Although probably
best known for a series of gritty, authentic sports flicks often laced with
considerable quantities of irony and humor — White Men Can’t Jump, Bull
Durham, Tin Cup, Cobb, Play It to the Bone — Ron Shelton has also worked in some of the
popular action genres. Most recently, in fact, he directed Dark Blue, a violent cop movie starring Kurt Russell, which fared
poorly with both reviewers and audiences. His latest film, Hollywood Homicide, strangely, is another cop movie, and perhaps
more strangely, resembles the previous work, occasionally substituting some
comical actions and characters for the blood and brutality of its predecessor.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In Hollywood Homicide all the tired ingredients of what has become an
entirely too familiar formula combine, resulting in a picture that seems almost
completely secondhand in every way. The movie features the usual odd couple of
cops, one the grizzled veteran, the other a handsome, idealistic youngster.
Harrison Ford plays Joe Gavilan, survivor of a dozen shootouts and a couple of
marriages, who has moonlighted in a number of assorted jobs and currently sells
real estate on the side. Josh Hartnett plays K.C. Calden, who teaches Yoga on
his time off and dreams of leaving the force for the equally difficult and
perhaps even bloodier profession of acting.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Along with the hackneyed situation,
the script adds a few more complications borrowed from a dozen other films,
including Shelton’s own Dark Blue.
Throughout the movie, Gavilan contends with an investigation conducted by a
relentless Internal Affairs officer with a grudge against him. Through
propinquity and his own family history, his partner also becomes a target. The
difficult professional problems naturally impede their own pursuit of a
dangerous and puzzling case, the killing of a rap group in a Hollywood HipHop
nightclub.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Even with the constant problems of
the internal affairs surveillance and harassment, along with the detectives’
picturesque personal lives, the central investigation barely sustains the plot.
The picture must continually alternate and occasionally combine its comic
moments with its more serious business, then introduce additional material to
flesh out its slender, fragile skeleton. Gavilan, for example, spends much of
his time and energy attempting to close a couple of real-estate deals,
including the sale of a movie producer’s palatial digs to a rap musician, while
his artsy partner engages the attentions of a succession of beautiful women who
admire his Yoga “centering” and apparently appreciate his skills at Tantric
sex.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Other odd and generally irrelevant
stuff clogs up the plot, including Gavilan’s relationship with a radio psychic
named Ruby (Lena Olin), the former girlfriend of his tormentor in Internal
Affairs, and his employment of a Hollywood madam (Lolita Davidovich) as an
informant. For some inexplicable reason, Lou Diamond Phillips turns up for a
few minutes as an undercover cop impersonating a streetwalker. His brief,
meaningless appearance suggests some ingredient that never developed in what
amounts to a very messy pudding of a movie.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Hollywood
Homicide, unsurprisingly, also features in its climactic sequence the now
obligatory cop-flick automobile chase through crowded city streets. The chase
naturally includes several different vehicles, a number of crashes, the
exchange of numerous bullets, and a conclusion that solves most of the
detectives’ (if not the movie’s) problems. Since the motion picture industry
has established Hollywood as America’s dream capital, a city in which all of us
dwell and certainly pay taxes, the landmarks that the cars whiz by recall
hundreds, perhaps even thousands of other movies, so it seems perfectly normal
that the chase should end near Graumann’s Chinese Theater, with a half a dozen
TV news helicopters hovering in the air, underlining the location of the title.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Harrison Ford’s homely-handsome
face, with its touch of puzzled goofiness, assists him as much in comedy as in
his more violent and virile action roles. Further, he generally moves with the
absolute ease and confidence that marks the established American male film
star. If not their equal, he can at least rank somewhere in the league of such
unaffected, easygoing actors as Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper. In contrast,
Josh Hartnett seems rather weak and pretty and, though younger and taller than
Ford, possesses a good deal less appeal and casts a much smaller shadow.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The tediously repetitive and
ultimately silly plot otherwise overwhelms just about everybody and everything
else in the movie, which exhibits a generally spectacular lack of imagination
throughout. Ron Shelton has displayed considerable talent in the past, but his
last two movies, cop flicks both, suggest a resigned dependence on tired
formulas. Perhaps he ought to return to the locker room and the playing field,
arenas where his skill and experience shine and the conflicts and characters
make their own clear, strong sense.
Hollywood Homicide, starring Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Lena Olin, Bruce
Greenwood, Isaiah Washington, Lolita Davidovich, Martin Landau, Keith David,
Dwight Yoakam, Master P., Gladys Knight, Lou Diamond Phillips, Meredith Scott
Lynn; written by Robert Souza and Ron Shelton; directed by Ron Shelton.
Cinemark Tinseltown; Hoyts Greece Ridge; Loews Webster; Pittsford Plaza Cinema;
Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Eastview; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2003.
