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Jeff reviews:

Hollywood Homicide

June 13, 2003
2003, 1 hr 55 min., Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations and language. Dir: Ron Shelton. Cast: Harrison Ford (Joe Gavilan), Josh Hartnett (K. C. Calden), Keith David (Lieutenant Fuqua, Lena Olin (Ruby), Bruce Greenwood (Bennie Macko), Isaiah Washington (Sartain), Master P (club owner), Martin Landau (Jerry Duran), Dwight Yoakam, Lolita Davidovich (Cleo).

Time for another Buddy Cop Flick! You loved it in 48 Hours, you enjoyed about half of the Lethal Weapon flicks, laughed at the Rush Hour franchise and look forward to Bad Boys' sequel this summer.

I doubt you've been awaiting the pairing of Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett (what's next, Bruce Willis with Freddie Prinze, Jr.?), but it works fine for the veteran cop/green cop angle of Hollywood Homicide.

When we meet them, they're already partnered, so we don't go through the meet-and-greet phase, but there's plenty to learn about.

Hartnett is the rookie, four months partnered with Ford as a detective, and needs a lot of help in the investigation area, not to mention he's a terrible shot. Perhaps he just needs to get "centered" more, as his Zen-like practices enlighten. He also seeks to be an actor, teaches Yoga and eats sandwiches with wheat, bean sprouts and the like, and sleeps with many woman whose names he can't recall, which I'm sure "assists" with his "bliss."

(Seems that everyone in L.A. wants to be an actor, just as every woman and half the men at the CNN Center want to be anchors.)

Ford is the veteran who listens to Motown (his phone rings "I've got sunshine" every two minutes), eats cheeseburgers, knows everyone on the force and can make things happen with a snap. Multiple times divorced, he (attempts to) sell real estate part time and dates the local radio psychic, played by Lena Olin.

This is one of those movies where three separate storylines just happen to converge in one major case. Lots of convenient memories, tips and meetings. It's one of the sillier bits that attempts to provide background information on our heroes, but really just helps downgrade the movie from "film" to "flick."

The soundtrack is bouncy with Hip Hop, as a rap group is capped. Plenty of "Hey, this is Hollywood!" vibe, with the L.A. style and nutty California citizens and settings.

I give the movie credit for not playing into PC rules. Just as the two hero cops are white, and the rappers shot were largely black with a black music label, PC dictates the ultimate villain should be a sinister rich white man. Nope. The filmmakers allow the baddie to be a black man. Congrats for going against the PC code in a movie that celebrates L.A.'s oddities!

Hollywood Homicide is humorous throughout, slow to reveal but full of character study, has a zany car chase, cutesy misdeeds (love the 'interrogation' scene) and a few colorful cameos to place it directly in L.A. There's not a whole lot of action, and the movie is half about the case, half about Ford and Hartnett.

Is the flick worth your time? For summer entertainment, I think it'll make a killing.

The verdict:

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