Rating- * * (2/5)
This movie is a good example of how the Hollywood idiots can turn a satire movie into the very thing it was satirizing. Showtime stars the recently slumping Robert DeNiro (what happened, Bobby?) and Eddie Murphy, who in my opinion can be a very funny guy but is so often held back by his material. DeNiro plays a veteran cop who likes his job and takes a very no-nonsense approach to crime fighting. Murphy plays a rookie cop who moonlights as an actor and is really only interested in his police work because of the drama and excitement of it all. When a major drug bust led by DeNiro is suddenly foiled by Murphy and a news helicopter he brought with him, DeNiro becomes furious and shoots a television camera on live TV. The incident puts him in a situation where he must do a reality show for the network or risk being sued for shooting the camera. DeNiro, of course hates the idea but his apprehension for it grows when Murphy is chosen to be his partner on the show. The movie then enters into a kind of parody of the reality show and harshly satirizes the stereotypes of the “buddy show” where two unlikely partners work together. However, just as quickly as the movie satirizes the buddy show idea, it becomes it as DeNiro and Murphy work through their differences to hunt down a foreign gangster with a massively powerful gun. The action sequences involving said gun are rather exciting but were probably an afterthought by the Hollywood producers after they deemed the script “too boring for their target audience.” I suspect that the original story idea carried on more thoroughly with the satirical tone and was probably a smarter, funnier script. Of course, it wasn’t violent or sexy enough for the target audience so they had to thrown in some explosions and Renee Russo, who plays the producer of the reality show, to add a little sexual chemistry to the mix. All in all, I’ve seen much worse movies than Showtime but I didn’t find it original enough or funny enough to recommend to you the people. On a side note, I would like to say that I am personally concerned about the career of the great Robert DeNiro, due to his recent strand of substandard screwball comedies like Analyze This, Meet the Parents, and the upcoming Analyze That (please feel free to shake your head in disgust). I know that there comes a time in every actor’s career when he feels like branching out and trying new things and Bobby D. clearly still has the ability to pull off good roles, as shown recently in Frank Oz’s The Score, but I am beginning to wonder if this is the same man we saw in Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Part II and Goodfellas. Mr. DeNiro, if you’re reading this, please come back to us. Call this an intervention. I expect to see you in at least three good roles by 2004 or I will be forced to not like you anymore.