Bowfinger

(Universal)

Frank Oz's film has Steve Martin as loser director Bobby Bowfinger, who tricks big-time action hero Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy), a paranoid egomaniac who's obsessed with flashing the Laker Girls, into starring in his last-chance flick. Kit's scenes are shot without his knowledge, and all the close-ups star Jiff, Kit's painfully dorky look-alike brother (also Murphy). The pairing of Murphy and Martin (who wrote the screenplay) should have elicited gales of laughter, but the humor comes only in puffs.