Guest Author - Lauren Evans

Steve Martin is truly multi-talented. As writer, actor and Grammy award-winning banjo player, he's been making audiences laugh since the 70s. Here's my top 5 Steve Martin movies.

5 - Pink Panther (2006)

Not many men would dare to take on Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, but Steve Martin does it well. The new Pink Panther films are updates, not re-makes of the originals, and they give Steve the opportunity to do what he does best, improvising hilarious slapstick scenes and a terrible French accent. Be warned - you'll want to order une em-bourgorr (that's a hamburger to most folks) for weeks after this!

4 – Bowfinger (1999)

When Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin announced they were teaming up for this late 90s comedy about a film producer, the expectation was that this would be another Nutty Professor disaster, but this heralded a return to form for both stars. A biting satire on celebrity religions, LA and the film industry, Bowfinger is nothing short of brilliant. Christine Baranski and Heather Graham are excellent in the supporting roles.

3 – Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene star in this musical about a shy florist who accidentally nurtures a flesh-eating plant monster from outer space. Steve Martin plays Orin Scrivello DDS, a manic, abusive, nitrous oxide addicted dentist who is also Seymour Krelbourn's (Moranis) love rival. Hilarity, and choreography, ensue in this rock n' roll musical classic.

2 – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Michael Caine and Steve Martin play two rival con artists operating on the French Riviera. When they end up in a town that is too small for both men to comfortably work their scams, they set up a challenge, and agree that the loser will leave town. Caine and Martin play off each other so well in this movie, Caine as the sophisticated, suave English conman and Martin as the uncouth, sex-obsessed American. The scene where Martin plays Caine's bizarre younger brother, who cannot be trusted to eat his food safely without a cork on his fork, is a true classic.

1 – The Man With Two Brains (1983)

Voted the 35th Greatest Comedy Movie of All Time by Total Film readers in 2000, The Man With Two Brains is Steve Martin at his peak. Martin plays a celebrated brain surgeon who has never got over the death of his first wife. Kathleen Turner plays a gold-digging "black widow" who targets him as her next victim. Her infidelities and scheming drive him down into his basement where he falls in true love again, with a sweet and lovely woman who has but one imperfection – she’s a brain in a jar. Steve Martin makes it his mission to find her a body and make her his wife, but he finds that he's just too nice to put anyone to death, so he turns to the one man who may be able to assist him – the renowned Elevator Killer. TMWTB is a truly fantastic comic adventure, which will leave you quoting lines such as "You cooked her nines!" and "Into the mud, scum queen!" for months, if not years!