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19 out of 24 people found the following review useful: A fun film, and it even has Robert De Niro, 16 May 2002 Author: Agent10 from Tucson, AZ
I cannot understand why so many people did not like this film. Robert De Niro was on top of his game, delivering his lines with such aplomb, one has to believe this is his everyday demeanor. Granted, the film seemed to take on many buddy-film conventions while trying to make fun of the concept, it goes without saying this film was genuinely funny. From the police dog, to the fact Eddie Murphy didn't annoy the heck out of me, this film is a real keeper. Rene Russo also evened out the rest of the cast perfectly, establishing her role so it does not interfere with the budding relationship between De Niro and Murphy.
10 out of 13 people found the following review useful: A decent show by two well intentioned leads, 15 March 2002 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy star in Showtime as a couple of cops- a quiet, efficient Dirty Harry-like cop and a cop who is deep down an actor, respecively, who are brought together by an accident and forced to take part in a cop-buddy reality TV show for a hungry for ratings producer (Rene Russo). For the first two acts, it delivers a good time in parodying old cop/buddy movie cliches and shows how De Niro and Murphy have some intelligent chemistry in a comedy, but the third act dips by leaving the parody and becoming what it's making fun of. In all, a conventional and surely enjoyable escape on a weekend day. B+
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: All together, kind of bad but hey, pretty funny, 23 March 2005 Author: policy134 from Denmark
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I put down this vehicle from Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy, and Murphy in particular the first time but having seen it again, recently, I can see that it does have some very funny bits.This is by no means to say that this is the greatest buddy comedy of all time, but really what can you do to the already exhausted subgenre? What director, Tom Dey, has tried to do is make it a satire of the clichés of buddy comedy and the media. Early in the movie the executive of a cable network asks: "How is this different from Cops?", when Chase Renzi is pitching the idea of a reality show dealing with De Niro's character, Mitch Preston (hilariously boring name by the way). That's when I saw it in a new light that I hadn't previously noticed.The idea is to show all the elements of the buddy comedy and put a twist on them. De Niro's reluctance to star in the show and to partner up with Murphy is right out of every cop film you can think of. You can say that De Niro is actually playing himself asking: "Why would I do another movie playing a cop?" Chase Renzi is portrayed to be a Hollywood phony but if you look at her opening scene again, she is merely doing it to save her job. She somehow sees the ridiculousness of what she is doing but she wants to succeed despite that. One line says it all: "Who doesn't want to be on TV?" Maybe this is reading too much into what is essentially a lightweight film, merely set to entertain, but it does give it a little spin that I hadn't noticed before.As for Murphy. You got to applaud him for looking this ridiculous. Trey wants to be a star so bad that he is willing to sell out everything he comes in contact with. Murphy was a big star and maybe it struck a nerve that it is all so fleeting.The plot with the gun is of course pretty boring. The action sequences are nothing special, except the end which required a lot of effort both from cast and crew. One thing that I noticed about the villain is that he is dressed like an 80's pop star. George Michael comes to mind and that adds to the whole media spin.So, I trashed it the first time around but what the heck; if you are gonna do this, why not point out how ridiculous it really is and De Niro and Murphy took a big chance doing this.
11 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Funny Movie!, 4 October 2002 Author: Brett Walter (StreepFan126@cs.com) from Santa Clarita, CA
I don't care what some of the reviews said, this movie was funny. The thing with this film is that you can't expect anything else except to be entertained. This is not some intellectual comedy, this is a clever popcorn movie. The three main cast members are great and work very well with each other. Shatner is a standout in the supporting cast as himself, a former TV cop, brought in by Russo's character to coach the cops on how to be "TV cops." Those are by far the funniest scenes. If you want to be entertained and just sit back for a laugh, then watch this movie.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Time to Show Up., 7 August 2003 Author: tfrizzell from United States
Los Angeles detective Robert DeNiro and silly beat cop Eddie Murphy get partnered together in "Showtime", a funny, but honestly mediocre buddy comedy. It is modern-day L.A. and an undercover assignment has gone wrong for DeNiro. Murphy botched the whole thing unwittingly by calling for backup and not knowing that a sting was taking place. DeNiro destroys a camera and a $10 million lawsuit quickly follows. For the department to get out of the lawsuit, they agree to team DeNiro and Murphy up for a reality-based cop show. Rene Russo is the sleazy producer and ham William Shatner plays himself as he directs the odd duo. Murphy naturally has always had dreams of stardom while DeNiro is as serious as a heart attack. Thus their relationship is strained to put it mildly. Soon they end up going after criminal Pedro Damian who seemingly has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal. There is not much thought in "Showtime". It is typical Eddie Murphy fare as it is a production to show off his unique comedic timing. DeNiro has also become a comedy regular the last several years (unfortunately in my opinion) and he too shows an uncanny ability to add humor to his natural edginess. Overall though the movie plays like a long sitcom or an episode of "Saturday Night Live" as everything seems way too scripted. There is no real drama here, just cheap laughs. In the end those minor laughs make "Showtime" viewable, but not memorable. 2.5 out of 5 stars.
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: A new kind of Cop-Buddy film, 14 August 2002 Author: MovieAddict2009 from UK
SHOWTIME(2002) (3/5stars)Starring ROBERT DE NIRO EDDIE MURPHY RENE RUSSO And WILLIAM SHATNERIn 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!
8 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Entertains, But Not Too Memorable, 8 August 2006 Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States
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.
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: A Day Job?, 29 September 2008 Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
Watching Showtime I got the impression that the producers got the idea to put Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy just for the sake of having a film that co-starred the two of them. Other than that I can't think of a reason to justify the film's existence. Not that it isn't amusing in spots, it certainly is, but the concept is so completely ludicrous that the laughs are somewhat muted.The thing that really got me was Eddie Murphy's character. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the concept of someone being a police officer as strictly a day job. When I was working person at New York State Crime Victims Board I had to deal with all kinds of cops and they ran the gamut between the really dedicated and some real slugs, but I can't think of one who thought that this was just something I do until I get my career going in an area far afield. I mean, can you really see Eddie Murphy or anyone else going through the rigors of the real Police Academy, not the screen version, just to get a day job?Anyway DeNiro is your basic hard working detective who's on the trail of a major gun dealer. He's undercover and Murphy is part of his backup. So what does the showboating Murphy do, he calls a reality based TV series like COPS to film the action. So DeNiro's bust gets blown sky high, but the producer of the show gets some good footage of Murphy and DeNiro and decides on a new reality based television series. So these unwilling partners get joined and try to continue working DeNiro's case with all the TV cameras around.Eddie Murphy's a funny guy, I loved him in Beverly Hills Cop and in the Doctor Doolittle movies, but he's done better things than Showtime and Robert DeNiro certainly has. I guess Murphy wanted a chance to work with DeNiro and DeNiro must have gotten one hefty paycheck to do this film.
6 out of 10 people found the following review useful: A TYPICAL EDDIE MURPHY SPOOF, 18 March 2002 Author: iohefy-2 from Charlotte, NC
I went to see this movie not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised by the teaming of Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy. It was a fast paced movie and the hour and a half went by fast. This one certainly won't win any Academy Awards but it was a change of pace for Mr. De Niro. He is good in comedy. Overall I enjoyed it.
6 out of 10 people found the following review useful: The Bob & Eddie Show!, 16 March 2002 Author: MadBadMovieman from Federal Way, WA.
This is a funny movie. The Bob & Eddie Show feel of it could lead to a sequel but I doubt it will make enough money. Deniro proves he can be a great Straight man again with some hilarious and spontaneous moments. Eddie was fun to watch working with people instead of CGI animals and rodents. Rene Russo- well she's just fun to watch anyway and she's played her part excellent.Some wild and unusual stunts, especially the garbage truck scene. This was worth seeing in the theater. We needed a good laugh and got many from the movie and the great out-takes at the end. DO NOT LEAVE at the start of the credits!At least a 7.
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