Review: Just enough laughs in ‘Showtime’

Geoff Carter

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 10:49 a.m.

Showtime

Grade: ** 1/2

Starring: Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, William Shatner and Renee Russo.

Screenplay: Keith Sharon, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.

Director: Tom Dey.

Rated: PG-13 for action violence, language and some drug content.

Running time: 95 minutes.

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"We don't know the first thing about buddy cop shows," frets television producer Chase Renzi (Renee Russo) in "Showtime," the sophomore effort from director Tom Dey ("Shanghai Noon"). Her co-producer, Annie (Drena De Niro), dismisses her fears: "It's a genre. There are rules."

Quite true. In the film's opening scene, Los Angeles detective Mitch Preston (Robert De Niro) rejects them: "I've never had to choose between the blue wire and the red wire ... I've never chased a suspect across rooftops." He has little use for cop-show cliches, which is unfortunate for him: After destroying a TV crew's camera, Preston is forced into doing a "Cops"-style reality show.

De Niro has played enough guys with guns to make a weapon look like it's growing out of his hand, but "Showtime" doesn't make it that easy for him. He's saddled with fame-obsessed patrolman Trey Sellers (Eddie Murphy), and forced to adapt his course demeanor to the camera. It's here that "Showtime" plays an unthinkable trick: Preston can't act. Robert De Niro has to go against years of supreme skill and play a stiff.

That's about the size of "Showtime" (there's a subplot involving stolen guns, but it hardly matters). De Niro and Murphy have a curious chemistry, similar to Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan in "Shanghai Noon." Those characters literally didn't speak the same language, see the same world; De Niro and Murphy play it the same way, except in sparkling English. When they become friends it's pure accident, not design.

And similar to "Shanghai," "Showtime" makes you laugh -- not constantly, to be sure, but it's pretty good about keeping a smile on your face. Murphy plays neurotic like a champ; it's a fitting bookend to his role(s) in "Bowfinger." And De Niro has every bit as much fun as he did in "Meet the Parents" -- the last film in which he successfully sent up his own image.

Neither of them, however, are a match for William Shatner, playing himself. Advising the "actors" how to play television cops, he defends his trademarks: "I entertained millions of viewers all over the world jumping on car hoods." Later, as he pretends to test cocaine on the tip of his tongue, he pulls a who's-your-daddy: "Hooker knows it's cocaine."

To which De Niro smiles slightly, and asks, "What if it's cyanide?"

It's an amusing farce -- not quite up to the standard of the underrated "Shanghai," but it draws a genuine laugh or chuckle every minute or so, and by comedy standards, that's a fair quota. It may not break the rules that govern buddy pictures, but it has a fine time making light of them.