Hollywood Homicide Starring Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett Directed by Ron Shelton Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations and language 1/4 out of Stars, Movie Grade: D

Theatrical Release: June 13, 2003
Running time: 111 minutes

by Kevin Lang

It wouldn't surprise me if moviegoers came out of "Hollywood Homicide" during the movie to make sure that they weren't watching this week's other new release, "Dumb & Dumberer." The movie, starring Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett, was a ridiculous attempt at an action-comedy that nearly failed on almost every cinematic level. The plot lacked any sort of flow, the humor wasn't funny, and the characters, who grew more tiresome to watch with every scene, seemed to be enjoying the film far more than the audience possibly could.

The filmmakers spent so much time focusing on the annoyingly dull lives of the movie's two main characters, Joe Gavilain (Harrison Ford) and K.C. Calden (Josh Hartnett), that they forgot to take the time to develop any sort of enjoyable story. In fact, the story was almost non-existent until the end when we finally learned why the members of an up-and-coming hip-hop group had been slain.

The time in between was spent watching Joe and K.C. try to conduct an investigation while worrying about their other ventures. This included Joe's real estate dealings and K.C.'s yoga instructing, which he did to meet women. Joe delivered forgettable lines like "You dog you," to K.C., while Joe himself was sleeping with a local radio host played by Lena Olin. This relationship was ultimately meaningless, as was Olin's role in the story. I realize that detectives don't always live interesting lives outside of police work, so why crowd a movie with such distractions, especially when they had no significance and provided far to little humor.

"Hollywood Homicide" felt like a botched recipe for filmmaking, as if screenwriters Robert Souza and Ron Shelton threw splashes of humor, sex, and action into a virtually nonexistent story that couldn't support any of those elements, let alone itself. The only redeemable aspect of "Hollywood Homicide" was the acting, which wasn't nearly as disappointing as the film, but nonetheless wasn't enough to save it. Both Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett are worthy of better roles. Why they would accept such a script left me wondering. Then I remembered, in Hollywood, money often makes the deals, not the actors.

"Hollywood Homicide" Review written June 13, 2003, CTF.

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