HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE
A Revolution Studios & Columbia Pictures Release

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: Joe Gavilan (Ford) is a tenacious veteran detective on the L.A. police force who remains at the top of his field, even though his personal life is falling apart. K.C. Calden (Hartnett), his partner, is a more contemporary law enforcement officer. Gavilan spends his free time dealing in real estate, while his partner spends his teaching yoga and studying to be an actor. Their latest case is a gangland-style murder of a promising rap group. They were gunned down in a popular Hollywood night club while performing. Gavilan and Calden¹s investigation uncovers some interesting facts that place the team under the incriminating eye of internal affairs. The heat is on, and they have 24 hours to solve their case or turn in their badges.

REVIEW: Harrison Ford must have owed somebody an extremely big favor to end up as the lead star in this turkey. To say it is formulaic, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. To say it is predictable, again, is not a bad thing. Now add into the mess, a talented cast  directed so there is no screen chemistry, and a plot that is unrealistic and all over the place, and the end result is a film that you just don¹t care about regardless of the fact that it simply isn¹t entertaining.

Come on, what¹s not to like about Harrison Ford? He¹s played Indiana Jones and Han Solo for goodness sake. He¹s made some mediocre films, but nothing compares to just how simply awful HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE is. There were times I was embarrassed for him. There are scenes, like where he commandeers a kid¹s bicycle, that are supposed to be funny but, I felt, where humiliating. On the other hand, his co-star, Hartnett, ends up jumping into a car with a mother and her children in it. The frightened boy asks his mother, ³Are we going to die?² In the middle of this major chase, Calden goes into this monologue about how we are all going to die some day. Boy, did I fail to see the humor in it.

And speaking of Josh Hartnett, I think he is one of Hollywood¹s brightest, young rising stars. Hartnett was perfect in ³Halloween H20,² funny in ³40 Days, 40 Nights,² and enjoyable in ³The Faculty.² The kid is a natural, yet someone got him to do this bad Keanu Reeves shtick in this film that is horrendous.
So here you have these talented actors separately doing their own thing, and I just didn¹t care about them, the murders, the other great stars in this film, or anything other than when this film was going to end. Before I saw the film, I was willing to overlook the fact that Hartnett looks too young for the part, much less the fact that his character would even have made detective already.

Director Ron Shelton, who gave us the classic ³Bull Durham,² just does everything wrong. The casting doesn¹t gel, there are several major editing glitches, and the script is a complete mess of little vignettes that he tries to hold together by connecting them with this murder investigation. There are other ludicrous subplots that, I guess, are supposed to create additional tension and drama, but are ineffective and dumb. And it seems a sad state of affairs when our ³heroes² are incapable of figuring out their own case or uncovering that single clue that makes everything fall into place. Instead, they have to be brought up to speed by Gladys Knight¹s character. The film¹s big ³money² sequence, the climactic chase sequence, is an unbalanced mixture of comedy and drama that seems to drag on endlessly.

In a season filled with so many genuine blockbusters, Ronn Shelton¹s HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE is a big dud. In fact, both the director and the screenwriter should be sent to summer film school for the failing grades on this project.

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/hollywoodhomicide

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