Taglines: Lights. Camera. Aggravation.
LAPD Detective Sergeant Mitch Preston cares only about doing his job and nailing crooks. LAPD Patrol Officer Trey Sellars joined the force as a day job until his acting career took off. During an undercover drug buy Mitch was working that Trey botched by calling in for backup and drawing media attention, Mitch’s partner is shot with a very exotic 12-gauge automatic weapon; Mitch then shoots the video camera out of the hands of a reporter filming the action when the cameraman refused to shut it down.
Faced with a $10 million lawsuit, the department agrees to let producer Chase Renzi film Mitch’s investigation for a new reality TV show, and constantly tries to make everything more “viewer friendly” by changing everything about Mitch’s life to fit the stereotypical view of police officers–and partners him with Trey.
Showtime is a 2002 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Tom Dey. The film stars Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy in the lead roles alongside Rene Russo, William Shatner, Pedro Damian and De Niro’s real life adopted daughter Drena De Niro. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 2002.
About the Story
The film centers on two LAPD cops, Det. Mitch Preston (Robert De Niro) and Officer Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy), who are paired for a reality police show and run into real trouble with a crime lord. Mitch breaks a news camera after a failed confrontation with a drug lord, who escapes by using a custom-built gun. Maxxis Television, the network that employed the cameraman, decides to sue the police department for $10 million, but will drop the lawsuit if Mitch agrees to star in a reality cop television show, which Trey later calls Showtime!.
Trey enters the picture shortly after, as an LAPD officer who actually wants to be an actor while also trying to become a detective. He pays a friend to snatch the purse of the show’s producer, Chase Renzi (Rene Russo), and then retrieves it after a staged fight scene. Even though the deception is embarrassingly revealed, Chase is impressed and signs Trey on anyway.
It is quickly revealed that the show’s producers have little interest in filming an actual police officer’s existence; they build a mini-movie set in the middle of the station, and replace Mitch’s nondescript personal car with a Humvee. They also hire William Shatner (who once played T. J. Hooker) to give both men tips on how to act. Trey is eager to learn, Mitch is merely annoyed.
Despite all this, Mitch tries to investigate the mysterious supergun, which is subsequently used by arms dealer Caesar Vargas to kill the drug dealer and his girlfriend. Through a clever ruse by Trey, they are able to get the arms dealer’s name from the dead dealer’s henchman. However, Vargas is less than cooperative, which causes a brawl at his nightclub. Trey and Mitch are able to defeat him and his henchmen, and subsequently have a relatively friendly conversation on their way home. Mitch’s good humor evaporates when he finds that, in his absence, the Showtime producers have drastically remodeled his house and given him a retired K-9 dog as a pet.
Vargas and his crew assault an armored car and kill the crew, then devastate the police who respond. Trey and Mitch arrive and are pulled into the shootout. When the attackers flee in a garbage truck, Mitch gives chase in a police car. In the ensuing mayhem, the car is rammed by the garbage truck, which winds up crashing into a construction site. Mitch, ironically, survives by jumping from the police car to Trey’s sports car (he had previously denounced “hood-jumping” as a useless skill). In the wake of the disaster, the police chief pulls the plug on the show, suspends Mitch from duty and demotes Trey back to patrol.
Showtime (2002)
Directed by: Tom Dey
Starring: Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Ken Hudson Campbell, Rene Russo, William Shatner, Mel Rodriguez, Alex Borstein, James Roday, Marshall Manesh, James Roday
Screenplay by: Jorge Saralegui, Keith Sharon
Production Design by: Jeff Mann
Cinematography by: Jeff Mann
Film Editing by: Billy Weber
Costume Design by: Christopher Lawrence
Set Decoration by: Tessa Posnansky
Art Direction by: Geoff Hubbard
Makeup Department: Rena Andreoli, Cheryl Nick
Music by: Alan Silvestri
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence, language and some drug content.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: March 15, 2002
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