Showtime

I think everything that is bad about Showtime can be seen in this poster. It is one of those mismatched buddy cop comedies, and the look on the actors' faces reflect what they were probably thinking--my career has come to this?

However, Showtime is not completely terrible. Directed by Tom Dey, I did finds parts of it amusing, notably a cameo by William Shatner (which could probably help any movie) as himself, and another by the now deceased Johnnie Cochran, gamely spoofing himself. Otherwise, this film is a lost cause.

The premise, which apparently was borrowed from a Clint Eastwood film, Dead Pool, has tough detective Robert De Niro shooting a TV camera in a pique of anger. He is forced to get on board with a reality show. He is partnered with showboating patrolman Eddie Murphy, who wants to be an actor. Murphy will show De Niro about show business, while De Niro will show Murphy how to be a detective. In the meantime they will try to catch someone who is using a new kind of gun that can destroy a house.

The film was released in 2002, not a good time for either actor. If this was 1985, it would have been a great pairing, but both had lost most of their star appeal by this time (De Niro has gotten some of it back, Murphy, despite Dreamgirls, has not). Murphy was nominated for a Razzie for his performance, but I did think he showed some of his old flair, especially when he pretends to be a TV producer to get a convict to give up information. De Niro is just killing time, and the slow burns that his character is supposed to be giving just seem like he's thinking about when he gets to go on to his next bad movie.

The film attempts to make a statement about how real police work is nothing like it is on TV, and then does the exact opposite by having unrealistic car chases, fights, and a rooftop swimming pool collapsing. In what could have been a biting parody of reality TV, it just shrugs and says "fuck it."

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