Showtime (2002) Critic Reviews

Plays every convention twice, once as parody and once by the book, but the movie, trying to be two things at once, fails at both.Read the full review

A buddy cop movie that pretends to spoof buddy cop movies along with reality TV shows, Showtime is so lazy and artless that … that … it saps my will to come up with a good quip: Witless in itself, it is the source of witlessness in others.Read the full review

So pleased with its own spoofy conceit it stays in annoyingly self-amused, predictable mode.Read the full review

The moment Showtime begins to take itself even remotely seriously, it loses whatever edge it might have had -- and that occurs less than 15 minutes into the proceedings. The best time for Showtime is no time.Read the full review

What the movie lacks in coherence it makes up for in zest, well-founded self-delight and a sharpshooter's eye for the absurdities of reality TV.Read the full review

From frame one Showtime displays an ingenuity, cleverness and briskness that never flags.Read the full review

A disgrace to the talents of Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy, but it's not enough just to say that. It's also a disgrace to the talents of Rene Russo and whoever drove the coffee truck to the set every day.Read the full review

De Niro's scowl and Murphy's sass are inherently funny, though in this case both actors are forced to call in moviegoers' long-established goodwill.Read the full review

De Niro seems to be reacting to nothing so much as the lame movie he's stuck in.Read the full review