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| 'destined to wander the waste lands of late night TV for all eternity' |
Hollywood Homicide is one of those sad miss-steps of a film, destined through sheer weight of its cast and a few humorous moments to wander the waste lands of late night TV for all eternity.
It could have been so much better. Josh Harnett, at this point without an aftershave advert to his name and still driving girls wild after Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbour, provides an aging but ever-watchable Harrison Ford with his buddy partner in a film which attempts to be one half Lethal Weapon cool (the perpetrators are intertwined with 'gangsta' rap) and one half Kindergarten Cop family-friendly (there's no real blood and the violence is played for laughs).
Inevitably, it mixes the two like an alchemist's inept assistant, only providing about half as many laughs as it needs to and totaling up with significantly less cool. The idea to have the duo working second jobs to bolster their pay is a good one, but the jobs writer Robert Souza and writer/director Ron Shelton come up with (yoga teacher and real estate agent) seem missed opportunities. Ford's attempts to sell Martin Landau's house are diverting and occasionally funny adages to the plot but Hartnett's new age relaxation sessions seem a flimsy excuse to employ some beautiful-looking extras.
As the plot meanders around looking for interest elsewhere (Bruce Greenwood's Internal Affairs agent seems particularly un-needed) it's too easy to lose focus, something which Shelton seems to do too often, officially providing us with one too many distractions at the point when Lou Diamond Phillips shows up in full drag.
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'offers great value when it gives its likeable stars room to breathe and banter' - Empire, 3/5
I did find moments enjoyable, and I liked the chemistry of Josh and Ford, but it never evolved into anything other than a forgettable movie that gets lost in the mix. I felt similar about Showtime with Eddie Murphy and Robert DeNiro. For all purposes it was an enjoyable movie, but also forgettable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I won't say I didn't have fun with it in places and haven't in the past (this was my second watch) but that's not the same as it being a good film. Showtime is a very good comparison: both should have been better.
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