Showtime (2002)

“What are you gonna do, wrap me up in caution tape, Top Cop?” – Mitch Preston

Number of Times Seen – Twice (22 Sep 2002 and 29 Jul 2019)

Brief Synopsis – A tough detective is forcibly paired with a street cop who is also an aspiring actor on a reality based TV show while they are trying to stop a criminal who is making a new and dangerous kind of weapon.

My Take on it – This is a film that looks like it might have a lot of potential due to the fact that it stars both Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy.

Unfortunately that assumption is dead wrong.

This film was terrible and I’m actually shocked that they both signed on for it for any reason besides as a cash grab.

The film fails on so many levels which makes it such a waste to watch.

The two actors have no chemistry together and that hurts the fact that this suppose to be a buddy-buddy cop movie.

The characters are actually created in a very annoying manner and it’s hard to care about (or even like) either of them.

This film spends far too much time on the Reality TV aspects and largely ignores the police procedural parts which would probably make things even more interesting to watch.

This movie is inundated with cliches and nothing feels original at all and instead seems to rehash the plots of so many other movies.

The jokes in this film aren’t funny at all and the best parts of this film are when De Niro shows off his dramatic acting persona, but even that is not done enough to help make this film enjoyable in any way, shape or form.

Bottom Line – Terrible movie that doesn’t work on so many levels. Murphy and De Niro have no chemistry together what so ever and that hurts the way this kind of buddy buddy cop film should be. The characters are all quite annoying and they spend too much time dealing with the Reality TV aspect of things than the police procedural part which would be much more interesting to watch. The story is filled with so many cliches that nothing really feels original at all. The jokes fail to be funny and the best part of this movie is when De Niro shows his dramatic persona which unfortunately doesn’t occur enough along the way.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – There was a scene that was filmed, but cut out to better explain how Mitch could take on Trey as his new partner. In the beginning the film, Mitch goes on an undercover sting with another cop. That was Mitch’s partner. He was wounded during the shootout with Lazy Boy. In a scene that followed, Mitch is visiting his partner in the hospital who is in recovery and contemplating retirement. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)