Showtime (2002)

Average rating

(59%)

Starring:	Robert De Niro \| Eddie Murphy
Director:	Tom Dey
Studio:	WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time:	91 mins
Genres:	Action/Adventure
Languages:	English
Dubbed:	French, Italian
Hearing-impaired:	English, Italian
Subtitles:	Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish
Released:	October 21, 2002
Also available on:

SHOWTIME deftly combines clever satire and explosive action, taking the buddy cop movie in a new direction. Robert De Niro stars as Mitch Preston, a no-nonsense detective who makes headlines when he shoots the television camera right out of the hands of a meddlesome photographer during a bust. The department is sued for millions, but a slick producer (Rene Russo) drops the suit to force Mitch to star on the network's new reality series. Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy), a struggling actor and incompetent patrolman, bamboozles his way into a plum role as Mitch's partner. Mitch is a better cop, but Trey knows a lot more about how to be a TV star. He even comes up with the show's catchphrase: "It's SHOWTIME!" In the film's funniest setpiece, William Shatner is brought in to teach Mitch and Trey how to master important TV cop procedures, like jumping on the hood of a car. Things get more serious as the celebrity cops track down a crazed criminal armed with a powerful new weapon. Director Tom Dey (SHANGHAI NOON) keeps things moving, and laces the action with reflexive humor. Murphy is in fine comic form, and has terrific chemistry with De Niro.

Screenshots

Rating of 2 stars out of 5

The pairing of Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy probably looked rather better on paper than it proves to be on screen in this so-so action comedy. The two leads mix and match their contrasting styles fairly well: De Niro is typically tough and taciturn as a serious undercover cop while Murphy's motor-mouthed persona suits his ambitious patrolman with thespian aspirations. The comedy kicks in when the chalk-and-cheese duo are teamed up by a TV producer (an underused Rene Russo) for a new reality cop show — an action subplot, involving the hunt for an illegal supergun, serves simply to bridge the funny bits — and William Shatner contributes a spot-on cameo, coaching the screen debutants on how to be TV policemen. Overall, this is an adequate popcorn movie.

Highest rated reviews

6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Showtime - somewhere else please

Nick Russell from Surrey, UK, 21st March, 2006

With Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy I had hopes, but it looked better on paper than it does as an end result. I couldn’t really fault De Niro or Murphy’s performance in what they had to work with, but what they had was not a lot. De Niro’s character was a bit flat, we all know how good De Niro can be, but he had very little to work with on this one. Murphy was mildly funny, perhaps with intention, so as not to re run Beverly Hills Cop. This comedy ?, with chalk-and-cheese cops, are teamed up to make a real cop show for TV producer (Rene Russo), who does her job well, but the part could have been filled out far more to capture her ability. Basically the duo are searching for an illegal gun and it’s maker, which they finally succeed in doing, with much action and destruction. William Shatner pops in to coach them into how to be a TV cop, having been T J Hooker on TV himself. Mildly amusing in parts, lack of any capturing story, not one any of the actors would be proud of, I’m sure.

Read all highest rated reviews