Line #14 Film/Showtime


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/showtime_movie_eddie_robert_7504.jpg]]
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3	''Showtime'' is a 2002 action comedy film directed by Tom Dey. The central plot involves LAPD Detective Mitch Preston (Creator/RobertDeNiro), a ByTheBookCop, being forced to partner up with Officer Trey Sellars (Creator/EddieMurphy), a patrolman who dreams of being a CowboyCop on TV, on a [[ShowWithinAShow reality TV show]] of the same name. Mitch hates the idea, his partner, and a camera following him. Trey, on the other hand, absolutely loves it all. Much of the film involves Trey trying to act out the typical police tropes and Mitch pointing out why they don't work in RealLife. The show's producer Chase Renzi (Creator/ReneRusso) also hires Creator/WilliamShatner to instruct the duo on how to behave like TV cops thanks to his experience playing Series/TJHooker.
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5	The reluctant partners are investigating a new weapon that has shown up on the streets. They trace it to an arms dealer named Cesar Vargas (Pedro Damián) but are unable to prove his involvement and, instead, bond over a bar fight with Vargas and his men. When Vargas and his people rob an armored car, Mitch ends up in a car chase that gets DaChief to suspend him and take him off the investigation. Trey is busted back to patrol. However, during the airing of the final episode of the show, Mitch notices a weapons expert who helps the investigation in Vargas's club and realizes that he's involved. Mitch and Trey break into the expert's house and find the machineshop where he manufactures Vargas's weapons. With Chase's help, they find and expose Vargas at a gun show at a hotel downtown. Vargas takes Chase hostage and locks himself in a penthouse suite. Using a literal ChekhovsGun (a small hold-out pistol owned by Trey) that Mitch hides in a camera, he shoots Vargas, causing the latter to fall and let loose a burst from his weapon that punctures holes into the pool on the roof. The water rushes in, throws Vargas through the window, and does the same to the partners. Mitch and Trey manage to grab hold of the edge.
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7	In the epilogue, Trey has passed the detective exam and is now officially Mitch's partner. Mitch is now dating Chase, who tells them that they will show up in the Season 2 pilot of the show in order to pass the torch to a pair of female cops who hate each other.
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9	----
10	!!The film provides examples of:
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12	* AmoralAttorney: Johnnie Cochran makes a cameo AsHimself as Lazy Boy's attorney.
13	* AsHimself:
14	** Creator/WilliamShatner is brought in by Chase to instruct Mitch and Trey on how to act as TV cops, thanks to his experience playing Series/TJHooker.
15	** Johnnie Cochran as Lazy Boy's attorney.
16	* BarBrawl: Mitch and Trey start one in Vargas's club when the latter starts mocking them for not being real cops.
17	* BigBad: Cesar Vargas.
18	* ByTheBookCop: Mitch, although he does break rules when necessary (or when he's pissed). His first scene involves him telling a bunch of elementary school kids the realities of police work.
19	* CarHoodSliding: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], Mitch tells Trey that real police officers never do hood slides because their holsters always make a scratch on the hood; cue an OhCrap reaction from Trey when he sees a huge scratch across his new corvette's hood.
20	* ConfessionCam: Mitch and Trey are required to spend 5 minutes each day in a booth recording their personal thoughts. Trey is perfectly willing to use it for its intended purpose. Mitch, on the other hand, is shown either shaving in the booth, reading a newspaper, or making fun of Trey.
21	* CowboyCop: Trey really wants to be one, at least on TV. Mitch occasionally shows glimpses of it, despite trying to be a ByTheBookCop.
22	* DaChief: The captain isn't too bad and even has a soft spot for Mitch, but he does chew Mitch out when he gets involved in a car chase downtown.
23	** He also reveals to have done an episode of ''Series/{{COPS}}'' once.
24	* DamselInDistress: Chase becomes one at the end, when Vargas takes her hostage. Of course, Mitch saves her, and they end up together in the end.
25	* DestinationDefenestration: Justified by all the water from a rooftop pool rushing in and smashing the windows, sweeping Vargas away.
26	* FingertipDrugAnalysis: Creator/WilliamShatner demonstrates how to properly do this on TV, complete with a FascinatingEyebrow. Mitch immediately points out that the powder could just as easily be cyanide. Trey calms Shatner down by telling him it's never cyanide.
27	** Averted earlier in the film when the ''actual'' detectives use a drug testing kit on their undercover drug buy.
28	* HiddenDepths: Mitch practices pottery as an outlet for his anger issues. He's not very good, though.
29	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Mitch is ''very'' good with a gun and knows it. After shooting the TV camera mere inches from the cameraman's head, he points out to DaChief that he hit exactly where he aimed. During the climax, he is able to hit the BigBad with a tiny holdout pistol that he wasn't even properly holding (it was placed instead of a tape in a camera.
30	* PacManFever: Averted, Eddie Murphy is actually playing the game VideoGame/TotalVice, a game so rare that outside this film, took 15 years to actually find footage for.
31	* ShoutOut: To the ''Film/LethalWeapon'' series, among others.
32	--> '''Chase:''' Research tells us that buddy cops live in visually distinctive places. Like a trailer on a beach or a loft downtown, that sort of thing.
33	** Made even better by the fact that Chase is played by Creator/ReneeRusso, aka Lorna Cole.
34	* ThisIsReality: Mitch is constantly tearing down typical Hollywood police tropes.
35	* UnmanlySecret: Mitch does pottery in his spare time. He's pretty bad, despite being at it for years.

Context Film / Showtime