Great Film: Hollywood Homicide
Harrison Homicide
I've always been a fan of Harrison Ford and odds are I always will be,
regardless of what comes out of his personal life now. Considering how
Hollywood can screw a man up, Harrison still ranks as one of the few to
have
successfully held his head together. That and I usually find something
entertaining his films. It's hard not to be entertained by him in the old
Star Wars films, where he was hilarious as Han Solo, or to root/feel for
him
in the Indiana Jones trilogy and films like "Blade Runner", "Witness", the
Jack Ryan films, "The Fugitive" and "Air Force One".
Thing is, "Witness" marked the turning point of Harrison's career in which
he would mature into the modern day quiet, reluctant hero. Understandably,
after playing this role again and again for about 20 years Ford would
naturally want to go back to playing things a little funnier than he had
previously been allowed. It's a bit of a shame that he picked such a weak
script for a return to comedy. All in all, it's just an excuse to let
Harrison reprise his Han Solo persona as an older man. But in the opinions
of some, his age dried him out, preventing him from being as funny as he
used to be.
This one tries very hard to be both apart OF the mismatched buddy cop
genre
AND to make fun of it. As a result, it never quite realizes it's
potentially
funny premise or even serve as usual time filler.
Ford plays Joe Gavilan, a cop working real estate on the side and Josh
Hartnett is his younger partner KC Calden, who works a yoga class on the
side, sleeps with his customers and is also an aspiring actor. They get
assigned to solve the murder of an up and coming rap group and are
repeatedly dogged by Bruce Greenwood as Ford's nemesis. The cliche of
Josh's
dad being a cop who got killed by way of his partner could have been left
on
the cutting room floor.
Ford and Josh do the young cop/old cop bit as well as anyone else, but
Ford
deserves a better than this, and after "Black Hawk Down" Josh should be
more
picky about his vehicles. The only real comic highlight is when they're
being interrogated and are either mouthing off or playing quiet. This is
the
only gem in an otherwise dull film.
Here's hoping they both make better decisions in the future.
Cast
- Det. K.C. Calden played by Josh Hartnett
- Sgt. Joe Gavilan played by Harrison Ford
- Leon played by Keith David
- Silk Brown (as Andre Benjamin) played by André Benjamin
- Lt. Bennie Macko played by Bruce Greenwood
- K-Ro played by Kurupt
- Ruby played by Lena Olin
