OxfordPress.com

Grade: B-

Verdict: Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro make a buddy-cop dream team. Who'da thunk it?

Details: Starring Eddie Murphy, Robert De Niro and Rene Russo. Directed by Tom Dey. 1 hour, 32 minutes.

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Review: In the beginning, there were Nick and Eddie in "48HRS." They begat Eddie and Judge in "Beverly Hills Cop." Thence sprang Mel and Danny in "Lethal Weapon." And so it went, even unto the days of Jackie and Chris in "Rush Hour."

I'm leaving out a few begats, but that's basically the lineage of "Showtime," a crowd-pleasing action-comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro.

De Niro plays Mitch, a hard-bitten detective with 28 years on the force. Mitch is introduced telling some elementary school kids that, unlike movie cops, he's never had to choose between the red wire and the blue wire or jump from one rooftop to the next.

Murphy is Trey, a showboating rookie with showbiz aspirations. We see him at an audition, but he doesn't do very well. "Don't give up the day job,'' the casting director whispers cattily to her assistant. ''Unless it's acting."

When Mitch's truculent treatment of a news cameraman makes him front-page news, TV producer Chase Renzi (Rene Russo) sees an opportunity. This modern-day Dirty Harry will star in a reality cop show for her. If he says no, the network will sue the LAPD for assault.

But every maverick cop needs a partner, especially in prime time. Say, "a funny minority type to bring in the urban audience," brainstorms Chase. Trey's been ready for his close-up for years. Thus a buddy-cop show is born, though you'd hardly call these guys buddies.

"Showtime" dutifully goes through the expected ropes while, at the same time, making fun of them. At one point, Chase brings Trey to Mitch's home for some forced bonding. It doesn't work. But she does get to check out her star's early "All in the Family" decor. "A buddy cop should live in a visually exciting place," she says with a frown.

William Shatner turns up as himself, doing his usual ego-ridden shtick. But it is funny when he instructs the guys in "T.J. Hooker" 101. (A few of his tips: When you go through a door, duck and roll. When you're asked a question that's out of line, arch an eyebrow.)

Where "Showtime" shoots itself in the foot is in its blatant dishonesty. After making lots of jokes about the typical overinflated, gratuitously violent cop movie, the picture opts for overinflation and gratuitous violence. Not only are the car chases and explosions well up to mindless-Hollywood code, but you've never seen so many expensive ways to kill people (a collapsing house, for one). Director Tom Dey (who gave us the genial "Shanghai Noon") wants his audience to feel superior to those dumb people who are taken in by all those greedy Hollywood types. Then he proceeds to dumb down his movie, as if someone on staff suddenly realized that dumb people pay the same ticket price as smart people.

Still, most audiences, dumb, smart or in between, probably won't spend their time worrying about the thematic inconsistences of "Showtime." This movie understands exactly how much we'd like to hang out with De Niro and Murphy. And it is fun even when they're lending themselves to some pretty demeaning platitudes. Plus there's Russo, always a good sign on any cast list. She's stuck doing the poorly written movie cliché of a superficial TV producer, but she does it awfully well. Trying to "get real" with Mitch, her decidedly recalcitrant star, she hunkers down at his favorite diner and tells him, "Not only do I understand your reticence, I appreciate it."

"Showtime" stinks of high-concept glibness — hey, let's put on the ultimate buddy-cop show! And its overall sloppiness isn't exactly respectful of its audience. That said, it does manage to not get in the leads' way. De Niro and Murphy have an easygoing professionalism and appreciation of each other's star persona that gets the movie over most of its rough spots.

Early in the game, Murphy does his camera-friendly thing and throws his partner a patented buddy-movie line: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Sighs De Niro, "I seriously doubt it."

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, (none)