Robert De Niro must be going through mid life crisis. Arguably one of the best dramatic actors of his generation, De Niro continues to try to prove himself as a comic actor in a parade of mediocre scripts (The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Meet the Parents, Analyze This, Showtime). De Niro isn't a terrible comedian; he is just such a great dramatic actor that his comic ambitions seem pointless. It is like Michael Jordan trying to play baseball.
This script is a weak satire of reality cop shows and buddy cop flicks. It is no coincidence that the director of this film is Tom Dey, whose only other directorial effort was `Shanghai Noon', a Jackie Chan vehicle where Jackie does a comic duet with Owen Wilson in a lampoon of westerns. The hope was that Dey would be able to weave the same kind of satirical magic here, but this film comes up way short. To his credit, he did manage to give the film some good action footage.
De Niro tries to play the straight man in an absurd situation and it seems like his is the only character that realizes the lunacy of it. Everyone else seems to take their absurdity seriously. The tongue in cheek comedy is way over the top. Rene Russo, William Shattner and Eddie Murphy overact so terribly that it is more sad than funny. As a footnote, Drena De Niro (Robert De Niro's adopted daughter), appears for the fifth time in a film with her dad as Annie, the assistant producer and Rene Russo's sidekick.
The star power in this film was costly with a hefty budget over $85 Million and a box office of half that amount. I rated it a 4/10. This one needs to gather dust on the rental shelves and De Niro needs to get back to serious acting.
This script is a weak satire of reality cop shows and buddy cop flicks. It is no coincidence that the director of this film is Tom Dey, whose only other directorial effort was `Shanghai Noon', a Jackie Chan vehicle where Jackie does a comic duet with Owen Wilson in a lampoon of westerns. The hope was that Dey would be able to weave the same kind of satirical magic here, but this film comes up way short. To his credit, he did manage to give the film some good action footage.
De Niro tries to play the straight man in an absurd situation and it seems like his is the only character that realizes the lunacy of it. Everyone else seems to take their absurdity seriously. The tongue in cheek comedy is way over the top. Rene Russo, William Shattner and Eddie Murphy overact so terribly that it is more sad than funny. As a footnote, Drena De Niro (Robert De Niro's adopted daughter), appears for the fifth time in a film with her dad as Annie, the assistant producer and Rene Russo's sidekick.
The star power in this film was costly with a hefty budget over $85 Million and a box office of half that amount. I rated it a 4/10. This one needs to gather dust on the rental shelves and De Niro needs to get back to serious acting.