Hollywood Homicide

reviewed by Dave

The last time Harrison Ford teemed up with a young pretty-boy actor to make a cop movie the disastrous results were collectively called The Devil's Own. That said, I didn't go into Hollywood Homicide with too many expectations, and, because of that, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised.

Hollywood Homicide tells the story of veteran cop Joe Gavilan (Ford) and his young partner K.C. Calden (Josh Hartnett). They've just been assigned to a difficult case involving the murder of an up-and-coming rap group. In the midst of this, they both have outside careers going - Gavilan is a real estate agent and Calden is a yoga instructor. How these two, particularly Gavilan, balance these jobs with their police work becomes a running joke throughout, and sometimes the main focus of, the movie.

But there's even more going on: Gavilan has a love interest that he seems to be becoming more seriously involved with, and Calden is second-guessing his own career as a cop. Seems his dad was a cop and died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

If that seems like a lot to resolve in just two hours, it is. Hollywood Homicide tries to be a buddy movie, a cop drama, a cop comedy, a romantic comedy, and an action movie. While it actually succeeds to varying degrees at being all these things, all the jumping around makes the film as a whole quite disjointed.

In addition to being a mishmash of styles, Hollywood Homicide feels like a mishmash of ratings. This isn't usually something I talk much about because I usually can figure out why a movie is rated the way it is. But Hollywood Homicide feels like an R-rated movie that was given just the right number of cuts to qualify it for a PG-13 movie (the rating which, coincidentally, grosses the most money and gets Hartnett's teenage fan club in the door). Its violence and language push the limits of what is allowable in a PG-13 movie, which is something parents should consider.

So despite all of these problems, why am I giving the film a semi-positive review? In places it's actually a little funny. This is Ford's most comedic role yet, and he pulls it off. Hartnett, who I think is about as talented as Ben Affleck, manages to not offend me with his mediocrity. I wouldn't say he's good, but he's actually sort of not bad. That constitutes real growth there for Josh. Good for him.

At its best, the writing for Hollywood Homicide is funny and smart. This is the angle that should have been played up for the previews, but I suppose moviegoers may have been put off by the action and violence of the last reel if they thought they were seeing a straight comedy.

Hollywood Homicide is far from perfect, but it isn't dreadful. If you like Harrison Ford, the movie is worth checking out. If you like Josh Hartnett, you've probably already seen it 15 times.