Hollywood Homicide [DVD] [2003]

But, honestly, I enjoyed it far more than I probably should have. The opening is really quite bad, with dodgy "modern yoof" dialogue, and a suedo rap/hip hop scene. It takes a while for the storlyline to get going, and even then it's a confusing miss mash of scenes that don't seem to join together, and ends up with our two cops chasing after a villain we never even knew how they worked out it was him!

Still, with a side stories regarding secondary careers (Ford's cop is also a real estate agent, while Hartnett also plays a wannabe actor - oh the irony!) that are mildly amusing, they do tend to get in the way of the main storyline, and extend the running time longer than it should.

But it wasn't all bad. There were some amusing scenes - the interview room scene was funny, and a bizarre chase across, around and through a river also picks up a slightly dragging film.

Yet it is good to stick around, because come the final half hour, there is a pretty decent, action fuelled finale, involving a car chase and fight that, surprisingly, works around Ford's and Hartnett's easy, laid back relationship. The "That's it - I'll drive!" scene is an example of that.

It's not brilliant, it's far from perfect, but it will charm viewers. Remember, make a mine a cheeseburger...

Extras wise, there are a bunch of trailers and bios, and three featurettes. The making of is the most interesting, but the otehr two are dull. Especially LAPD Stories, which really doesn't have much to do with the film in the first place.

There are several hilarious scenes in this film, my favourite being when Galvin (Harrison Ford) and Calden (Josh Hartnett) are 'interviewed' by the internal affairs department. I laughed a LOT at that scence because of the way that the pair were not taking it seriously at all.

Hollywood Homicide also shows the audience all the trademarks of Los Angeles. This includes Hollywood (seen as the film is called Hollywood Homicide, this is pretty obvious), Venice, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. When I saw the scene in Venice and Rodeo Drive, I could see that it had not been manipulated or changed in any way, meaning that the scenery had not changed from real life. When I was in LA, the first thing I thought when I went to Venice was, 'this is where the chase was!'. If you watch the film or have seen it already, and have been to LA, you'll know exactly what i'm talking about.

Hollywood Homicide is also a genuine film, and is not trying to make anybody the hero of the film. Neither does it focus on one genre, as I said earlier, the film contains many different genres. I would generally recommend this film to anyone.

This is – by Hollywood’s decreasingly high standards – one of the worst examples of film making to ever hit our screens. Within ten minutes the audience is confused and annoyed by a naivety in the direction that continues to astound with its amateur hour air. Messrs Ford and Hartnett, everything that is good about the generation gap in Hollywood, here seem to have found themselves in purgatory, contractually obliged to go through the motions after discovering that they had been duped by their respective agents.

This is neither funny or exciting, intriguing or ambitious. For the 111 minute running time, I would suggest a stint on the lawn, watching the grass grow. At least there is a smidgen of entertainment to be had in that!