Showtime (2002)

A spoof of buddy cop movies where two very different cops are forced to team up on a new reality based television cop show, while tracking down the manufacturer and distributor of an illegally made semi-automatic firearm.

Director:

Tom Dey

Writers:

Jorge Saralegui (story), Keith Sharon (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Det. Mitch Preston
Rachael Harris	...	Teacher (as Rachel Harris)
Eddie Murphy	...	Officer Trey Sellars
Zaid Farid	...	Police Captain Ben
Alex Borstein	...	Casting Director
Holly Mandel	...	Producer
Marshall Manesh	...	Convenience Store Owner
Nestor Serrano	...	Ray
T.J. Cross	...	ReRun (as TJ Cross)
Yasiin Bey	...	Lazy Boy (as Mos Def)
James Roday	...	'Showtime' Cameraman
Joel Hurt Jones	...	Reporter #1
Chris Harrison	...	Reporter #2
Perri Peltz	...	Reporter #3
Amy Powell	...	Reporter #4

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

chase | police | lapd | buddy cop | drugs | 

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Taglines:

Lights. Camera. Aggravation.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for action violence, language and some drug content

Details

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 March 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Flics en direct

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$85,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,011,430, 17 March 2002, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$38,082,712

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$77,741,732

Company Credits

Production Co:

Material, NPV Entertainment, Overbrook Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite the movie's title, premium cable broadcast rights to the movie were originally not owned by Showtime, but by HBO, under the same ownership as Warner Bros., the movie's distributor, as HBO has an output deal with them.

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Goofs

(at around 52 mins) There is a photo of the gun marked as "booked evidence" but they don't know what the guns look like yet, all they have are shell casings.

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Quotes

Trey Sellars: You can mime words too
[mouths the words]
Trey Sellars: Fuck you

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Crazy Credits

After all the credits, there are some 'confessional' scenes with Murphy's character, talking about DeNiro's.

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Connections

Featured in HBO First Look: The Making of 'Showtime' (2002)

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Soundtracks

Lie Till I Die
(2002)
Written by Shaggy (as D. Burrell), Rik Rok (as R. Ducent) and Christopher Birch (as C. Birch)
Produced by Shaggy and Christopher Birch
Performed by Marsha Morrison
Courtesy of Big Yard/MCA Records

User Reviews

A TYPICAL EDDIE MURPHY SPOOF

I went to see this movie not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised by the teaming of Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy. It was a fast paced movie and the hour and a half went by fast. This one certainly won't win any Academy Awards but it was a change of pace for Mr. De Niro. He is good in comedy. Overall I enjoyed it.