at one time `buddy cop movies ruled the box office. it seemed that every summer flocks of beverly hills cop wannabes descended on our nation theaters. not any more. lately the gusher has dried to barely a trickle. the drought has eased a bit recently with the release of showtime and a movie that is a genuinely funny and consistently entertaining example of the genre. mitch preston is a dedicated cop. he not a dirty harry type by any means. he just incredibly focused professional who completely intolerant of anything that gets in the way of the performance of his dutieslike and say and a t. v. cameraman. mitch deals with the cameraman in a socially irresponsible way and so falls into the clutches of chase renzi and a producer looking for a killer hook for her `reality t. v. cop show. she thinks that mitch will give her the `edgy boost it needs to be a hit but feels he may be too unlikable to carry the whole show by himself. enter trey sellars and a patrolman cum actor who watched way too many police story re runs. of course mitch and trey mix like oil and water and much merry mayhem ensues. we know that mitch and trey are bound to become best buddies by the end of the movie. that the way buddy cop movies are suppose to work. in fact and it has to be said that showtime rarely deviates from the time honored clichés as writ by lethal weapon and tango and cash. there a high tech mcguffin to get the ball rolling (in this case an automatic rifle that fires rounds big enough to stop tanks. ) there a slick foreign baddy with an accent of undetermined origin. there are chases and shootouts and explosions. we all know this going in and we have a pretty fair idea how it all going to turn out. you know what. there nothing wrong with that. yes and we know the well worn bases are going to be touched but the fun here is the trip and not the destination. showtime doesn not strain to be original. instead its energies are funneled into its characters and humorous situations. as a result and showtime does a competent job with the action sequences but really shines in its comedy. robert de niro is dryly funny as mitch. in the past i have thought de niro to be a cold and unexpressive actor given horribly to mugging when called upon to do comedy. lately and though and he grown on me. he seems to be injecting more humanity into his roles. eddie murphy is hilarious as trey. the best way to describe his performance is that trey is what murphy would be if murphy weren not so talented and hadn not hit the big time. rene russo has a droll time playing motor mouthed show biz shark chase renzi. she stalks through the movie chasing high nielson ratings with awe inspiring determination. in her zeal she re vamps mitch life to make it more camera friendly. she even calls upon t. j. hooker himself and william shatner and to show mitch how be a more `authentic cop. shatner is funny and playing himself precisely as we expect him to be and loud and oblivious and slightly obnoxious. i have to admit i was really looking forward to showtime and i wasn not disappointed. ten years ago this movie would have been a guaranteed hit. today it doing moderate business at best. that a pity because showtime is a whole lot of fun. 
at one time `buddy cop movies ruled the box office. it seemed that every summer flocks of beverly hills cop wannabes descended on our nation theaters. not any more. lately the gusher has dried to barely a trickle. the drought has eased a bit recently with the release of showtime and a movie that is a genuinely funny and consistently entertaining example of the genre. mitch preston is a dedicated cop. he not a dirty harry type by any means. he just incredibly focused professional who completely intolerant of anything that gets in the way of the performance of his dutieslike and say and a t. v. cameraman. mitch deals with the cameraman in a socially irresponsible way and so falls into the clutches of chase renzi and a producer looking for a killer hook for her `reality t. v. cop show. she thinks that mitch will give her the `edgy boost it needs to be a hit but feels he may be too unlikable to carry the whole show by himself. enter trey sellars and a patrolman cum actor who watched way too many police story re runs. of course mitch and trey mix like oil and water and much merry mayhem ensues. we know that mitch and trey are bound to become best buddies by the end of the movie. that the way buddy cop movies are suppose to work. in fact and it has to be said that showtime rarely deviates from the time honored clichés as writ by lethal weapon and tango and cash. there a high tech mcguffin to get the ball rolling (in this case an automatic rifle that fires rounds big enough to stop tanks. ) there a slick foreign baddy with an accent of undetermined origin. there are chases and shootouts and explosions. we all know this going in and we have a pretty fair idea how it all going to turn out. you know what. there nothing wrong with that. yes and we know the well worn bases are going to be touched but the fun here is the trip and not the destination. showtime doesn not strain to be original. instead its energies are funneled into its characters and humorous situations. as a result and showtime does a competent job with the action sequences but really shines in its comedy. robert de niro is dryly funny as mitch. in the past i have thought de niro to be a cold and unexpressive actor given horribly to mugging when called upon to do comedy. lately and though and he grown on me. he seems to be injecting more humanity into his roles. eddie murphy is hilarious as trey. the best way to describe his performance is that trey is what murphy would be if murphy weren not so talented and hadn not hit the big time. rene russo has a droll time playing motor mouthed show biz shark chase renzi. she stalks through the movie chasing high nielson ratings with awe inspiring determination. in her zeal she re vamps mitch life to make it more camera friendly. she even calls upon t. j. hooker himself and william shatner and to show mitch how be a more `authentic cop. shatner is funny and playing himself precisely as we expect him to be and loud and oblivious and slightly obnoxious. i have to admit i was really looking forward to showtime and i wasn not disappointed. ten years ago this movie would have been a guaranteed hit. today it doing moderate business at best. that a pity because showtime is a whole lot of fun. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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