Showtime

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

From frame one Showtime displays an ingenuity, cleverness and briskness that never flags.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's getting hard not to think of De Niro as anything but a dead-pan comedian.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

It'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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

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.

Boston Globe Tom Russo

Would seem to be surefire casting. The catch is that they're stuck with a script that prevents them from firing on all cylinders.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Humorous but much too predictable send-up of reality TV and the sheer banality of it all.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Chalk up another big-name star vehicle that fails to live up to a wealth of potential.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie's funny in the opening scenes and then forgets why it came to play.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A 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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By 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.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It's a wretchedly dumb, lazy and incoherent movie that's magically rendered watchable by Eddie Murphy's charm and Robert De Niro's presence.

USA Today Mike Clark

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Its breeziness keeps it from ever being completely bland or flat.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Showtime is better than the fourth "Lethal Weapon," which was pretty bad, but not as good as the original "Lethal Weapon" or the superior "48HRS."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

No matter how much good will the actors generate, Showtime eventually folds under its own thinness.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A flat-out cynical attempt to launch a new Lethal Weapon-like franchise.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Eddie 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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A shrill, strained and shallow riff on a tired idea.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

De Niro and Murphy are visibly uncomfortable with each other. Their improvisation seems chaotic and mismanaged, and the movie follows in kind.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Isn't particularly assaultive, but it can still make you feel that you never want to see another car chase, explosion or gunfight again.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

This 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.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Muddled screenwriting and uninspired directing.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A criminal waste of talent.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Add Showtime to the pile of Hollywood dreck that represents nothing more than the art of the deal.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The 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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

There'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.

Slate David Edelstein

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.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Should come with a disclaimer.