- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
80From frame one Showtime displays an ingenuity, cleverness and briskness that never flags.
-
75It's getting hard not to think of De Niro as anything but a dead-pan comedian.
-
70What 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.
-
70It's hard not to warm to a film that features William Shatner (playing himself) looking at De Niro's character and complaining about what a lousy actor he is.
-
63Would seem to be surefire casting. The catch is that they're stuck with a script that prevents them from firing on all cylinders.
-
63Humorous but much too predictable send-up of reality TV and the sheer banality of it all.
-
60Chalk up another big-name star vehicle that fails to live up to a wealth of potential.
-
50The movie's funny in the opening scenes and then forgets why it came to play.
-
50A lame buddy-cop movie that squanders stars De Niro and Eddie Murphy as it races from one cliche to the next, blithely unconcerned with whether anything parses.
-
50It's a wretchedly dumb, lazy and incoherent movie that's magically rendered watchable by Eddie Murphy's charm and Robert De Niro's presence.
-
50De 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.
-
50The 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.
-
50By refusing to take anything seriously (including himself), Shatner lifts the movie to a truly funny level of absurdity. Soon, though, it goes back to being the type of buddy picture Hollywood stamps out like stale cookies.
-
50Its breeziness keeps it from ever being completely bland or flat.
-
50So pleased with its own spoofy conceit it stays in annoyingly self-amused, predictable mode.
-
40Showtime is better than the fourth "Lethal Weapon," which was pretty bad, but not as good as the original "Lethal Weapon" or the superior "48HRS."
-
38No matter how much good will the actors generate, Showtime eventually folds under its own thinness.
-
38A flat-out cynical attempt to launch a new Lethal Weapon-like franchise.
-
30This one makes De Niro's recent film "15 Minutes" look like "Network." Even worse, aside from a few scenes with Shatner, it just isn't funny.
-
30Isn't particularly assaultive, but it can still make you feel that you never want to see another car chase, explosion or gunfight again.
-
30Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro have made any number of lame movies on their own, but there's a special wastefulness connected to their first co-starring vehicle, Showtime: It's lameness times two, and then some.
-
30De Niro and Murphy are visibly uncomfortable with each other. Their improvisation seems chaotic and mismanaged, and the movie follows in kind.
-
30Plays every convention twice, once as parody and once by the book, but the movie, trying to be two things at once, fails at both.
-
30A shrill, strained and shallow riff on a tired idea.
-
25A criminal waste of talent.
-
25Muddled screenwriting and uninspired directing.
-
25A 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.
-
It is, from beginning to end, a paint-by-numbers movie. There's a mildly entertaining climax, but most of Showtime is a layering of tired pop-culture tropes by actors who are not especially interested in what they're doing.
-
25De Niro seems to be reacting to nothing so much as the lame movie he's stuck in.
-
20The collective charisma of Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Rene Russo is the only reason to slap down eight bucks for this limp action/comedy, but then, it's difficult not to want to avert your eyes out of embarrassment for the trio.
-
20Add Showtime to the pile of Hollywood dreck that represents nothing more than the art of the deal.
-
20There's so little urgency to the plot that one eventually feels not even the actors and filmmakers believe for a second in what's going on.
-
10Should come with a disclaimer.
-
10A 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.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 2 out of 5
-
Mixed: 1 out of 5
-
Negative: 2 out of 5
-
TDizzle10this movie was hilarious, good stuff! Robert DeNiro's attitude is hilarious, and Eddie Murphy
-
4