Showtime 2002

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: It's definitely a hate-yourself-in- the-morning glut. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: [P]artnering Murphy with Robert De Niro for the TV-cops comedy Showtime would seem to be surefire casting. The catch is that they're stuck with a script that prevents them from firing on all cylinders. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: So how many exes and children does Robert De Niro have to support, anyway? It's one of the things you could think about while enduring the abysmal Showtime ... Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: [N]o matter how much good will the actors generate, Showtime eventually folds under its own thinness. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This has the feel of something that was written by committee and it's all been done before. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: [U]neven but frequently engaging comedy ... Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Showtime's starry cast could be both an asset and a detriment. Those who trek to the 'plex predisposed to like it probably will enjoy themselves. But ticket-buyers with great expectations will wind up as glum as Mr. De Niro. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: The thinness of the conception gives the actors so little room to maneuver that they turn in uniformly one-note performances. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A small fortune in salaries and stunt cars might have been saved if the director, Tom Dey, had spliced together bits and pieces of Midnight Run and 48 Hours (and, for that matter, Shrek). Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Everyone involved should be arrested. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This movie understands exactly how much we'd like to hang out with De Niro and Murphy. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Showtime is a fine-looking film with a bouncy score and a clutch of lively songs for deft punctuation. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Without a heavy dose of self-reflexive irony, the film's ample use of cliches don't come across as clever -- they're just cliches. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: It's getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that Hollywood isn't laughing with us, folks. It's laughing at us. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: It's really yet another anemic and formulaic Lethal Weapon-derived buddy-cop movie, trying to pass off its lack of imagination as hip knowingness. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: ... a lead-balloon caper ... Read more

Ray Conlogue, Globe and Mail: ... most of Showtime is a layering of tired pop-culture tropes by actors who are not especially interested in what they're doing. Read more

Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly: Yet another bootleg copy of the Lethal Weapon franchise. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The film is nothing more than a re-hash of other individual Murphy and De Niro outings. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie's funny in the opening scenes and then forgets why it came to play. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: If anyone ever needed a demonstration of what happens to actors when that ventriloquist known as the screenwriter is missing in action, this is it. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: You know you've entered flat dramatic terrain when William Shatner towers over it. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: ... Showtime isn't much of a show at all. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: 90 punitive minutes of eardrum-dicing gunplay, screeching-metal smashups, and flaccid odd-couple sniping. Read more