Showtime (2002, DVD)

Masochism: abnormal condition where pleasure is derived from pain and humiliation.

Showtime: abnormal condition where no pleasure is derived from this self-inflicted pain and humiliation.

I stood outside the cinema looking at the signs which in brazened neon blared a variety of unknown film names starring the unheard of masses when all of a sudden I saw 'Robert De Niro'. Dudes!! It's Bob!! Can't go wrong really there, even if it's not a great film, it'll still be bearable, right?? So into the cinema I ran, grabbing a ticket along the way, and settled in for an enjoyable cop-blow-'em-up fest, that's when I saw Eddie Murphy and new that I was destined to cringe in that little hole in the corner of the seat for the rest of the movie, and I was right.

For a would be comedy this thing was lame, with Eddie Murphy playing, yet again, his ridiculous role as the minority side-kick, and De Niro tragically stereotyped in practically the same role as he played in both 'Meet the Parents', and to a lesser extent 'The Score', the movie didn't really stand a chance from the opening credits.

De Niro plays a hard-bitten detective, who in shooting a television station's camera, has been grabbed by the short and curlies and forced into being followed around by a crew of cameramen from that self-same station. The general premise is that whilst he tries to keep going in his official job, he is landed with Eddie Murphy as a partner cum sidekick. The outcome is of course general mayhem, and lots of terrible one liners, the script left so much to be desired in fact that the movie relied heavily on explosions and slapstick to cover its all-round lack of witty witticisms. So the two of them get followed around for the rest of the film, one trying to do his job, the other trying to be an actor, and both hating each other. It is a situation reminiscent of the first Lethal Weapon. This nostalgia of course gives us the warm fuzzy feeling on our insides that the loose cannon, Eddie Murphy will redeem himself to his partner by the end of the film. It is also reminiscent of the third installment in the Lethal Weapon franchise in that they are hunting down illegal arms for most of the movie, which of course gives us the warm fuzzy feeling on our insides that they will get the bad guy after being taken 'off the case'. The real thing missing here is originality.

Aside from the script is the bare bones of the thing though, we're talking a plot that relies on so many pre-suppositions that it barely has a leg to stand on. For example Eddie Murphy (Trey) obtains information from an inmate in an interview without his lawyer, and the inmate doesn't recognise him from this 'hit TV show', possibly because of the lack of television in modern jails, but I'm not certain on that one. For a movie which so often states 'policing isn't what you see on buddy-cop shows', they sure explore every cliche in the buddy-cop genre. Two police officers get in a bar brawl with the main suspect, they have a high speed chase down-town and blow up half the town, it does everything it tries to make itself out to be a anti-theses of. The simple fact that a policeman on the case is 'ordered' to be followed around by a camera crew just seems a little cretinistic if you ask me.

It simply doesn't work. The movie is a tragic mess of slapstick, would be satire, and rehashed plot, which predictably comes together in perfection in the end. The case is solved, the 'partners' now get along like great buddy-cops and they get a standing ovation when they enter the office. Now we just have to wait for Lethal Weapon 2...oh, sorry, I meant, Showtime 2.