledProduction: In-universe and practically Played for Laughs. The entire premise of the movie.

* WimpFight[=/=]FightSceneFailure: A spectacular, [[StylisticSuck intentional]] [[InUniverse case]] in the end's [[ShowWithinAShow movie-within-a-movie]] ''Fake Purse Ninjas''.

** Kit Ramsey goes through a script and found the letter K appearing 1456 times, which he says is perfectly divisible by 3. 1456 isn't perfectly divisible by 3. [[FridgeBrilliance Perhaps it's Kit who sucks at math.]] [[BlatantLies Or he just made it up.]]

* JustAStupidAccent: Daisy's character has a bizarre pseudo-European accent for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, it makes it very hard to understand one of her funniest {{Narm}}y lines: "One slip-up in your tough, crime-filled world and you could die!"

* StylisticSuck: According to WordOfGod, this is why ''Chubby Rain'' was a hit. Judging from the footage we see, it's believable -- the plot is sci-fi schlock, the acting is cheesy, the special effects are lame, and the dialogue is clunky and full of exposition.

Directed by Frank Oz (''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels''), ''Bowfinger'' (1999) stars Creator/SteveMartin as Bobby Bowfinger, Creator/EddieMurphy as Kit Ramsey and Kit's "stunt double" Jiff, Creator/HeatherGraham as Daisy, an ambitious ingenue, Creator/TerenceStamp as the leader of a ChurchOfHappyology cult, and Creator/RobertDowneyJr as a Universal executive. A pre-stardom Creator/JohnCho has a small part.

* YourCheatingHeart: Bowfinger tries to break up with Daisy because she had sex with Jiff. She simply responds, "So?" -- and he realizes he doesn't care and is happy to have more meaningless sex with her.

* {{Adorkable}} / BlackAndNerdy: Jiff.

** [[spoiler:Kit's obsessive need to flash the Laker Girls becomes relevant at the end of the film in a big way.]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Daisy starts out as TheIngenue, literally right off the bus. Soon she begins a ruthless campaign to sleep her way to the top, starting with [[WritersSuck the writer]] and coming to the post-première party with "Hollywood's most powerful lesbian". The film crew are a bunch of illegal Mexican immigrants who start out barely knowing one end of the camera from the other, but they're soon bandying about technical terms and influential movies and end as successful film-making professionals. Bowfinger develops a measure of success and self-knowledge.