Showtime

When I saw Eddie Murphy as De Niro's co-star, I thought this movie was going to be awful. I was pleasently surprised. When Eddie Murphy does not produce, director or write his own material, he can be funny. Robert De Niro does comedy very well along with his action and drama movies. William Shatner does a cameo appearance. He has put on the weight. Rent this one, it is rather funny. 7/10

About the best thing that can be said for `Showtime' – a throwaway cop buddy comedy starring Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy – is that it demonstrates that an inferior script can be at least partially overcome by first-rate performances.

You can't go too wrong when you have acting talent of this caliber working for you. De Niro and Murphy portray two LAPD officers who are recruited to be the central `characters' for a new `Cops'-type reality TV show, wherein a camera crew will follow the two on their appointed rounds as they chase suspects, round up criminals and, all in all, make the streets of LA safe for the common, decent citizens who reside therein. De Niro's Mitch Preston is a reluctant participant in the series, while Murphy's Trey Sellars is a wannabe actor with stars in his eyes who sees this as his golden opportunity to make it big in show business.

The initial problem with `Showtime' is that it feels more like a `high concept' exercise than an actual movie. Despite the fact that there are a number of funny moments in the film, too many of the scenes fall flat both as comedy and as action drama. The saving grace is that De Niro's understated cynicism provides an effective counterpoint to Murphy's over-the-top enthusiasm, resulting in just enough comic tension to wring laughs out of even the weakest of material. It is a joy to watch these two pros at work and they are nicely complemented by Rene Russo as the driven TV producer whose brainchild serves as the excuse for the story. William Shatner, playing himself, also generates some laughs, often at his own good-natured expense.

Yet the film itself is a failure. One of the prime dictums of the screenplay is to try to show the discrepancy between police work as it is portrayed on the screen and police work as it really is. In fact, the film opens with veteran De Niro instructing a class of elementary school children about the mundane realities of life on the job. Yet, the film betrays its own theme by itself indulging in all the inane shoot-em-up and car chase scenes it is supposed to be satirizing (the scenes are not exploited for comic effect, which might have lent some much needed satirical bite to the proceedings). Even worse, the `serious' side of the story, involving drug deals and gun running, fails to generate any interest or suspense.

Oh well. De Niro and Murphy are such likable comic actors that the movie, for all its many weaknesses, manages to whiz by without inflicting too much boredom and pain. `Showtime' is a completely forgettable and innocuous little time waster, but fans of these particular actors will at least appreciate their efforts.

This was a pretty good modern-day comedy with straight man Robert De Niro doing a good job with comedy and Eddie Murphy just playing his normal whacked-out character. You get a good combination of humor and action in here. It had the normal cliché the ending, the kind you can see coming a mile away, but it's okay; it didn't hurt the film.

William Shatner was very entertaining in a supporting role and I think that was De Niro's real-life daughter playing Rene Russo's TV sidekick in the movie.

A decent cop-buddy film that isn't memorable an entertaining way to kill an hour-and-a-half.

Honestly, I've never understood the hate for this movie. Is it the best buddy cop or action comedy movie? Obviously not. Have both Eddie Murphy and Robert DeNiro made better movies? Of course. Does that mean this movie sucks? Not in my opinion.

Most of the people who watched this probably came for three reasons:

1. They liked either one, or both, of the two main stars.

2. They like buddy/buddy cop action comedy films.

3. They came because of both of the first two reasons.

Now, as I said, obviously it's not the best movie, but it was originally intended as a satire, or at least as a little jab, at the 'buddy cop' genre, so naturally it's not going to take itself incredibly seriously. Some have made the case that the film ends up becoming the kind of movie it's supposed to be making fun of, and while that's true, it still ends up being enjoyable.

Critiques:

If you like the loud, potty-mouthed, confident, hilarious, charismatic Eddie Murphy from the 48 HRS or Beverly Hills Cop movies, you will get a little of that, but not as much as you're probably hoping for. Now, obviously, Eddie will have some funny scenes just because he's Eddie Murphy, but he is still limited by the script, and it doesn't seem like he ever is able to really cut loose or be himself, and some of his lines can feel forced at times.

Now, while I didn't find the main plot to be that bad, it is still not the best, and it's not super-engaging. The plot is that two very different police officers (Eddie Murphy, Robert DeNiro) are approached by a TV studio who are looking to make a hit buddy cop show, and the two are coerced into going along with it as the stars. This does prove for some interesting moments, but it's not enough to carry a movie on.

The other main plot, which one could argue, devolves the movie into becoming just like any other buddy cop movie, is the suave, sophisticated, nefarious, foreign arms dealer who rolls into town selling high-powered weaponry. It's not incredibly interesting, but it serves its purpose, and it does take a back seat to the TV show plot, at least until the third act.

As for comedy, this flick did have some funny moments, but it just didn't seem to really try, and other times, it didn't try at all. Overall, it is funny, but not as funny as a lot of the films that it's trying to be.

Postive Things:

The action, at least what's there, ends up being pretty well-done, at least the large-scale car chase about halfway through, the bar fight, and the final climax. I'm glad that the movie didn't focus solely on action, as the action wasn't the point of the movie, but the action that is there, while fine, did't feel entirely realistic, or just not super engaging, but I did like it.

I did enjoy the disagreeable chemistry between the leads, and I definitely think that Eddie Murphy saved this movie, even if he wasn't at the top of his game.

Director Tom Dey hasn't done much, but he does have "Shanghai Noon" as one of his credits, which is honestly a much more enjoyable film. I'd definitely recommend that one over this film.

Overall, I did like it, but it didn't need a sequel, and I'm glad one never came. 6/10.

SHOWTIME(2002) (3/5stars)

Starring ROBERT DE NIRO EDDIE MURPHY RENE RUSSO And WILLIAM SHATNER

In the new cop-buddy film Showtime, Robert De Niro plays Mitch Preston, a tough NYC cop, who in the opening credits distinctly points out that being a cop is nothing like the movies portray with their clichés . Eddie Murphy plays Trey Sellers, a cop who dreams of acting in films. After Mitch shoots out a TV camera at a crime scene, a network executive (Rene Russo) decides that they will sue the police department, unless Mitch agrees to be part of their new reality based cop show. When Mitch is forced to become part of the show, he ends up getting Trey Sellers as a partner. Trey is nothing like Mitch. Trey is goofy, doesn't follow standard police procedures, and doesn't take his police work seriously. Mitch is the exact opposite. So here comes the average cop-buddy film, right? Two opposites, forced to work together, who in the end patch everything up and become best friends? Not exactly.

What makes Showtime different from the rest of the cop-buddy films in the genre, is that the whole situation is different, and is not exactly what you'd expect. Never before has a cop-buddy movie had the officers followed around with a camera. So with this in mind, this movie might be great, right? Again, not exactly.

The problem with Showtime is, it could have been so much better. The camera really could've gotten some funny stuff. But in this film, instead of focusing more on the fact that they're constantly being filmed, most of the film we don't see the camera man following them. We see them at home, or talking about things, doing things. We never see the camera man with them. The film focuses more on what it's like to be followed by a camera, instead of WITH a camera. What I mean by this, is that we are shown footage of how Mitch and Trey react AFTER filming. It's like a celebrity bio. We see them behind the camera, their ordinary lives, and how they cope with paparazzi and spotlight. However, in Showtime, that's not what we want to see. We want to see the camera chasing them the whole way through the movie. We want to see Mitch and Trey react on the spot, dealing with the camera THERE and THEN, not later. It would be so much more of a fun movie, if we could just see Mitch and Trey, the whole time being followed on the street, getting into funny situations instead of what Showtime gives us-a look at how Mitch and Trey deal with it after their work day is over, and the cameras stop rolling. I'll admit, this happened a few times in the film, but it should've been more. The director really missed out on a funny movie here, by not portraying it the right way, and not taking it in the right direction.

We find the plot in this film, to not really be taken seriously at all. No one really cares. At one point, Mitch and Trey get a big lead, and the camera doesn't show them react at all to it. They just go off, and we see them joking around driving in the car again.

The acting in Showtime was good, but the chemistry between the characters wasn't all that special. Nothing jumped out at me with DeNiro and Murphy. I've seen much better chemistry between actors. It wasn't horrible chemistry, but it wasn't great, either.

All in all, what Showtime could've been, it isn't. It more or less forgets the cameras are following these cops, and just leads us away from caring about anything going on. Showtime is like a mix between Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills cop, COPS, and Turner and Hootch. It may sound like a weird combo, but it's true. Some of those films/shows are great, but if you combined them the wrong way, with wrong directing style and progression, what would you get? Showtime.

So, do I recommend this film to you? Believe it or not, yes, I do. Because though it wasn't great, and wasn't half of what it could've been, it's still got some funny moments, and Robert DeNiro gives us the ‘ol tough guy cop image like some of his other films, and Eddie Murphy redoes his `Break all the rules/procedures, goof off and triumph!' attitude. So though Showtime isn't great, a one time viewing isn't going to hurt. DeNiro's expressions throughout the movie help a lot. That's why I recommend renting and viewing the film once. 3/5 stars, enjoy!