Product Details

• Actors: Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Lena Olin, Bruce Greenwood, Isaiah Washington
• Directors: Ron Shelton
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 27, 2004
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000B1OGM
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,668 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Harrison Ford lends his solid, perpetually disgruntled presence to Hollywood Homicide, an action comedy in which he's paired with the squinty eyes and peaches-and-cream complexion of Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down, O). Radical French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard would appreciate this complete deconstruction of the buddy-cop flick genre; basic cinematic elements (mismatched partners, a hard-ass superior riding them, arguments about who's going to drive, arguments about intuition vs. diligent detective work, the bad cop who killed Hartnett's father, etc.) have been scrambled and slapped together with no concern for coherence, making clear their innately artificial nature. Sex scenes and car chases come out of nowhere and disappear without consequence, providing arbitrary visual stimulus. During shootouts, it's impossible to tell who got killed or why, underscoring a basic doubt about the purpose of making movies like Hollywood Homicide. It's rare for a mainstream movie to be so daringly (if perhaps accidentally) avant-garde. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker

Yet another comedy about mismatched cops who learn to love and respect each other. This time, it's a creaky Harrison Ford as the stubbled veteran and a low-wattage Josh Hartnett as the eager rookie. Ron Shelton's script and direction are lacklustre-the agreeable manly banter of some of his previous films is missing. In its place are all of the hallmarks of formula filmmaking: the endless chases, the sophomoric quips, and the myriad urban stereotypes. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT REALLY A COMEDY, BUT A LIGHT-HEARTED ROMP THRU COP LIFE, November 3, 2003

By	Shashank Tripathi (Gadabout) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hollywood Homicide (DVD)

Harrison ford and Josh Hartnett play homicide detectives investigating the quadruple murder of an up-and-coming rap group. Yet, no, don't go in expecting a nailbiting police procedural.

The film is strewn with several cliches but I fail to see why reviewers tend to compare it to "Lethal Weapon" and "Rush Hour." The partners are not mismatched, not constantly annoying each other , and it is filled with interesting characters that make up for the generic storytelling.

Ford's character for instance moonlights as a real-estate agent who, despite not having sold a house in some time, dabbles in the business because being a cop can't pay the bills. Hartnetts character takes yoga lessons, in the process meeting women. This makes even the most generic scenes seem fresh and new.

So, when watching an otherwise predictable car chase, you will find yourself worrying more about the characters reactions than the actual car chase itself. This is a film that relies more on characters than action and eye-candy. You will probably wear a slight grin on your face when Hartnett re-enacts "A Streetcar Named Desire" on the balcony of a Beverly Hills condo, or when Ford closes a real estate deal on his cell phone in the middle of an intense gunfight.

Yes, the story is stale, but the characters are not, and that is probably the point. "Hollywood Homicide" puts itself a step above other cop films by offering characters (or caricatures thereof) that we can actually care for.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Action? Comedy? Chemistry? It doesn't even have one of these, June 30, 2003

By	Ash1138 "www.myspace.com/ash1138" (Centennial, CO United States) - See all my reviews

I wasn't gonna go see this movie, but then Ebert and Roeper gave it "Two Thumbs Up" (and I typically respect Eberts reviews) so I figured maybe it's better than it looks.

Nope.

If you've seen the full trailer to this film, you've pretty much seen the movie. If your thinking not much happens in the trailer or there doesn't seem to be much sense of story, you're right. That's the movie. The first full hour of the film is almost completely pointless. The story seems void of any direction whatsoever. In the last quarter of the film, things finally seem to come together, but still it's about as climactic as anything you might have seen in an episode of T.J. Hooker.

Many will likely be seeing this film with expectations of seeing a Lethal Weapon type movie. Let me advise you not to expect this. The Josh Hartnett and Harrison Ford have almost no chemistry and neither one are believable as cops and the comedy... well there really isn't any. There should be. You're watching, and scenes play out as if they were supposed to be funny, but you aren't laughing.

...

All throughout watching this movie I could not help but observe that Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett have no real sense of comedy. Judging by the rest of the performances of supporting characters, neither does the director. I kept wondering to myself, what is the point of this movie? It's definately trying to fill the shoes of an action/comedy, but there's as little action as there is comedy. And what is with the rap/hip-hop soundtrack? Even though this film is loosely about the investigation of some rap stars' murders, it seems completely out of place to the story and the target audience.

None of the actors give poor performances (excepting their lack of being funny), and I'd even go so far as to say this is the best I've seen Josh Hartnettt perform. But the movie just isn't good. It's not even entertaining. Bottom line: it's been a long time since I was this bored in a theatre.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars my god, what a horrible movie!, October 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hollywood Homicide (DVD)

the script might be written by a brain-dead person. the whole film dragged on like a leaking suv tire, slowly turned soft and under pressure and finally totally became flat. yeah, flat. i could never imagine that harrison ford would have agreed to take this role or even agreed to read the script before signed on. did he know that how pathetic he would have turned to be by accepting such role? my god, a nightmare. this is one of the worst movies i've seen so far in year 2003. amen.