Ouch, this flick was hard to watch. For the first 20 minutes, I was sighing and fidgeting, and thinking about some other things I could be doing. I'm not sure exactly where the miss occurred; could have been a script that wasn't really funny and yet wasn't all that dramatic either. Could have been the direction and/or editing putting forth freshmanlike efforts at comedy. Or, of course, it could have been that this reviewer just didn't get the jokes. Heck, the three women in the seats in front of me boasted about the great time they had.

After a first act that earned only a C (even with Ford and Hartnett), the film introduces its first interesting development -- a hard cop (internal Affairs) to ride Harrison Ford's butt for the rest of the film. Hartnett & Ford play buddy cops with other Hollywood interests. Ford continues making real estate deals even in the midst of car chases, Hartnett studies acting. Actually, these sidelines are slightly amusing, but can't carry the film. Nor can the humor quota between the two. In fact, nothing carries the film.

I did laugh hard a couple of times though. I love the seen where Ford hijacks a pink bicycle from a little girl with nothing more than frustration and a growl. And the secondary characters deliver strong if not better performances than the leads.

Fortunately, the third act takes an entirely different approach -- an extended chase scene. Not that chase scenes are the most respectable way to make a film, but I must admit, this had my attention. I was having fun, and even the humor seemed better timed and played out. As if there were a different director or editor for this segment. It's this sequence that brings the film out of my C range.

The film has a hip-hop element, but misses the opportunity to employ a hip-hop artist as one of the two leads. The picture lightly caricatures LA and Hollywood Cop movies, but not in a biting way. In fact, there's very little biting about "Hollywood Homicide."