Review by Anne Garber

Just a few minutes into this movie, my companion whispered to me: "Is this a comedy?" "No…'action'," I whispered back. I should have reserved my judgement, as Hollywood Homicide turned out to favour Keystone Kops over Boys in Blue. And interesting that the two trailers that preceded the screening were for Bad Boys II (Martin Lawrence & Will Smith), and S.W.A.T. (Samuel L. Jackson & Colin Farrell) -- the distributors must have thought they had second-guessed the audience pretty well.

But, Whoa, Nelly! What have we here? Audience members muttering disgruntled comments after a Harrison Ford movie? Okay, okay, the dialogue was pretty lame at times (I even heard the word "lame" whispered a little too loudly near me at points in the movie), and Harrison Ford does better at "dry wit" than "snappy repartee." Also, John Hartnett, well, he's awfully, awfully cute, but painful to watch as he rehearses from a so-far-off-Broadway-it's-almost-in-the-Pacific-Ocean version of Streetcar Named Desire.

Let me back up a bit and give you the set-up: Harrison Ford plays a thrice-divorced homicide detective named Joe Gavilan, who fills out his pay-cheque (and barely keeps up his alimony payments) by trying to sell high-end real estate on the side. This joke wears plenty thin, plenty soon.

Josh Hartnett plays Gavilan's studly young detective partner, K.C. Calden (they've only been partners for four months), whose heart is not really in the policing game, so he meditates, eats sprouts and teaches yoga classes, while secretly wishing to become a "serious" actor. With me so far?

Okay, well on the plus side, this movie does have a lot of gratuitous violence (of the spurting blood and guck on the floor type), random gunplay, some super car chases (but you know, sometimes enough is enough), and more cool cameos that you can shake a stick at. In fact -- with the illogical exception of Calista Flockhart (who must have been taping in New York or something), almost every actor who happened to be in Hollywood and not working on another project that day, seems to have turned up in this effort. Here comes a mini-spoiler, but not really, as I've noticed that Lou Diamond Phillips -- who is not only credited on the IMDB, but is also seen in publicity stills available from the studio -- does not appear in the movie in the role depicted (for instance) in the picture shown here, at left.

Personally, I found it distressing to see Harrison Ford -- of whom I've often said I would find it enjoyable to watch him sleep, if the role called for it -- huffing and puffing his way through the action of running down streets, dashing up stairs and down stairwells, propelling himself over rooftop obstacles and diving into cars. And to see him astride a kid's bike, well again, perhaps he's trying to show Calista what a good sport he is, or that he isn't really too old for her (though too big for her would be more of a concern; she's such a twig-woman).

It isn't that the action isn't there, and there's a fairly good premise behind this film. But the dialogue just doesn't ring true, and there is really no sense of connection between any of the main characters. They rumble around in cars, swing through doorways, stomp around police stations and trade orders for burgers, and you never feel they have moved beyond simply reading lines and hitting their marks.

On another note, this movie has one of the best sets of opening credit images I've seen in recent years -- every version of the word "Hollywood," in neon, road signs, truck painting, billboards, you name it. I thought it was wonderful, but it caused my "date" for the evening to whisper to me: "I get it, already. This wasn't filmed in Vancouver!" Well, I liked it!

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